FastLynx 2 supports IPX.

Fastlynx 3 supports USB based LPT ports, IIRC, but costs money. [Fastlynx 2 does not know how to handle them, and tries to talk directly to the LPT port's IO range, which, does not respond, because the physical hardware it expects at that address, is not present.]

https://sewelldirect.com/products/fastlynx-3- … tronic-download

I only have experience with FastLynx 2, and I can assert that it was "Game changing" back in the days of yore. It can do pretty good transfers over an LPT cable in Enchanced Mode. It can ALSO be bootstrapped on systems that have DOS's CTTY application, and no functional floppy drive.

Here's the user manual, via Wayback, courtesy of MinusZero.

https://www.minuszerodegrees.net/transfer/fas … 7s%20Manual.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20211226060 ... Manual.pdf

(I provide both links, as the firewall at work blocks EVERYTHING FUN. Even MinusZeroDegrees. Why? I do not know, and cannot begin to imagine.)

FX3 could be used with a laplink cable, (but works better with an FX cable, which is wired different! The manual linked above contains the pinout for this cable to make one yourself, but a premade laplink lpt cable works fine. See page 30 of the manual for this pinout.) a USB to LPT cable, and win9x.

The user interface (once connected) is a lot like Midnight Commander, if you remember that.

i use fastlynx 3 with a null modem cable i bodged together with a pair of these rj45 adapters:

the other end can be a physical comm port or a cheap usb>serial adapter. i do not recommend it as a long term solution. i would use compact flash with either a cf>parallel port or cf>pcmcia>isa card adapter (or cf>ide with a rear slot bracket). usb 3 compact flash readers are dirt cheap for the other end.

Serial mode is, and has always been, 'very painful'.

LPT mode, with ECP and the FX cable, is VASTLY superior, often with greater than 1mbyte/sec xfers.

I used to use CF cards attached to IDE; little 256MB ones will work with almost any IDE-capable machines.

But tbh it's still a pain as it involves physically messing around with the systems. I've since just networked all my systems with Ethernet and use FTP for file transfer duties. Even works reliably with my XT, and doesn't need physical access - I just boot up the system, fire up the FTP server on the old box and an FTP client (Filezilla) on my modern desktop. No messing around with SMB or for that matter NDIS/ODI either, just packet drivers and mTCP (at least, under DOS).