Use an Access Point in Client Mode.
It will be connected to a regular network card then.

Yeah there's some things called "universal wifi adapters" that are just basically a one port WAP, connect to cat5 and NIC... then you can use most of those "Wifi plug"/range extenders that are a wallwart with antenna and a network jack in that mode too with a bit of futzing with setup. There are also ISA and PCI PCMCIA adapters and probably prism2 drivers for older OS that you can use a prism2 PCMCIA card in. Then since you ain't gonna get much speed out of a retro box, you can also pick up discarded Powerline adapters that are on the low speed end, and while it might take XP up to configure them to connedt, one by your retro box, one by your wifi router, hooked up with cable, then when they join and network to each other you can use anything on them and it's transparent like they're on a network cable. Then also there are options using ESP8266 and ESP32 wifi dev boards that hook up to serial and parallel ports and may emulate a SLIP, PPP or PLIP connection. Also, just for getting shit networked somehow, you can use a 4 wire laplink parallel cable with Windows Internet Connection sharing on up to Windows 7 I think and there's a dos packet driver for that.

Edit: if you can boot to win98 and use a USB card/ports you can get USB wifi adapters (old ones) working too.

EditII: Universal wifi adapter is getting bad search results, the artificial stupidity is outsmarting itself, ethernet to wifi, or ethernet wifi bridge, seem to get better hits.

Any ISA/PCI LAN card that has DOS drivers can work with LAN-Wifi external adapters. The adapter takes a LAN line in, and bridges it to your wifi network.. no sweat. The DOS machine won't have to worry about anything outside its standard LAN drivers.

red_avatar wrote on 2024-08-14, 06:34:

I can't use ethernet cables for practical reasons and considering the size of the files, wifi would be most ideal.

Can anyone recommend any?

Would a short (30 cm/1 foot) Ethernet cable be acceptable ?

If yes, the simplest and cheapest solution I see is
a) Get an ISA, USB or PCI NIC supported by hardware and OS(es) you plan to use
b) Get a cheap DD-WRT or OpenWRT compatible home gateway WIFI router
c) Install DD-WRT and configure it as a WIFI client bridge (probably easier with DD-WRT)
d) Connect the DD-WRT client bridge to your home network via WIFI
e) plug the retro PC's NIC into one of DD-WRT client bridge's Ethernet port and configure the retro PC as if it was physically connected to your home network via Ethernet

I used such a setup continuously for several months with a modern non WIFI computer and I have another setup like that that I use intermittently (when needed) to connect any PC with Ethernet (including Windows 98 ones) to my home network temporarily from my workshop area.

Ethernet Bridge is the appliance required.

Access point in bridge mode, is the same thing, basically.

I cant speak for this device in particular, but I can point out that devices like it exist, with it as an example.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Wireless-Repeater- … lerId=101043443

USB powered, with very short ethernet cable. Highly portable. (Even if your DOS PC lacks a USB port, it's just 5v. There are any number of adapters one could use to vampirically tap say, the PS/2 keyboard port for it.
https://cablematic.com/en/products/keyboard-p … able-ps2-CS085/ for example. Some wire curtters, and some shrink tubing, and you're all set! If you dont want to cut and mangle cables though, you could always use a USB power bank.)

For the device itself, Such devices are usually c0nfigured with their own web-based configuration portal, using a fixed IP address within a predefined subnet.
That could be managed, most likely, with something like LYNX for dos.
https://archive.org/details/msdos_doslynx_browser

All your dos system would need, is a functional TCP/IP stack and packet driver setup.

I use the TP-Link N300 and I can’t recommend it enough. Setup is extremely easy, configure it with “client” mode once and just connect it to any NIC. Haven’t had a single issue. You can power it with USB even.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-Porta … /dp/B00TQEX8BO/