Almost everything you need to get a DOS based machine on the internet is here:

http://www.brutman.com/mTCP/

The only other thing you need is the packet driver for your ethernet card, it should be somewhere on your install disk if you have it.

That website has a great PDF that walks you through the entire process. I recently just put my 286 machine online with that utility.

Are you looking for TCP/IP, IPX/SPX or something else? Ethernet is one thing, you need the protocol, I doubt TCP/IP as most anything that ran in DOS that was IP based back then had it's own custom stack . Microsoft does provide an TCP/IP stack. Don't know what it is used for other than windows for workgroups.

You probably need IPX/SPX google that. Also get ready to start messing with loading things high into UMB. IPX/SPX is what most games were using.

for dos gaming you need IPX
You need to load in the following order, you can add them at the end of your autoexec.bat if you wish

lsl.com (starts networking, generic, use same file on each pc)
rtspkt.com (or the correct one for your card)
ipxodi.com (ipx protocol, generic, use same file on each pc)

Generic RTL8139 drivers are here
https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zoo/cate … et-pci-software

up to date lsl.com and ipxodi.com can be found in the odi folder in this archive for a intel card
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/489 … rt-PRODOS2-EXE-

This is only for gaming, this still wont allow file sharing, mtcp is better for that.

You can also use Microsoft network client 3.0 to access a local file server. As for DOS gaming on the internet, you normally can't do this and need IPX to communicate with other computers ... But some companies made programs called Kali, and Kahn which send IPX packets over the internet and it can even work on DOS, so I guess you can do that. However I've never tried the DOS clients, only the windows 9x ones.

CU_AMiGA wrote:

...how to get internet/networking going under DOS via ethernet (for possible multiplayer gaming - not web browsing).

Only two things is really important for that - real IP address and working packet driver for your type of connection.
First you may set your DOS machine to being accessible as FTP server outside your local network. If you do that, your DOS rig is ready for multiplayer under DOS. Then you may use such progs as Kali, iDOOM, iFrag, tcpsetup.