Back in time when I was playing with CP/M on my C128 there was a possibility to redirect CON: device to serial port (RS232). Maybe something in this way ?
Like CTTY ? (I know this isn't exactly what you mean, but if you can find TCP/IP terminal...)

Yes, think you can do it simplistically by piping the console,

How remote is remote? You want to be outside your home network? The problem mostly is security, all the old stuff has been cracked to hell and back with numerous vulnerabilities and exploits.

Just an idea. You can do it in hardware.

Buy RS232<->ethernet converter (ie. MOXA5110).
It comes with software which install virtual serial port (there is also linux device driver - tested personally on Debian 9.0)
On DOS side use CTTY, on remote machine run serial terminal with this virtual serial.

BitWrangler wrote:

Yes, think you can do it simplistically by piping the console,

How remote is remote? You want to be outside your home network? The problem mostly is security, all the old stuff has been cracked to hell and back with numerous vulnerabilities and exploits.

It's inside home only. I wan't to do some programming, but prefer do edit the source on my laptop, but I will transfer it via FTP (mTCP works great) and have to compile it (MetaWare C) and run it on the remote machine (a PS/2 with an SGI IrisVision board-set so I can't emulate it).

zyga64 wrote:

Just an idea. You can do it in hardware. […]
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Just an idea. You can do it in hardware.

Buy RS232<->ethernet converter (ie. MOXA5110).
It comes with software which install virtual serial port (there is also linux device driver - tested personally on Debian 9.0)
On DOS side use CTTY, on remote machine run serial terminal with this virtual serial.

Any posibility to use an existing Ethernet adapter? A software only solution?

You might be happy digging up an old copy of Norton/Symantec PCAnywhere then.

It'd be an interesting project to build an ISA card that operates as a VGA device, but transmits the frame buffer over the network using one of the existing remote display protocols.

BitWrangler wrote:

You might be happy digging up an old copy of Norton/Symantec PCAnywhere then.

I thought about it but I don't think there's is a pcAnywhere client which is compatible both with Windows 10 and a DOS remote PC.

gdjacobs wrote:

It'd be an interesting project to build an ISA card that operates as a VGA device, but transmits the frame buffer over the network using one of the existing remote display protocols.

Actually something like this exist and it's called KVM over IP. You don't need a special card, just attach it to the VGA output and PS/2 inputs, connect it via Ethernet to your network and you can access it via VNC. The problem is price - I couldn't find a ADDERLink ipeps cheaper than $400 on eBay - nice if you have a server to manage, but to much for playing with retro machines.

Here are some screeshots of how it works: https://virtuallyfun.com/2013/09/19/thinkpad- … 60-saga-part-1/

More complicated than what you're looking for but this works well:
http://josh.com/tiny/

Potentially more useful than CLI only if you wanted to run non-CLI programs.

Another maybe? http://www.drdos.com/dosdoc/Tcpip/dos_util/dosutil5.htm

GL1zdA wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

It'd be an interesting project to build an ISA card that operates as a VGA device, but transmits the frame buffer over the network using one of the existing remote display protocols.

Actually something like this exist and it's called KVM over IP. You don't need a special card, just attach it to the VGA output and PS/2 inputs, connect it via Ethernet to your network and you can access it via VNC. The problem is price - I couldn't find a ADDERLink ipeps cheaper than $400 on eBay - nice if you have a server to manage, but to much for playing with retro machines.

Here are some screeshots of how it works: https://virtuallyfun.com/2013/09/19/thinkpad- … 60-saga-part-1/

Interesting. I haven't looked at IPMI 2.0 stuff, but I knew this sort of thing was available. I didn't know that it was available as that sort of capture device.

Ghetto option: what about using an IP camera pointed at the screen and some kind of uC piping the bits for PS/2 keyboard and mouse?

Well if you're doing some kind of uC, then pipe console to serial and use one of these for serial to wifi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266 (Can't instruct further on that, it's the kind of thing I'd fumble my way through eventually.)

