Maybe not the correct drivers?

chipset drivers? this is early pci, it may be quirky

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

Maybe not the correct drivers?

Well, I don't think so... For the Dlink card I know for a fact the drivers are correct; for the 3com card I'm using the Etherdisk for 3C90x cards; maybe that's wrong.

mrau wrote:

chipset drivers? this is early pci, it may be quirky

Chipset drivers for DOS? Would I find those on vogonsdrivers if I found out what my chipset is? (Sorry, forgot to mention this is in pure DOS)

sry, i was kinda sure we were talking windows...
you did try the dos network guide somewhere here on these forums? i really dont remember what the title was...

OK, now I've given up on PCI and have moved to using a 3C509 ISA NIC. I load LSL, 3C5X9(the driver), and IPXODI, which all load perfectly with no errors, but when I connect it to a known working IPX-networked machine and try to start NetKeen, it acts as if the cable is unplugged. I tried a different, known working, cable but it still doesn't work. Any thoughts? I will look for that network guide, maybe it will have some info that will help me.

mrau wrote:

sry, i was kinda sure we were talking windows...
you did try the dos network guide somewhere here on these forums? i really dont remember what the title was...

Just a shot in the dark. A while ago I tried to get a 3COM card to work under 6.22. It modified the autoexec (or maybe config.sys) and worked, but then I realised how much of a hassle getting TCP up would be, and decided to install Windows 95 on that machine. Then I installed the Win drivers, but it also gave me the yellow exclamation mark error. Turns out, Windows copies all the configuration from DOS 6.22 if you're doing an upgrade. And DOS initialization of the card conflicted with the drivers. Once I deleted those lines from the config files, everything worked smoothly.

Could that be your issue?

Well, this 3C509 card only modifies the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, not CONFIG.SYS. I tried letting those run at startup and they don't work. So I commented them out, and ran the commands manually the same way I always do (LSL, driver, IPXODI) and it still doesn't work.

I've also run the diagnostic program and all the tests it runs turn out OK.

You have to make sure both sides use the same FRAME format - IIRC this was done through the net.cfg.

1    File Name:          NET.CFG
2    ----------
3    Sample of configuration file:
4    -----------------------------
5
6        ...
7        LINK DRIVER FETODI
8                FRAME ETHERNET_802.2

Link driver must match your file. The choices were ETHERNET_802.2 and ETHERNET_802.3.

Right. I've tried 802.2 & 802.3 (keeping both sides the same), neither one works.

Did you select the correct interface in the config program? Some of those cards have AUI, BNC and TP, you have to choose the correct one. Do you connect through a hub or directly? Are there LEDs that indicate link activity? How is the other machine known working?

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

Did you select the correct interface in the config program? Some of those cards have AUI, BNC and TP, you have to choose the correct one.

I tried to do that and it (the config program) gave me an angry window stating that there is only one option (TP).

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

Do you connect through a hub or directly?

Directly. I've tried two different cables.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

Are there LEDs that indicate link activity?

Haven't looked at those, I'll try that next.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

How is the other machine known working?

I've played NetKeen, Descent, and Doom between it and a modern computer running DOSBox Megabuild 6.

> Directly. I've tried two different cables.

That's a problem. Not all cards are capable of switching into crossover mode. You either need to use a hub or a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable .

Ooh, I have a crossover cable. I'll try that next, thanks!
Edit: wait a minute, would using a hub or a router work? I have a plethera of modern hubs and routers; but I'm not so sure I can find my crossover cable.

keenmaster486 wrote:

Edit: wait a minute, would using a hub or a router work?

Probably, but then you'd have to start worrying about whether your hub or router is properly configured.

Hey, I hooked up a hub and now it works perfectly! Thanks a million, I don't think I would have realized that on my own 😀