I don't think that any NT-based OS can use real-mode network drivers like those NDIS2 drivers. Win9x, on the other hand, can use them at the expense of RAM within the first 1MB.

fosterwj03 wrote on 2023-06-18, 22:16:

I don't think that any NT-based OS can use real-mode network drivers like those NDIS2 drivers. Win9x, on the other hand, can use them at the expense of RAM within the first 1MB.

... Indeed. NT cannot use real-mode drivers at all. Support for especially GBe interfaces was very finite for old NT platforms, although 100Mbit (FE) interfaces were adequately supported there.

For GBe, NT4 was a bit better, but for NT3 there were almost none. I think good enough networking support only came with Windows 2000 according to the driver releases.

NDIS2 (DOS) has been supported by manufacturers for quite a while until recently. And this ironically made modern networking possible even for 9x and 3.1x, as these OSes can make use of NDIS2 drivers.

LSS10999 wrote on 2023-06-19, 02:24:

... Indeed. NT cannot use real-mode drivers at all. Support for especially GBe interfaces was very finite for old NT platforms, […]
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fosterwj03 wrote on 2023-06-18, 22:16:

I don't think that any NT-based OS can use real-mode network drivers like those NDIS2 drivers. Win9x, on the other hand, can use them at the expense of RAM within the first 1MB.

... Indeed. NT cannot use real-mode drivers at all. Support for especially GBe interfaces was very finite for old NT platforms, although 100Mbit (FE) interfaces were adequately supported there.

For GBe, NT4 was a bit better, but for NT3 there were almost none. I think good enough networking support only came with Windows 2000 according to the driver releases.

NDIS2 (DOS) has been supported by manufacturers for quite a while until recently. And this ironically made modern networking possible even for 9x and 3.1x, as these OSes can make use of NDIS2 drivers.

Thanks for the explanation, in fact I solved it with a 3com etherlink PCI 😀