First post, by RJDog
Lots of people on here seem to discuss the best way to share or distribute files via network between one's various retro machines. People debate SMB (e.g. Samba on Linux) or FTP server... myself, to date, have used an HTTP server on my LAN and that seems to work pretty universally for downloading/distributing files on to pretty much any machine (DOS, Windows, Mac) of any vintage, provided it has an Ethernet/IP interface.
But is there a better way? I was recently reminded of Novell NetWare... the permeating, prolific, and popular networking system of the late '80s and '90s. My high school used NetWare 4.something. My university used NetWare 5.something. Hell, even my church used NetWare 4.1... but I grew up in the South where church is big business, so maybe not globally representative.
Anyway, point is, there are NetWare clients for damn near any popular system between 1989 and 2005 (or so) -- DOS, Windows 9x, Windows NT/2000/XP, MacOS (classic), and versions available for all these systems that support NetWare 4.x. The DOS client even has a reputation for being lightweight compared to, say, Microsoft LAN Manager.
So my goal now is to set up a NetWare server and NetWare clients on all of my retro machines. I already have them all on a separate LAN than my "real" house LAN, so I could run that "retro" LAN as IPX-only. As relayed above, this also provides a good bit of nostalgia cred with me, having used many systems based on the Novell system in the '90s. I think I will try NetWare 4.11, as it seems to be the sweet spot with the newest version supported by the DOS client, and the oldest supported by the XP client.
So question is... virtual on my home Linux server, or dedicated hardware? I have a PII and a VIA Eden 1000 system, either I could dedicate to it... the PII would be more period correct, I suppose.
What are your experiences with NetWare? Do you think this project is worthwhile?