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Windows For Workgroups Networking Issue

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First post, by LadyAIluros

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I got my NIC working and installed the 3.11 TCP/IP stack and the other defaults into WFW. 3.11. I don't have the card actually running TO a hot connection yet, I need to get a switch for the workshop since it only has one cable coming in from the router at the moment.

Whenever I go to reboot into WFW again, it fives me a can't find DNS error after the logo screen (expected) and then hangs permanently on the gray screen with the hourglass and the light on the NIC is going crazy. I assume it's trying to netboot or something and obviously not finding anything but then it down't know to just go ahead and boot from the HDD. I've been chasing this for a few hours now, even reinstalled WFW a few times, and I feel like I am missing something very small at this point that I probably knew 20 years ago 😀

I do note that it added a command to autoexec.bat "C:\Windows\net boot" or something like that which is the other reason I think it's trying to find something on the non-existent network on boot.

Thoughts? Can I get it to bypass the netboot and get into the OS or at least get back to DOS? I'm so close, then I an set up a target FTP on the local LAN and get all the games I can think of onto this thing! (Ultima VI yeeeesssss)

Thanks!

Last edited by LadyAIluros on 2023-05-07, 15:58. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 4, by weedeewee

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remove or disable the bootrom on the nic.

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Reply 2 of 4, by LadyAIluros

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How does that work though when I do want to put an XTIDE in that socket and get large disk supports etc? Do I have to choose one or the other?

Remote Boot is disabled in the DOS setup program for the card.

Reply 3 of 4, by chinny22

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You can run win /n which will start windows without networking enabled.

Not sure if this is the issue as it shouldn't hang but once WFW is set up for networking it is famous for not been happy when the network is down. (typically it takes a good 5 minutes to start but then it's fine)

You can also give it a static IP, DNS, etc. doesn't matter if it works or not, it's just to stop windows trying to connect to a DHCP server. Later versions of windows had this time out much quicker then 3x

Reply 4 of 4, by doshea

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I think the issue is probably what chinny22 said above. I don't think it's anything to do with network booting - that is something which should happen before anything is even read from your disk, or at worst it's something started by the bootloader on a disk. I'm not aware of any "net boot" command. "net start" maybe? That might also go looking for things on the network, I can't recall. If it is and you need to bypass that, and you're using MS-DOS 6 or later, you can use F5 to bypass CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT entirely, or F8 to go through them line-by-line (I can't remember if you get to go through AUTOEXEC.BAT line-by-line though, and that'd be where the problem is). Otherwise boot off a floppy and edit C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT.

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