get a network switch, can get me off ebay for like $10, like 4 ports. preferable one that can do DHCP for you. then you can FTP files between the two, and automatically get IP addresses.

is this one RJ45 socket or 15pin aui dsub or bnc coax? you ideally wanty RJ45 for CAT5 cable.

If you have multiple old machines then of course you can play multiplayer games! You can also do this with serial connections usually, but if you want to go beyond two players then you'll typically need a network connection (and as many retro PCs as you have players too, of course.)

Setting up a DOS network is - as you'd expect - a big learning experience. You'll need to decide on IPX (for games) and/or TCP/IP (for communicating with a modern PC), how much memory the drivers take and if there's enough left over for the programs/games you want to run, where to find drivers for your card or if it's NE2000 compatible, how to configure the drivers and where to find a utility to set the I/O address and IRQ on the card if you get a conflict, and so on. It's easier on a machine running Windows (because it usually supplies all the drivers and config) but it's certainly doable in plain DOS.

@BloodyCactus: 10BaseT is Cat5 (possibly even Cat3 compatible), 10Base2 is coax and 10Base5 is AUI. So this 10BaseT card is compatible with a modern RJ45/8P8C switch. But for the moment a switch isn't strictly necessary because two computers can be directly connected, and chances are the modern one is auto MDI/MDI-X so any old Ethernet cable will do, whether it's crossover or straight-through.

1. use it to transfer files , mTCP is your friend
2. if the card has a boot rom socket you can install there the XTIDE BIOS so you can use large HDDs without overlays/extra software

LAN cards are incredibly useful. I have a dedicated PC running Ubuntu and vsftpd and also a cheap Asus router that works in repeater/bridge mode (so all my retro PCs can access Internet and my FTP server over Wi-Fi).

I've tried mTCP, but I don't like its FTP client. Usually, when I use a pre-Pentium machine, I just install Windows 3.11, Microsoft's official TCP/IP stack and Total Commander 16 bit. Technically I should be able to access Windows network shares (SMB) this way, but there aren't any "modern" Windows PCs in my home.

I play public Quake 3 servers on my Pentium 3 over Internet. I wonder if I could find public servers for vanilla Doom/Doom 2/Duke Nukem 3D and other popular DOS games.

You can install Microsoft Network Client 3.0 (for DOS) and get access to shared directories on other computers. There are usually two catches:
- sometimes, or on some systems, the "graphic" network client hangs
- usernames/passwords might be a bit of chore when you're trying to connect to newer Windows

Setting up DOS network is challenging, but when you get it working, it's extremely rewarding 😀

Personally I use a Raspberry pi with 64GB SD card as NAS.

I installed samba, PXE server, DHCP server and I added a route to the internet (my retro computers are too far away from my internet box, so I just put a wifi dongle on the pi) so they can go on the internet if needed and my modern PCs can also write data on the NAS making file transfert really easy.

and PXE server can make late 90's PCs to boot onto DOS with network support to install windows 9x from the network ^^. Or I can just start memtest from the network. All of this is really practical !

What can't you do with a LAN card?

Has anyone tried networking dosbox to a legacy system with an IPX game? Mix emu/real LAN?

Deksor wrote:

and PXE server can make late 90's PCs to boot onto DOS with network support to install windows 9x from the network ^^. Or I can just start memtest from the network. All of this is really practical !

... assuming the LAN ROM socket isn't already occupied by XT-IDE BIOS 😀

Well if your NIC can support a PXE boot rom, that means the computer has PCI slots, meaning you don't really need XT-IDE bios

What are these acronyms?!

Seriously, I don't know anything about networking. Not even my "Idiots Guide to the Internet" from 1994 seems to know. I do kind of know one thing I'd like to do. I have experimented with BBS servers on my new PC. Is there some way I can communicate to a BBS server from a LAN port connected to a modern system? Is that possible, too?

Auzner wrote:

What can't you do with a LAN card?

Has anyone tried networking dosbox to a legacy system with an IPX game? Mix emu/real LAN?

This works nicely with Winpcap and NE2000 emulation in dosbox.
I use LAN to transfer data to/from basically all my retro machines.

11justsomekid wrote:

What are these acronyms?!

Seriously, I don't know anything about networking. Not even my "Idiots Guide to the Internet" from 1994 seems to know. I do kind of know one thing I'd like to do. I have experimented with BBS servers on my new PC. Is there some way I can communicate to a BBS server from a LAN port connected to a modern system? Is that possible, too?

