Reference Manual

Introduction

On Windows 95 platforms, NAT32 requires updated versions of several system DLLs. This is because several of the original Windows 95 components (such as the TCP/IP stack) had such major errors and security vulnerabilities that it is extremely risky to run them today.

Windows 95 Updates

The only remaining way to update Windows 95 is to update Internet Explorer. Note that this does not mean that you must use IE as your default Web Browser. After upgrading IE you can even uninstall it again if you want, because the criticial updates will remain on your system.

A problem now arises because Microsoft Corporation no longer supplies IE updates for Windows 95. However, Microsoft has allowed a number of third-party vendors to legally supply such updates free of charge. Here is one example: IE 5.5 Upgrade

Upgrading to IE 5.5

The initial download consists of a relatively small (500 KB) Setup Program that you run in order to download IE 5.5 itself (23 MB). The Setup program installs several components and gives your system almost a Windows 98 look and feel. Note that after rebooting and completing the setup, Windows may prompt you to repeat the download of a "Browser Customisation" component. You can safely abort the procedure at this stage, as that component doesn't seem to be required.

Windows 95 Dial-Up Networking

If you need to use NAT32 with Dial-Up Networking, you must download and install the Microsoft DUN 1.3 Upgrade available here: Microsoft Windows 95 Update

The above link also leads to several other upgrades (such as the VPN update) that you can install as needed.

Running NAT32

Once you have completed the IE upgrade, simply download the latest version of NAT32, unzip it and then run setup.exe to install NAT32.

Performance

Because Windows 95 is a much smaller operating system than its successors, it performs well, even on modest hardware. My Windows 95 test system has a Pentium 120, only 32 MB RAM, and a slow 1 GByte hard disk. Even after installing IE 5.5, total disk usage was around 200 MB and the system is ready for operation around 30 secs after power up. The user interface feels very responsive, and common tasks such as exploring the file system, unpacking Zip files and installing software all proceed rapidly. NAT32 performs well on this system too, and has no trouble achieving file transfer rates of around 25 Mbps over a 100 MHz Ethernet.

SEE ALSO

The NAT32 Executable config dhcpd IP Autoconfiguration netcfg ns ping reconf setd setns