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TCP/Connect II

TCP/Connect is much more than a World Wide Web browser; TCP/Connect is an all-in-one Internet application supporting just about every known terminal emulation and Internet service like gopher, FTP, email, finger, ping, WHOIS, HTTP, etc. It can even be used as an FTP server and spelling checker. A nickname for TCP/Connect may just as well be "The Kitchen Sink." Because the subject of this book is the World Wide Web, the paragraphs below will only focus on the Web browser aspects of TCP/Connect.

Configuration

Configuring TCP/Connect's Web browser is a matter of choosing Configure... from the Edit menu, scrolling down the long list of configurable options until you get to Web, and finally selecting your options. There aren't a lot of choices. You can enter your default home page, choose the colors of HTML text and background, and choose whether you want small, medium or large sized text. You don't get a choice of fonts nor specific sizes. You can also configure here whether or not you want URLs displayed in your windows by default. Incidentally, this same "feature" makes it difficult to use TCP/Connect as a preview application when writing HTML files.

Cacheing

Like Mosaic, TCP/Connect relies on caching retrieved documents to enhance response time. In other words, TCP/Connect saves the HTML and graphic files you access in a separate folder. When you later access the same URLs, TCP/Connect will first display the cached version of the page. If you believe the page has had its content changed, then you can select the Reload button to get a new version. This feature has its good and bad points. Its good in that it makes things appear very fast and greatly reduces network traffic. On the other hand, you may not "remember" to Reload a document when you should and consequently, you may be missing something important. The only way you can "take this dilemma by the horns" is to set the "Expire read links after" option in the configuration section to a low number.

Hotlists

TCP/Connect hotlists are rudimentary HTML files. You can open multiple hotlist files simultaneously. You can move items from one hotlist to another, but you can not change the order of the hotlist items. Nor are the hotlists hierarchical in nature.

Helper Applications

In keeping with TCP/Connect's "kitchen sink" philosophy, many of the specialized file types you will find in your Internet travels do not require special helper applications to be displayed; TCP/Connect displays graphic files, QuickTime movies, and sounds all inline. This makes TCP/Connect particularly easy to get up and running.

Summary

This program tries to be everything to everybody. In many respects, it accomplishes its goal. Unfortunately, there are a number of things it could do better. First, it could allow you to copy text from the screen. It could allow you to open up Usenet newsgroup (news) URLs. Since it includes an email program it could support the mailto URL as well. TCP/Connect does not support tables, and there are too few options for setting your font display. (They could at least give you a choice of fonts.) On the other hand, it is AppleScriptable. Just about the only Internet protocol it does not support is WAIS and consequently it can be just about the only Internet program you need.

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Eric last edited this page on September 26, 1995. Please feel free to send comments.