kjt418 wrote on 2025-02-13, 17:38:

DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\UM386.EXE RAM I=B000-BF77

That's not a part of DOS.
In general, it's a good idea to keep the setup as simple as possible, and avoid any foreign bodies.

Grzyb wrote on 2025-02-13, 17:54:

kjt418 wrote on 2025-02-13, 17:38:

DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\UM386.EXE RAM I=B000-BF77

That's not a part of DOS.
In general, it's a good idea to keep the setup as simple as possible, and avoid any foreign bodies.

Ah! it appears I fat fingered something when I was typing I meant to emm386.exe

Try without EMM386.EXE - it switches the CPU into V86 mode, which may interfere with something.

Also, are you sure about that hardware?
Have you tried 98SE, or XP? Are they stable?

Grzyb wrote on 2025-02-13, 18:10:

Try without EMM386.EXE - it switches the CPU into V86 mode, which may interfere with something.

Also, are you sure about that hardware?
Have you tried 98SE, or XP? Are they stable?

So, I work for a company that is still using DOS 6.22. We have 2 machines. One in prod and this one that "supposedly" used to work but it's been in a closet for over 6 years

Unfortunately, upgrading isn't possible as the software only runs on DOS 6.22 (apparently windows 3.11 was tried and it failed)

Legacy systems!

*WHAT FUN!*

BloodyCactus wrote on 2025-02-13, 16:43:

do you have it in your config.sys to initiliase the pci card when your in dos mode? if you dont, it wont work properly. […]
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do you have it in your config.sys to initiliase the pci card when your in dos mode? if you dont, it wont work properly.

in mine i have

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1lh device=c:\3c905c\3c90xcfg.exe configure /configfile=c:\3c905c\3c905x.set

the .set file, you have to run 3c90xcfg and select your options and save them as configuration file.

then you can call 3c90xpd /i=60 in autoexec.bat

OK, in addition to the changes from @grzyb I now have DHCP working and can get an IP!!!!

YAY!!!!

wierd_w wrote on 2025-02-13, 18:57:

Legacy systems!

*WHAT FUN!*

oh, the best part is trying to figure out how to configure Ubuntu 22 to accept an SSH connection!

I'm not even the IT Guy, I'm just a contract Android Developer that they asked if I could fix this 😅

WELL....JUST KIDDING Y'ALL

SO, I rebooted, DHCP succeeded. I got an IP address. I rebooted again and now I'm getting DHCP failures. Same WATTCP.CFG with no changes

use mTCP insteead of wattcp

As a stopgap, the next time you get an IP, write down the number, your netmask, and default gateway.

Then, set a static IP toward the bottom of the range.

wierd_w wrote on 2025-02-13, 19:24:

As a stopgap, the next time you get an IP, write down the number, your netmask, and default gateway.

Then, set a static IP toward the bottom of the range.

If this is the same issue I had, that won't help. It's not DHCP that's the problem, the system hangs whenever anything tries to use the NIC. You just tend to notice it first with DHCP if you set it to do that at boot. Anything else will also hang.

I would also say, set the nic to HALF DUPLEX instead of full duplex. I had same issue with my 3com. fullduplex would cause issues, half duplex would be fine.

dionb wrote on 2025-02-13, 19:37:

wierd_w wrote on 2025-02-13, 19:24:

As a stopgap, the next time you get an IP, write down the number, your netmask, and default gateway.

Then, set a static IP toward the bottom of the range.

If this is the same issue I had, that won't help. It's not DHCP that's the problem, the system hangs whenever anything tries to use the NIC. You just tend to notice it first with DHCP if you set it to do that at boot. Anything else will also hang.

Hey DionB this is what I'm noticing. TCPINFO.EXE will work ONCE. Then everything tends to stop working. Same with PING. I can certainly try mTCP however, SSH2DOS requires Waterloo TCP

BloodyCactus wrote on 2025-02-13, 19:40:

I would also say, set the nic to HALF DUPLEX instead of full duplex. I had same issue with my 3com. fullduplex would cause issues, half duplex would be fine.

I completely forgot to upload the .SET file that 3c90xcfg.exe created

1;
2; NIC Setup file for a 3C90X NIC.
3;
4; Created 02/13/25, 11:04:51.
5;
6;
7
8@Boot PROM:                        enabled
9@Media type:                       100BASE-TX
10@Network driver optimization:      Network
11@Link beat:                        enabled
12@Full Duplex:                      disabled

It's been ages since I last used WatTCP...
From what I recall, there were some issues, and replacing it with mTCP was a nice improvement.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to port SSH to the mTCP library?
Can't help with bad hardware/drivers, but there may be other problems as well...

Anyway, the current SSH2DOS seems to work for me - using 486DX2-66 + 3C509B-Combo.

Does it work if you pull the cable and reinsert it again; e.g. force a re-negotiating for the link.

(I had some Tulip based NIC:s which were incorrectly designed with (internal) both 'smart' eth chip + 'smart' phy chip that failed at bootup, but could work if reconnected like this. Both chips did negotiation independently and one got half duplex while the other got full duplex = failed link.)

kjt418 wrote on 2025-02-13, 19:44:

I completely forgot to upload the .SET file that 3c90xcfg.exe created

Did you try disabling the boot ROM (unless you need it) and maybe enabling full duplex? This PC might be old but my guess would be the rest of the network was, at some point, updated to modern 100Mb/s switches (or better)?

On the other hand if the network is old and there are still 10Mb/s hubs around you might need some workaround for that. If the card can't be forced into 10Mb operation then perhaps adding another switch between that PC and the rest of the network might help. I had a case like that though not with a 3Com card.

Hey Everyone! I'm sorry I went MIA - I got pulled back onto my "REAL" job at the company (gotta admit being an android app developer isn't as fun as fixing 27 year old DOS computers 😂)

But, I wanted to thank everyone for the amazing help! The machine is actually working consistently now...with caveats

Like, I have to run MTCP\DHCP.EXE every time I want to SCP files up to the Linux server. The new SSH2DOS 2021 version doesn't work, I am having to use the SSH2DOS 2006 version

I am unable to use ID_DSA key file for passwordless authentication, this command causes the DOS Box to literally hang

1scp2d386.exe -i ID_DSA -g -r C:\DATA_UP use@192.168.1.2: