-*- text -*-
-To build Wget with VC++ 5.0 run configure.bat in the wget directory,
-and then run nmake. If you want to build the help file you will need
-a copy of makinfo to convert wget.texi to rtf. I've made a copy
-available at <URL:http://www.sunsite.auc.dk/wget/makeinfo.zip>. This
-copy of makeinfo is from the miktxt 1.10 archive available from ctan.
+To build Wget with VC++ run configure.bat (in the main wget directory),
+and then run nmake. At a certain point in time wget exposed some
+compiler bugs in VC++ 5.0; VC++ 6.0 sp 5 is known to be safe. However
+read the rest of this document before continuing.
+
+For VC++ the current default is to configure wget with ssl support;
+first get openssl (http://www.openssl.org), compile it and install
+relevant headers and libraries where your compiler can find them;
+currently this could mean (presuming default installation directories)
+copy (from the compiled openssl dirctory) the whole inc32/openssl
+directory and its contents to
+"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Include\openssl",
+and from out32dll (in the openssl directory) the two needed libraries
+(libeay32.lib and ssleay32.lib) to
+"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\lib".
+These locations aren't exactly the best but will get you started if you
+don't know where to place these headers and libraries.
+Usually at runtime some openssl libraries (currently ssleay32.dll and
+libeay32.dll) will need to be available in your environment PATH.
+
+If you want to build the help file you will need a copy of makeinfo to
+convert wget.texi to rtf and html. I've made a copy available at
+<URL:ftp://sunsite.dk/projects/wget/makeinfo.zip>. This copy of
+makeinfo is from the miktxt 1.10 archive available from ctan. You also
+will need perl 5, one possibility is Activeperl (currently free) from
+<URL:http://www.activestate.com>; you need to locate the download and
+install instructions for the current version available (since the
+packages and installation instructions change from time to time).
+
+If you don't want/can't to compile wget with openssl comment the SSL
+related lines in windows\Makefile.src; then follow the normal
+instructions (configure.bat and so on).
Windows contributors: