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Using EchoLink With Windows® 95 | |
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On December 31, 2002, Microsoft's support for Windows 95 reached "end of life", which means that only limited support for it is available on Microsoft's Web site. It also means that software updates (such as bug fixes and security patches) are no longer being provided by Microsoft. In effect, Windows 95 is no longer a supported operating system. For this reason, we do not recommend running EchoLink on Windows 95. Since updated patches for Windows 95 are no longer being provided by Microsoft, connecting a Windows 95 computer to the Internet can be viewed as a substantial security risk. However, many EchoLink users are successfully running the program on Windows 95, which is sometimes the only 32-bit version of Windows which will run on an older computer, particularly if it has 16 MB of RAM or less. Each release of EchoLink is tested on Windows 95 along with other Windows versions. EchoLink has special system requirements for Windows 95. Before installing EchoLink on a Windows 95 machine, please review the information below. Internet Explorer: Although EchoLink does not require a Web browser per se, it does require certain Windows system components which are not found in a basic Windows 95 installation. The easiest way to install these components is to install Internet Explorer, version 5.0 or above. Unfortunately, current versions of Internet Explorer will not work on Windows 95, and Microsoft is no longer offering older versions of IE for download. If your Windows 95 system does not have Internet Explorer 5.0 or above already installed, IE 5.5 SP2 is recommended. You can download it here. Windows Installer: The EchoLink installer requires Windows Installer 2.0 or above. You can download the Windows 95 version of Windows Installer here. Winsock 2: EchoLink requires Version 2 (or above) of the Windows Sockets layer, also called Winsock 2. This must be installed separately on Windows 95. (If it is not installed, you will see an error message about a missing WS2_32.DLL when you start EchoLink.) To upgrade to Winsock 2 on a Windows 95 machine, download and run the Winsock 2 update here. Sound Cards: Many of the sound cards commonly found in older computers are not capable of "full duplex" operation -- that is, they cannot record and play back at the same time. This can be a limitation of either the hardware itself, or of the Windows driver it is using. Experience has shown that drivers developed for Windows 95 are less likely to be full-duplex than drivers written for later Windows versions. Although EchoLink does not require a full-duplex sound card in single-user mode, it does require it in Sysop mode if either the VOX or the Internal DTMF decoder is used. If you experience problems running in Sysop mode under these conditions, check to see if an updated driver is available for your sound card, or whether a newer sound card can be installed. |
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