Reply 23640 of 27788, by chrismeyer6
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-02-02, 10:53:Finally decided to set up a dedicated LAN for all of my retro rigs. No internet access, just network shares.
I should have done this earlier, it's so much better than dealing with crappy USB 1.1 speeds, or the system slowdowns and IRQ conflicts caused by some USB 2.0 cards. Currently, I have everything hooked up to an old TP-Link TL-WR740N router that I had left over from a previous ISP. Transfer speeds are averaging around 9-10 MB/s on my faster machines and 2-3 MB/s on my DOS system. I'm ok with that, though I imagine it might be possible to reach slightly higher speeds with better gear. For now, I'm just happy that everything works. 😀
Network sharing files is honestly the best. It makes life simpler without having to use a floppy, zip, CD, or USB drive just drag and drop your files and your all set. If you want to get deeper into the weeds you can store your CD ISO's on one machine and just mount them on the system you want to use.