Microsoft KB Archive/158599

= Mac Encarta 97: Readme.txt: Getting Connected =

Article ID: 158599

Article Last Modified on 1/19/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 97 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q158599



SUMMARY
The following article contains the Getting Connected section of the Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia Readme.txt file. This section describes how to access and utilize the online components of Encarta 97.



MORE INFORMATION
Readme File

To use the Encarta Yearbook, Web Links, Encarta Online, and monthly online updates, you will need access to the Internet through an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

You may already have an ISP through your employer or academic institution. However, if you want to use the Internet for personal use, you may need to find an ISP that sells Internet access to the general public. There are many to choose from, including national ISPs like Alternet, MCI, NetCom, and PSI; hundreds of metropolitan/regional ISPs; national online consumer services like America Online, CompuServe, The Microsoft Network and Prodigy; and many bulletin board systems and local freenets.

Some ISPs have proprietary accounts based on their own software (e.g. America Online, CompuServe, Netcom's NetCruiser accounts or PSI's Pipeline accounts). Increasingly, you'll also be able to use popular Internet applications like Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator "on top of" these accounts and their software, but you may find yourself limited to the software they supply. If you are considering using an ISP with proprietary software, be sure to ask if they have a Macintosh version - some are Windows-only - and find out if the Macintosh version has similar features to the Windows version.

Most Macintosh users access the Internet with their modem through a SLIP or PPP account using a freeware control panel (although there are commercial versions and Apple has recently released its own PPP control panel designed for use with Open Transport 1.1.1). Whether you will use SLIP or PPP depends on what software you have and which protocol your ISP supports, but PPP is the more flexible protocol and has lately become much more prevalent. These accounts let you run graphical Internet applications that work and feel just like Macintosh applications should. If your computer has enough memory, you can even run several Internet programs concurrently with Encarta Encyclopedia.

Setting up a SLIP/PPP control panel and configuring the MacTCP control (included with System 7.5.x or separately available for about $40) or the TCP/IP control panel (included with Open Transport in System 7.5.2 and later) can be a bit overwhelming for the average user. Your ISP should walk you through this process, providing you with critical information like DNS addresses and search domains, as well as the essential phone numbers and modem settings to get you up and running on their service.

When Encarta Encyclopedia launches an Internet application like Internet Explorer to handle jumping to a location on the Web, the browser will assume that you have a TCP/IP connection already established when you launch. Some SLIP/PPP control panels will automatically dial up and initiate a session when you launch an Internet application, but often the time lag required for dialing and negotiating the connection exceeds the timeout on the request, so you should usually connect to your ISP prior to using Encarta Web Links or other features that connect you to the Internet.

Depending on the speed of your Internet connection, it may take up to several minutes for your Web browser to successfully connect with a site that you have launched from Encarta Encyclopedia. You should wait to see if the connection is successful before returning to the encyclopedia and attempting to initiate another link. Attempting to connect with multiple Internet sites simultaneously is not recommended.

Encarta Encyclopedia uses Internet Config to determine which Web browser should be used to connect to the Web. If you aren't currently using Internet Config, it will be installed for you when you run the Encarta Installer and your Internet Preferences will be preset to use Internet Explorer to handle the following Internet resource types: Web (http), FTP (ftp), Gopher (gopher), E-mail (mailto) and Usenet News (news). If you want to use a different browser or override any of these defaults, you can launch the Internet Config application and change the Helper application for that resource type. User Documentation for changing these settings is provided in the Internet Config 1.3 folder.

NOTE: Some older Web browsers don't support the standard AppleEvent required to open URLs using Internet Config. In this case, the browser will launch, but you must manually enter the URL to jump to the correct page.

TIPS ON DOWNLOADING ENCARTA UPDATES

To keep your encyclopedia current, you should connect to the Encarta Web site every month to download new installments of Yearbook updates, Web Links and the Month in Review. Each monthly update file is free and can be downloaded to your hard disk and integrated into the Encarta Encyclopedia content so that you can access information on current events. The Encarta Installer copies a sample update installment - July 1996 - that you can display right away and use to become familiar with these update features.

In-depth instructions for downloading updates are provided within the Downloads screen. However, here are some tips on streamlining the downloading process on your Macintosh:

When you click to download an update file in your Web browser, Internet Config's file mapping feature can actually identify Encarta update files based on the file extension and set the file's type and creator, then automatically launch Encarta 97 Encyclopedia to integrate the update. The file mapping entry to enable this feature is already included in the preconfigured Internet Preferences and Internet Explorer preferences that get installed to your hard drive if prior versions don't already exist. If you're already using Internet Config, Encarta 97 Encyclopedia will automatically add this file mapping entry to your existing Internet Preferences file the first time you launch Encarta. As long as you use an Internet Config savvy application like Internet Explorer or Anarchie, downloading updates is as simple as clicking on the filename, waiting for the file to download, and following the directions that appear on your screen.

NOTE: If you use a Web browser that isn't fully Internet Config enabled, you will need to save the downloaded update file in the Updates folder, located within the Encarta 97 Encyclopedia folder, then manually integrate the update using the Integrate button from the Downloads screen.

Encarta updates should be downloaded with binary encoding, not plain text. Most Web browsers and FTP clients default to this mode.

The same update files are used for both the Windows and Macintosh versions of Encarta 97 Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition. Since the update file is internally compressed and has no resource fork, there's no need to use StuffIt Expander to decompress or decode the archives posted online.

Make sure you have adequate free disk space available to download and integrate the update file. In the process of integrating the update, Encarta will decompress and copy the information within the update file to several internal databases, then delete the original file when the integration is complete. Consequently, you need enough free space on your hard disk to hold at least two complete copies of the update file.

Be sure to only download update files for the North American version of Encarta 97 Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition. Update files for Encarta 96 Encyclopedia, Standard or International releases can not be integrated with content on your CDs.

Additional query words: 1997 multi media multimedia multi-media mmtitles kbmm macmm

Keywords: kbfaq kbinfo KB158599

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