Wrong driver? 3C59X doesn't look like the driver for a 3C905.

According to the page you linked, the correct driver was distributed in 3c90x2.exe which you can grab from here: https://ftp.zx.net.nz/pub/drivers/3Com/3com_n … c90x/3c90x2.exe

Yep think that is wrong driver too 😀 Good eye davidrg !
You can also get it here: http://asavage.dyndns.org/ftp/Drivers/3Com/3C905c/
3c90xx2.exe as linked in the 3c905.html and the 3c90x2.exe file too.

Thanks for the answers. Yeah actually it was ... a clusterfuck but I get it working 😉

I share the solution because there might be somebody some day for some reason want to torture himself with OS2.

So that EL59.oS2 I don't even know where that was coming from, the setup put it in there or whatever but this had to be nuked from the C:\CONFIG.SYS

Beyond this the C:\MACS\PROTOCOL.INI has to be deleted but since this is write protected has to be done with a rescue CD.

Here comes what blows my mind, this OS has a plethora of Networking, TCP/IP configuration, LAN Services, TCP/IP shadows, Connection manager and what the FK NOT but none of these tools are actually what you need to configure the networking :XXX

It is called Multi-Protocol Transport Services MTPS and after trying to find it for half an hour in the menu I realized it is NOT in the menu 😦

Omfg so with the finder you need to search for *MPTS* in the whole disc (subfolders included), trust me it's there (although it's removable).

In this tool go in Configure add adapters "Other adapters". Now you will need 2 files only from that installer set and those are in the NDIS2\OS2 folder of that driver set, the OS2 file and the NIF file.
Of course to make your life harder browsing is NOT possible you have to enter the path manually.

After this wonderful addition you will still have no clue what is the card what you just added, because it's not switching to it, or putting it to the beginning or the end of the list, no it's just gonna add it somewhere in alphabetical order while there are a bunch of other cards with similar name.

This card is the " 3Com Fast EtherLink/Etherlink XL Family OS/2" and not the one with the same name and with the busmaster in it.

Afte this select the protocol TCP/IP and NetBIOS (NOT NetBIOS over TCP/IP) and add them, in case you don't add the later there are some services which rely on it which will fail at each boot so you must.

God bless OS2 😁

Yeah, in my limited adventures with OS/2 networking in Warp 4 it was easiest to stick with period correct hardware that has drivers on the CD (AMD PCnet or DEC 21040 is what I used) - then the installer seems to set everything up OK itself. I think part of why its a bit of a mess is because networking used to be a sold-separately add-on or, in the case of Warp 3, you had to buy the special Connect edition to get anything more than basic dial-up networking. So its all less well integrated than it should be.

That said, network drives are pretty easy to get on any version of OS/2 provided you've got a NetWare-compatible server running on a Pi or in a VM (NetWare, Mars NWE, Microsoft File & Print Services for NetWare) - the NetWare client doesn't rely on any of IBMs networking mess and if its not there it does everything itself making the setup pretty easy. Not much help if the goal is a web browser though.