Ethernet under DOS?

[gt40]

I've got a laptop I'd like to be able to access over a network.
This laptop will be used as a DNC (direct numerical control) server.
Currently files are tranfered from my main rig to this laptop by floppy, which then feeds the file as it is required to the control unit for the machine.
I would like to have this laptop accesible on the network so I can just drag and drop files there as I need to, thereby eliminating possible floppy errors, and speeding the process up.
Currently the laptop only has DOS on it.
I have a Xircom 10/100 ethernet card and should be able to get DOS drivers for it.
Can anyone point me in the right direction and/or step me through what I need to do?

Thanks in advance.

[Jammrock]

I've got some Xircom NIC DOS boot discs at work. Alas I am on vacation until Thursday. If you can wait until then I can give you the full setup to get it working under DOS.

I also need to know the exact NIC model, like Carbus Ethernet II 10/100 CBE2.

Jammrock

[VJ]

Traditionally, IPX was used for DOS-networks. But this really is a pain to set up.

Now, there are a number of dos tcp/ip solution, I think there are some references here:

http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/

Wattcp is perhaps one of the best known libraries/utils:

http://www.smashco.com/wattcp.asp

An alternative (if the dos-network turns out not to be viable) is Linux On A Floppy. Various distribution exist, e.g. http://www.coyotelinux.com/
They don't need to be installed, just boot from the floppy, and you get full (basic) Linux functionality. It is sufficiant to have network, and to mount FAT partitions though.


Jörg

[Gurm]

Egad.

Well, I hope that this laptop doesn't need to have a lot of conventional RAM free, because after loading in the 80 TSR's you'll need in order to get TCP/IP working, it won't.

Ok, I'm exaggerating. Really you need the driver, then the ... err ... I wanna say NDIS layer but I may be remembering the wrong acronym - it has been like 5 years after all - and then the TCP/IP stack on top of that. So ... 3, but if the PC Card drivers aren't already running that's ANOTHER two. So about 5 TSR's.

Gpar_

[gt40]

@jammrock: Great! - won't need it right away, I can do it the old fashion way for now. Card is creditcard ethernet10/100+modem56 Model CEM56-100. I'll fool around with some of the links VJ sent and If I can get it going I'll repost here. Otherwise I'd love to try your setup.

@VJ - thanks for the info, Ill have a gander at those links.
I had thought of a linux setup, but I am a firm believer in the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep it simple, smart-guy)and I think it probably would require a bit more screwing around to get working.

@gurm - I realize the tremendus overhead in TSR's, but I'm the only s/w I would need to run besides these would be procom. - I don't think there will be a problem.

[gt40]

This looks promosing:
http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/network/#driver

now I've got to get my head around all the setup stuff

maybe Linux doesn't sound so bad after all - at least I've done this before --- once.

[Wombat]

I'm not trying to be one of those "Linux on Everything" guys, but is there a reason you haven't tried that? A little samba server shouldn't be hard.

[runderwo]

Does the laptop have a cdrom drive? If so, Knoppix would probably work fine. There is also a MS-DOS Workgroup Server or something like that that gives you a MS TCP stack and SMB file server for DOS, but I don't know if it's compatible with anything beyond Win 3.1. (I know Samba 2.x isn't compatible with it, so I have to keep a 1.x smbclient around for it)

[Kooldino]

How about that linux that you burn on a CD and you can run it off of that? Is that Knoppix like runderwo suggested?

[gt40]

Alas, I have no cd drive.
I tried to start Suse from the floppies and setup an NFS server on my win2k machine to be able to access the cdrom, but for some reason Yast hangs after mounting the NFS drive.

I think I can get the boot disk from the link above to work with some tinkering. I'll keep playing for a bit

[VJ]

If you only need the network to transfer/communicate, the Coyote Linux still looks one of the best solutions: you don't need to install it. Just download the disk-generator, generate a single floppy disk, and this disk contains the basic version. No changes to existing partitions, etc. !

It basically is a bootdisk that happens to boot Linux...
Terminals are present on it, as is the functionality for network and accessing fat partitions...

Jörg

[gt40]

VJ - looks like a nice distro, however, they don't seem to have support for my NIC card.

[Wombat]

I was afraid of that. Xircom tends to be weird with their Linux drivers.

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by Wombat
I was afraid of that. Xircom tends to be weird with their Linux drivers.

What do you expect, their an Intel company now. Actually, Xircom has been disovled completely into Intel now and it no longer exists. Intel has been using the Xircom tech in their portable network/modem technologies.

Jammrock

[Wombat]

Actually, I find Intel has pretty good support for Linux developers. Still, the Xircom stuff, if it exists, often only comes out in binaries, and they don't release specs.