I connect to my local-hosted ANSI BBS from one of my 486 (AMD AM486 DX4-100) by LAN, using mTCP suite and a 3COM EtherLink III ISA adapter. mTCP has its own telnet to use, and OS is pure DOS v6.22 - personally, that's great.

BBS is hosted on Raspberry Pi 1B, since 3-4 years. Package Mystic BBS.

jheronimus wrote:

I've tried mTCP, but I don't like its FTP client.

Details please .. either here or by email. I've tried to make the client behave mostly like the Unix clients do; if there is something terribly wrong I can look at fixing it.

11justsomekid wrote:

What are these acronyms?!

Seriously, I don't know anything about networking. Not even my "Idiots Guide to the Internet" from 1994 seems to know.

Although it's possible to set up networking without any knowledge of terminologies and concepts (in a "monkey see, monkey do" way), DOS is not a very forgiving or intuitive environment for doing so. I'd recommend a primer on Ethernet and TCP/IP networking ...for Dummies is a good start, or even better grab a 1990s vintage COMPTIA N+ coursebook for next to nothing. The concepts are still the same and examples from then would include DOS.

dionb wrote:

11justsomekid wrote:

What are these acronyms?!

Seriously, I don't know anything about networking. Not even my "Idiots Guide to the Internet" from 1994 seems to know.

Although it's possible to set up networking without any knowledge of terminologies and concepts (in a "monkey see, monkey do" way), DOS is not a very forgiving or intuitive environment for doing so. I'd recommend a primer on Ethernet and TCP/IP networking ...for Dummies is a good start, or even better grab a 1990s vintage COMPTIA N+ coursebook for next to nothing. The concepts are still the same and examples from then would include DOS.

People might find this helpful: http://www.brutman.com/Dos_Networking/dos_networking.html

And for wireless connectivity without going crazy: http://www.brutman.com/Wireless_for_Classics/ … r_Classics.html

jheronimus wrote:

LAN cards are incredibly useful. I have a dedicated PC running Ubuntu and vsftpd and also a cheap Asus router that works in repeater/bridge mode (so all my retro PCs can access Internet and my FTP server over Wi-Fi).

I've tried mTCP, but I don't like its FTP client. Usually, when I use a pre-Pentium machine, I just install Windows 3.11, Microsoft's official TCP/IP stack and Total Commander 16 bit. Technically I should be able to access Windows network shares (SMB) this way, but there aren't any "modern" Windows PCs in my home.

I play public Quake 3 servers on my Pentium 3 over Internet. I wonder if I could find public servers for vanilla Doom/Doom 2/Duke Nukem 3D and other popular DOS games.

Fair enough. mTCP's FTP client is a little spartan. However, DOSLYNX works very well as an FTP client while being more user friendly.

Deksor wrote:

Well if your NIC can support a PXE boot rom, that means the computer has PCI slots, meaning you don't really need XT-IDE bios

Unless you're using an ISA NIC with gPXE, in that case you don't need PCI. I've never tried it so far, but I am expecting a diskless 386SX and I am eager to try it.

mbbrutman wrote:

jheronimus wrote:

I've tried mTCP, but I don't like its FTP client.

Details please .. either here or by email. I've tried to make the client behave mostly like the Unix clients do; if there is something terribly wrong I can look at fixing it.

If I recall it correctly, it works like this — you start the client in a daemon-like mode and use another machine to send files to it. You can't actually use it to browse FTP shares and just get the files you need. It's just inconvenient for me.

Kubik wrote:

Deksor wrote:

Well if your NIC can support a PXE boot rom, that means the computer has PCI slots, meaning you don't really need XT-IDE bios

Unless you're using an ISA NIC with gPXE, in that case you don't need PCI. I've never tried it so far, but I am expecting a diskless 386SX and I am eager to try it.

The problem is the size of the boot rom you can put on ISA nics, I'm not sure it would fit on them ... And even if you manage to boot to a gPXE image using RPL (which I never managed to use) I'm not sure it'll work : I remember somebody that did this with iPXE and it didn't work on a 486 : you need at least a pentium to execute iPXE meaning the whole process is pointless since most (if not all) pentiums have PCI slots ... gPXE is iPXE's ancestor so you never know, it may work afterall since it's older. If you manage to make this to work, I'd like to hear more about that ^^