If you don’t want to read the resource then IDK what to tell you. I guess you aren’t going to get your answers. And expecting us to make you a new thread is kinda “out there”. You could make your own asking about it? But that’s kinda weird when the thread is right there… just read it then post in it…

Set up an FTP server with FileZilla on your main PC and connect to it through your old computer. PCI NICs are indeed very cheap and even later Realtek ones usually have drivers for Win9x. I used to go the USB route for most of my systems, but as soon as I had to use something older and tried FTP I made sure to set it up on every retro system I own. It is an eye-opening difference.

Garrett W wrote on 2022-07-20, 07:48:

Set up an FTP server with FileZilla on your main PC and connect to it through your old computer. PCI NICs are indeed very cheap and even later Realtek ones usually have drivers for Win9x. I used to go the USB route for most of my systems, but as soon as I had to use something older and tried FTP I made sure to set it up on every retro system I own. It is an eye-opening difference.

Tbh, I'd do it the other way round: set up the server on the old beast. That way you can use the modern FileZilla GUI on the modern PC with nice hi-res display for the actual work.

As for security - as explained beautifully in another thread, Win32+NT-derived kernel is the risk and the chance of modern malware working on a Win9x PC is minimal. Still, you can negate that small risk simply by remembering network is not the same as internet:
- do everything behind a NAT router (in a home situation this will automatically be the case), which prevents incoming traffic direct to the legacy system.
- don't give the legacy device a (valid) gateway address. That prevents outgoing traffic to internet.

With these two measures in place, the only risk left is that another device on your LAN is compromised and the vintage system gets attacked from that. In that case you've got far bigger problems on the other compromised system.

dionb wrote on 2022-07-20, 09:09:

Tbh, I'd do it the other way round: set up the server on the old beast. That way you can use the modern FileZilla GUI on the modern PC with nice hi-res display for the actual work.

Exactly, and apparently I'm not the only one doing it this way! In addition, no sneaky applications trying to autostart with windows or throwing notifications and no need to deal with incoming connections/firewall on modern pc

1) Learn to burn data to CD-R Disks. ( you can use an external USB DVD burner on you Win-10 PC )
2) Get a WiFi Extender to connect your computer to network using WiFi. ( TP-Link )
3) Add a PCI USB 2.0 ports adapter to your computer.

Some more ideas. :)

DOS:

File transfer over serial Null Modem in DOS?

A Null-Modem is a Null Modem, right?

File transfer over serial to MSDOS5 8086 computer

On Windows 9x:

Best way to transfer files over a network in Windows 95?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_cable_connection

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?451 … to-Serial-cable

Reasons not to use old TCP/IP or WINS:

https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/archive/blog … old-smb-dialect

dionb wrote on 2022-07-20, 09:09:

As for security - as explained beautifully in another thread, Win32+NT-derived kernel is the risk and the chance of modern malware working on a Win9x PC is minimal.

KernelEx. 🙃

dionb wrote on 2022-07-20, 09:09:

Still, you can negate that small risk simply by remembering network is not the same as internet:
- do everything behind a NAT router (in a home situation this will automatically be the case), which prevents incoming traffic direct to the legacy system.
- don't give the legacy device a (valid) gateway address. That prevents outgoing traffic to internet.

+1 I second that.

And a Raspberry Pi acting as a "Pi hole" helps to filter out spam, ads, statistics and malicious server requests from the internet.

dionb wrote on 2022-07-20, 09:09:

With these two measures in place, the only risk left is that another device on your LAN is compromised and the vintage system gets attacked from that. In that case you've got far bigger problems on the other compromised system.

Windows ? 😁

Harlock wrote on 2022-07-19, 20:03:

Hi, as per subject, besides IDE to USB adapters, any suggestion for transferring files to an old PC (Pentium 1) ? As far as I kn […]
Show full quote

Hi, as per subject, besides IDE to USB adapters, any suggestion for transferring files to an old PC (Pentium 1) ?
As far as I know:

- IDE to USB adapters
- CD-DVDs
- Network, but I'd rather not connect that old computer to anything
- Any PCI 1.x USB extension available? So far I've only found PCIe
- CF cards maybe

I've just realized that a pc I should be getting has no usb ports! 😀

That depends on the operating system and file system that are used on that PC.
Do you use Windows 95 on that PC?

I prefer to temporarily connect that old harddisk on an IDE to USB adapter.

With no network installed before, you may need the Win95 CDROM - to install network card driver and TCPIP. You also may face the problem that your new computer cannot connect to the old SMB1 network protocol on that PC.
With an installed USB card you may face the problem that you will need additional software for Win95/Win98. You may need an USB stack which will include a driver for your USB card. You also need a driver for removable USB disks.

Network card and set up FTP server.

If this is your local network it should be fine. I am assuming your router and machines are firewalled and patched, etc..

