Connecting to the WWW With Windows for Workgroups 3.11

Microsoft Windows for Workgroups (WfW) 3.11, released back in 1993, was the first operating system I ever used. As the name suggests, WfW was designed for networking in workgroups of a few people and workstations. This included centralized authentication, file and printer sharing based on Microsoft NetBEUI or NetBIOS (transported for example over Novell’s IPX/SPX protocols). This however was restricted to a local network.

In 1993, the Internet and its protocols were invented for a long time and the World Wide Web (WWW) based on Internet protocols started to emerge. But WfW didn’t ship with a TCP/IP stack and thus was incapable of connecting to the Internet. Luckily, this stack is available as a separate download which will allow us to connect to the Internet using WfW 3.11 even today. Nostalgia alert!

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