However, these seem to go fairly cheap, but then you need to run cat5 to your router or use an old one to bridge.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/like/282109605932?chn=ps&dispItem=1

But, if you're handy with a soldering iron, and have some linux familiarity, then adding serial port to a WRT54G router can do about the same thing as the ESP8266

PC-Tools 7.x by Central Point had some sort of a remote desktop feature.
I could be wrong, but I believe it supported serial, modem and network (IPX ?) connections.
It also worked for graphical applications, I believe.

Maybe a single port IP-KVM? Usually $150-$300... probably easier than developing an ISA card 😊

GL1zdA wrote:

I thought about it but I don't think there's is a pcAnywhere client which is compatible both with Windows 10 and a DOS remote PC […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote:

You might be happy digging up an old copy of Norton/Symantec PCAnywhere then.

I thought about it but I don't think there's is a pcAnywhere client which is compatible both with Windows 10 and a DOS remote PC.

gdjacobs wrote:

It'd be an interesting project to build an ISA card that operates as a VGA device, but transmits the frame buffer over the network using one of the existing remote display protocols.

Actually something like this exist and it's called KVM over IP. You don't need a special card, just attach it to the VGA output and PS/2 inputs, connect it via Ethernet to your network and you can access it via VNC. The problem is price - I couldn't find a ADDERLink ipeps cheaper than $400 on eBay - nice if you have a server to manage, but to much for playing with retro machines.

Here are some screeshots of how it works: https://virtuallyfun.com/2013/09/19/thinkpad- … 60-saga-part-1/

I'm sure you could get a cheap KVM/IP on ebay for cheap. Just look around.
Kind of something like this
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Avocent-SwitchView-I … YsAAOSwsM1Z4R6r

This is a bit on the simplistic side, but the netcat program with mTCP can be used for tasks like this.

Create a batch file that runs netcat, and pipe the output from netcat to a temporary batch file. The next line of the batch file after netcat then executes the temporary batch file. After that you can use netcat again to send the results back, and then loop to the top to start the cycle again.

All of this assumes that the commands you are running are well behaved and use stdin and stdout correctly.

Netcat could also be modified to accept input and then make an exec call to execute what you just sent it. Or even build a little command parser into netcat so that you can do more sophisticated things. Modifying netcat shouldn't be too bad; learning how to build it would be the most difficult part.

"Tiny" from Josh (linked above) is known to work well, and is a bit more robust in that it scrapes the screen.

IP KVMs come up fairly regularly on eBay, I got an Avocent one a few years ago for $25, it runs Linux internally. Just keep an eye on eBay. Make sure you get one that either comes with the cables or uses a standard cable adapter, as they tend to have a unit that converts the VGA and PS/2 plugs into a non-Ethernet Cat5 cable that runs back to the KVM, then the Ethernet cable comes out of the KVM unit. I think they did it this way so you can get VGA+USB adapters instead, that work with the same KVM unit, and also have ~100 metres between the PC and the KVM unit. But without those adapters you can't plug any PCs into it.

Only drawback is that the IP portion seems to be proprietary at least in older units, so mine will only display the image and let you type into the remote PC with some old version of Internet Explorer. The irony there is that if I used this with my retro PCs, I'd need a retro PC just to view the KVM 😀

Malvineous wrote:

The irony there is that if I used this with my retro PCs, I'd need a retro PC just to view the KVM 😀

I think that's most of the problem here, for most of the old programs that support DOS, the client end has to be in win98, maybe XP, and you are then stuck with screwing with VMs or running older machines.

mbbrutman wrote:

"Tiny" from Josh (linked above) is known to work well, and is a bit more robust in that it scrapes the screen.

Yes, this will be my next program to try, unfortunately haven't had much time for retro activities recently.

Malvineous wrote:

Only drawback is that the IP portion seems to be proprietary at least in older units, so mine will only display the image and let you type into the remote PC with some old version of Internet Explorer. The irony there is that if I used this with my retro PCs, I'd need a retro PC just to view the KVM 😀

Apparently the ADDERLink ipeps does simply VNC - this would make it platform agnostic. It's still not cheap so it will take some time before I buy one.

This TINY program is sweet. Has some quirks (problems sending Alt+Letter, requires Novell TCP/IP stack), but it works well most of the time.