Quarterdeck's
InternetSuite version 1.0 seeks to provide a one-stop access solution for
Internet users. The suite includes an enhanced Mosaic web browser to access
World Wide Web sites, Message Center to handle e-mail and work with newsgroups,
a telnet client to access computer sites supporting terminal access, and
an ftp client to transfer files to and (primarily) from your computer.
An IRC client to "chat" with other users is not included.
Installation from the three floppy disk set progresses with minimal effort and assumes less familiarity with computers and the Internet as compared to several other programs I have seen. I must warn you that the installation program insists on imbedding the user's name, city, state, and serial number within itself on the original disk! I would recommend copying the first disk of the set to a blank disk and installing from that so as not to write to your original disks.
Novices venturing onto the Internet may use the installation program's Connect and Play wizard to select from a list of five Internet access providers with whom they can sign and gain full Internet access immediately. (Similar offers may be found with other Internet packages.) Unfortunately, you must wade through each provider's contract agreement to find the two that list access numbers for San Antonio. You will be able to find a better deal with one of the providers advertising in P.C. Alamode.
If you already have a provider, you potentially need only select their name and your city from a database and add your user name and password -- the program takes care of the rest. Please note however that there are no entries with San Antonio phone numbers in this version. It is not too difficult to manually add this information yourself and your provider should have given or can easily provide this data.
Internet installation programs generally have the hubris to write over the winsock.dll file of a previously installed Internet program. This file determines with whom and how you will connect. You can generally expect to lose the ability to access a previous provider especially if it uses a different protocol (e.g. - CompuServe's Internet product). This installation program will check for the presence of a pre-existing winsock file and ask if you wish to overwrite it or wish to install the new winsock without overwriting.
Quarterdeck's access program also allows you to store and use
multiple settings for providers and locations (home, work, etc.). If your
computer is on a network with Internet access, it can connect over that
as well.
Other features include hierarchical bookmark lists, extensive drag-and-drop capability, multiple browser windows, historical lists of places visited for both present and past sessions, and the ability to read and write to newsgroups and send e-mail. You can launch the other Quarterdeck clients from a drop-down menu selection.
An update file available at Quarterdeck's web site (www.qdeck.com) will upgrade the shipped version to 1.01, giving it the ability to support HTML extensions such as backgrounds and borders.
(If you already have net access, you may download a trial version of Quarterdeck Mosaic from the company's website at www.qdeck.com/qdeck/demosoft.)
The suite is rounded out by an FTP client and a telnet client
both of which work well.
(Dave’s Note) InternetSuite 2.0 has just begun shipping. This
latest version contains several enhancements and upgrades over ver 1.0.
Quarterdeck Mosaic 2.0 will support Weblink from Adobe which allows Web
page publishers to build hypertext links into an Adobe Portable Document
Format (PDF) file, and will also support Netscape Navigator-specific formatting
and page layout, such as tables and text flow, and Netscape’s security
protocol, the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).