Hi again, PappaFoxtrot.
Firstly, the good news. I have now established my web-based file storage, from which you should be able to download the Student version of AvWin98.
(One small step for a man that is well experienced in all this magic computer stuff, but one giant leap for Austim-kind...)
The slightly bad news is that, due to an apparent (ie undocumented) file size limit I have had to split the original zip file into 5 portions, thus making the downloading process rather tedious.
Now for the exciting bit - how to access my storage.
1. Go to
2. Click on 'virtual file system'
3. In left frame, click on 'Login'
4. In right frame, enter the following details under 'I'm already registered with Paralink!'
Domain : Austim2
Username : public
Password : public
5. Click on 'go ahead'
6. If all is well, you will see a leaping tortoise icon, then an 'explorer-type' screen
7. In the left frame, click on AvWin Student (and watch the leaping tortoise again)
8. In the right frame, six files are listed. Download all six.
9. when you have downloaded all six, run avwinstd.bat. That will recreate avwinstd.exe from the five avwinstd$exe.00? files, which may then be deleted from your system if you wish.
10. If you wish, you can repeat the process to download the 'online manual', the original Dos version of Avansse and the Internet version of Avwin.
From memory, the student version had a limit on number of nodes/members (100 nodes, 150 members ???); the ineternet version had no such limits, but would only run for a total of 50 hours.
11. At the end of all this you may have developed an aversion to the tortoise, but I rather like it. If that sort of thing appeals to you, you will find a troupe of eight differently skilled tortoises (or turtles?) if you click on 'sign up' at step 3.
To be fair to Paralink, despite the 1MB file size limit, they seem to provide a very useful service. For no cost you can set up your own system, providing for 50 MB storage (no restriction on file types), with up to 5 nominated user areas (hence you and anyone else with the entry details for Austim2 - public have already been 'registered') in addition to your own private area.
Finally, I should note that if I am inadvertently breaching copyright by setting up this storage area, I will remove it from public acess if given reasonable cuase to do so.
I would hope that this is unlikely, when all of the downloadable data was originally freely available anyway.