Aside from that - sneakernet with the data written to floppies or discs.

Shutting down and reconnecting a disk drive will get old real fast, if you have to do this often.

Yes, my other pcs are behind a router and a firewall of course.

I just tried RetroNas (Samba), just testing it on an 86Box Win95 VM, and can't manage to see the shared folder tho I do have network access, must be doing something wrong.
No issues on the other machines tho.

Yeah, IDE to USB can be a pain if you got to do this on a daily basis, still manageable if you do this once in a while.
Didn't try FTP, so there is not much I can say about it.

Harlock wrote on 2022-07-20, 17:06:

Yes, my other pcs are behind a router and a firewall of course. […]
Show full quote

Yes, my other pcs are behind a router and a firewall of course.

I just tried RetroNas (Samba), just testing it on an 86Box Win95 VM, and can't manage to see the shared folder tho I do have network access, must be doing something wrong.
No issues on the other machines tho.

Yeah, IDE to USB can be a pain if you got to do this on a daily basis, still manageable if you do this once in a while.
Didn't try FTP, so there is not much I can say about it.

WAR-FTPD is a good one for 95/98. It's relatively easy to configure and will work with basically any FTP client from any platform.

9x Workgroup / file sharing can be notoriously difficult to get working right, even more so if any semi-modern OSes are involved with higher security requirements etc.

Just my 2c though

my god i just bought a laplink LPT1 cable,
then i bought a serial laplink cable.

nothing can make it more simple than laplink

Hehee yeah Laplink is easy compared to setting up a server. My personal choices are (not in order of use or easy or capability... speaking 486 or earlier):
attach cd rom drive and copy files off burnt cd, move HD to different computer of just a bit later era and put files in a special directory, Laplink or similar connection, just use floppies.
Never been a fan of having a special "server" to connect to due to my space constraints... 😀

and even LPT1 is available on intel 775 motherboards and laptops too.

i was trying to find info to se if its possible to use a laplink DB25 cable, + a db25 to USB adapter to see if its possible to make it work on modern computers but i think its not possible i was not able to find anything.

I had parallel laplink working between a win 7 and win 98 box using windows ICS a couple of years back, trying to remember if I used USB "port replicator" box or what. Believe I've used ICS over usb to serial before too, and at quite high speed.

Oh yah, cat5 crossover cable is quite handy to have, since in a lot of cases you'll have a modern machine using wifi with it's TP network port unused, so you can just plug your retro NIC straight in and pull, push, serve, client, ftp, ICS, samba or whatever your files over.

drosse1meyer wrote on 2022-07-20, 18:38:

9x Workgroup / file sharing can be notoriously difficult to get working right, even more so if any semi-modern OSes are involved with higher security requirements etc.

Yeah, I've pretty much landed at if it works out of the box then great I guess but I'm not going to jump through hoops trying to make modern Windows or Samba compatible with vintage systems because its not a winnable battle. All those older versions of the SMB protocol have been deprecated for years and support for them is slowly being removed entirely from Samba and Windows for security reasons. Sooner or later no matter how many hoops you jump through it won't be possible for old versions of Windows to talk to newer systems.

So I figure retro computer - retro server. Currently I'm running NetWare which works pretty flawlessly with DOS 3.0+/Windows 3.x/9x/NT/2000/XP as well as OS/2 1.1+ and classic Mac - the only real challenge is getting stuff *on* to the virtualized NetWare server from a modern PC in the first place but FTP works OK for that. Mars NWE is easier as its pretty much like Samba but it implements the NetWare NCP protocol rather than SMB. So you can run both Mars NWE and Samba side-by-side on a Raspberry Pi sharing the same directories via both protocols - SMB for modern machines and NCP for vintage.

Windows NT Server 4.0 in a VM (or perhaps an emulator on a Pi) would work well too. Windows for Workgroups 3.x, 9x, NT, 2000, XP, OS/2 Warp 4, OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Edition should all have no trouble talking to it. The MS client for DOS is absurdly memory hungry to the point of not worth bothering with though - better off using something else like EtherDFS. OS/2 Warp 3 and older aren't possible with out paid-for add on bits from IBM. Classic Mac isn't possible at all AFAIK.

Could you guys point me out to some resources or guide for setting up a FTP Client on Win95/98?
I think at the end, besides the IDE to USB adapter, I might give the FTP option a go, but that's kinda new for me.

Harlock wrote on 2022-07-21, 07:29:

Could you guys point me out to some resources or guide for setting up a FTP Client on Win95/98?
I think at the end, besides the IDE to USB adapter, I might give the FTP option a go, but that's kinda new for me.

FileZilla 2.2.22 is the last version that supports Win9x.

I use TotalCommander on retro clients to connect to my FTP server.

what about using SD-IDE adapter in a HDD caddy?