Exploring Windows for Workgroups and Early 90s Networking

Today, we'll explore the in-depth differences between the two most famous versions of 16-bit Windows, go more in-depth into the "For Workgroups" part, and end with a practical demonstration of the networking capabilities, including a detailed tour of Microsoft Mail and Schedule+.

Music Credits:

[michaelmayfield]

I remember setting this up in the Xerox offices. Many rewrites of the Network.ini and Protocol.ini files to get it to work with different network cards. The NE1000 was the most common NIC.

[olennex]

I grew up with 3.11 for workgroups, my uncle worked in IT and bought spare cards around and help us set it up. Blew my mind I didn’t need a floppy to transfer stuff. Also grew up with the nice choice of background music

[teekay_]

WfWg 3.1 was a game=changer on the desktop. It made networking easy for the first time on a MS Client OS, and it simplified the entire config.sys mess that was created by forcing drivers to be loaded into the lower 640K under DOS/Windows 3.1. Interestingly it was the first version of windows where everything was virtualized (windows itself ran in a VM), and the underpinnings of this version became Windows 95. BTW, we referred to it as "Windows for Rockgroups" for reasons that I can't remember.

[GothAlice]

Oh, I remember the era. 10-baseT Ethernet ring networks, LANtastic for DOS, … crikey.

If you forgot the little green resistor cap, you'd let the bits fall out the end of the cable.

[Douglas_Hamilton]

Remember clearly how we built a little office network including a "file server" and a shared printer using WfWg. The coolest part was how easy we could share files between computers. Not only on the file server. No routers, no Internet, no tcp/ip, just simple non-routable NetBEUI. Loved it. And yes, this was prior to Ethernet so we used coax NICs.

[tsimeone]

i remember 3.11 wfw at school. and boxes without hard drives. and the fun of winpopup. :D got myself in trouble there.. but it was fun messaging and broadcasting.

[Reziac]

Huh. Back then I only ever ran WFWG, but never used the network features... so I really had no idea about any of this!

[resinblade]

this is amazingly in-depth. great video!

[RandomInsano]

I’m not sure if it’s already been done but I’d be interested in seeing a slightly more in-depth version of this video!

[simpleprogrammingcodes]

It's interesting because it reminds me of Windows 95 network features. And after that it hasn't changed much.

[punboleh]

My grandfather used WfWg 3.11 as a desktop (no network, though he did have more than enough computers that it would have been worth connecting them). What I mostly remember is how unstable it was. I didn't use it a lot, but every single time it would just freeze randomly. "Why is the mouse not moving any more? Oh right, it's Windows 3.11"
Looking at the comments, that was uncommon? Based on that experience, I always thought WfWg was the worst of the 3.x Windows.

[procta]

we used this at school, and i have set it up with an NT 3.51 server ( which supports this more than NT4) i am sure there is a 3.1 version that will not support TCPIP at all, which could be what we used at school. but then again we are going back to 1997 to 2000, when i changed schools, The year 2000, windows 3.x machines were been scrapped off ready for windows 2000.

[ArthLud]

Great video. Thanks. Could you show us how you used the kernel debugger?

[vittordecastro]

maan, online games at windows 3.11 thats amazing

[TobiasPlays]

Funfact: 3.11 for workgroups embedded ended its support in 2008

[WhatALoadOfTosca]

1:27 Pacifically? What like the ocean? You mean specifically surely?

[damian]

Windows for Workgroups, the POSReady 2009 of Windows 3.1x.

[athulsureshn]

Actually the windows for workgroups tune is used as announcement tune even today

[JohnSmith-iucj]

I hear that background music every day, from Keith jarret though 😂

[telocho]

My ISP gave me a program called trumpet winsock that I had to run to connect.