Create an image of the CD, use imgmount to mount it. Vista broke some low-level CD-ROM support needed by DOSBox.

sorry, make an image and mount it? could you elaborate?

No.

ok.

I understand the mount part.

I do not understand how I am suposed to create an image file. Could you elaborate on that?

Your guides in your sig go over quite well how to actually do anything with dosbox, but they seem to say absolutely nothing about image files (except that they need to be mounted somehow)

are you talking an image file like an iso?

ok so i made an image file, and i mounted it with imgmount...
something like this

z:/ imgmount d c:/max.iso -t iso -fs iso
z:/ mount c c:/max
z:/ c:
c:/ cd max
c:/max maxrun

*max starts*
*max still wants a cd*
From what I understand, this should be what works - you wanted me to mount an image file with imgmount... i did.
By the guide in your sig, this should be the correct format to do this

edit

Ive tried a good dozen different ways to mount the drive, but no matter what I do, max fails to recognize the cd :(

edit
apparently, 13th try is the charm, i got it to work.

edit
So now, the big question is, how the hell am i supposed to get this working? before you say 'read the guides', im saying up front that if there was a guide that even remotely relating to serial connections I have read it.
While they all seem to agree on one thing, which is make the serial1=nullmodem, and then server:<ip address> for the client, this does not seem to be working very well. You see, the problem becomes that the client never finds the host.... i get a warning, tried to activate FIFO as well, if that means anything.

Please create a cue/bin pair as cd image, which usually contains more
information (audio tracks e.g.) than the iso format.
Then re-install the game within dosbox using the mounting you have now
just with the iso replaced by cue (path adapted if necessary).

Maybe use IPX instead of serial

I think I have figured out the problem...

If I understand the ipx commands right, we do something like this:
Me and my friend are chatting over aim, and so we try this ipx stuff.

me:
ipxnet startserver 213

him:
ipxnet connect <my ip adress> 213

me:
ipxnet status
result? no connections...

So me, in my infinite wizdom, have decided to do a tracert to his IP address. Result? The tracert dies before getting to his adress. It ends someplace in texas, if my sources are to be trusted. (he did the same, ending a slightly different place in texas, if my sources are to be trusted)

So the question is, how do i get around this? while i understand its not strictly a dosbox app problem... I could use some help.

Nothing to see here...

Tracert is no help here, ping should work.

Since you started the server:
If you have a router you need to reconfigure it to pass that UDP port on to your computer. It's the same for serial btw.

Not only on the firewall in the router, also make sure any software-firewall on the PC's allow the traffic through.

There is a site, http://www.portforward.com, that will help you configuring the router to allow it through. Once that is done, you might want to temporarily disable your software-firewall and then test the connection. If it work, re-activate the sw-firewall, and see if it still works.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

Tracert is no help here, ping should work.

Since you started the server:
If you have a router you need to reconfigure it to pass that UDP port on to your computer. It's the same for serial btw.

Ping does not work either... That is why i went with a tracert. (timeout every time I try a ping ,100% loss rate)

I suppose I could mess with my router firewall, but my friend does not have that option. (doesnot know the user/pass to his router)

And sorry about the post with only a quote of myself in it, i thought I was editing the first one >.< those little buttons arent easy to tell apart.

Only the server has to mess with their router.

ok thats good. So I think i have this router stuff done right... I gave myself a static IP, then told the router to forward port 213 (the ipx one) to me...

Now I just have to wait till my friend gets on to test.
Thanks for the help guys, ill let you know what happens.

lancefighter - there is an excellent site, grc.com, that has a nifty little port-probing function:

https://www.grc.com/x/portprobe=213

It will check that you have opened up for TCP-port 213 (I think you need to have your IPXNET server running when testing).

That thing is for TCP

Ok...

It shows:

port | status | protocol/app
213 | stealth | IPX

I assume this is good?

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

That thing is for TCP

Ahh - my mistake. I somehow got the idea that the IPXNET emulation used TCP.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

That thing is for TCP

I have my port forwarding set to both TCP and UDP... so i assume it should work anyhow?