Windows 95 had a native TCP/IP stack. Lan Manager had it from 1990 (a bunch of that expertise came from hires from Finland). And Windows NT had it in 1994. In '95 everyone was using TCP/IP and pretty much was standard at M$. I was there. It's true the browser didn't kick into high gear until '97 after Microsoft decide set-top boxes might not be information access solution of the near future. Microsoft was a little slow to admit that the Internet might win but eventually they came 'round and put some effort into it. Interestingly, both Gopher and Mosaic came out of Midwest universities in early '90s - great stuff, fun times.

You are right, I might be attributing things to Windows 95 that really only happened in updates or in Windows 98.

I thought that was the USB stack that didn't come until the plus pack.

Windows 95 OSR2 IIRC. If you bought Plus! I believe that upgraded you to OSR2 but there was an independent update and OEM build. I got a PC in 1997 with two USB ports but the documentation said they wouldn't work until a later Windows 95 release.

By some means I got OSR2 and the USB ports showed up in the Device Manager but it I had to wait a few years before I even owned a USB device to use with them.

It had a TCP/IP stack but you had to install it manually.

I think it was present, you just had to enable it.