What kind of driver are you loading in DOS? Packet Driver, NDIS or ODI? I've had success using Packet Drivers in DOS and then loading the WINPKT shim driver to make it a little more Windows friendly (can be found at http://www.crynwr.com/drivers/ ) but this was more for using Trumpet Winsock (or similar) rather than WfW's built-in TCP/IP stack... but there probably is a WfW driver to get it to work in that fashion.

Maybe try this one http://support.advantech.com/support/Download … Source=Download

the stock 8139 driver does not work?
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads … 3&GetDown=false

oeuvre wrote:

Maybe try this one http://support.advantech.com/support/Download … Source=Download

Thank you for this.

I've tried both of these. Including the setup / config tool which shows the card is installed and the diagnostics run fine.

NET INIT shows the driver installs okay, but WFW shows

"The Windows For Workgroups network driver was unable to load".

And I ran Knoppix and could browse the internet, so all is well with the card.

Andrew.

keropi wrote:

the stock 8139 driver does not work?
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads … 3&GetDown=false

And thanks for this. I had tried this one, but tried again with the OEM driver for WFW311.

And I get the same messages as above with the INIT recognising the driver, but WFW not liking it.

Andrew.

RJDog wrote:

What kind of driver are you loading in DOS? Packet Driver, NDIS or ODI? I've had success using Packet Drivers in DOS and then loading the WINPKT shim driver to make it a little more Windows friendly (can be found at http://www.crynwr.com/drivers/ ) but this was more for using Trumpet Winsock (or similar) rather than WfW's built-in TCP/IP stack... but there probably is a WfW driver to get it to work in that fashion.

Thanks. I'm loading NDIS2/NDIS3 driver in "Real Mode and Enhanced Mode NDIS Driver".

I'll have a look at that link now.

I've wasted too much time on this card. 😵

I've tried NDIS2 drivers, but WFW blue screens on load.

With NDIS3, the driver doesn't load correctly. So..

I've purchased another PCI LAN card with definite WFW 3.11 support. (D-Link DFE-530TX). Apparently the drivers are in the box.

530TX works, I can confirm that. Drivers are here: ftp://ftp.dlink.eu/Products/dfe/dfe-530tx/driver_software/
What I don't like about the 530TX is that it has NDIS2 drivers for wfw3.11 - they work but some other random pci nic Ihave actually has NDIS3 wfw3.11 drivers in the form of .386 file and as such it does not consume any memory outside windows.
530TX needs ~50kb for the "net start" command so that networking works when you load wfw3.11 - not an issue if you have spare UMBs though.
(all that assuming one will only use the TCP/IP protocol under windows and not any DOS Lan clients, no idea about memory usage if you need another protocol)

On an unrelated note I have tested several RTL8139 NICs, drivers are plentiful but their DOS perfomance is abysmal! with a p233mmx with mtcp ftpserver I am getting ~300kb/sec - the same system with the 530TX works at ~2.5mb/sec

edit:
another remark, be sure to use IFSHLP.SYS from the wfw3.11 directory: anything else bluescreens for me 😵

The 530tx is a VIA Rhine chip, is it not? This card is the same chipset. Worth a try, at least.

^ I have no idea, the main IC is rebranded. Will give it a shot 😁

edit:
excellent catch gdjacobs !!!
the card uses the Rhine III VT6105 chipset, so the linked driver works fine in wfw3.11 - and with no memory usage 😎
I measured 1.65mb/sec under 3.11 and the normal ~2,3mb/sec with mTCP. nice!!!
I now wonder about the 528TX 🤣

You can check with a dos utility called PCI.EXE from the following link:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040727164319/htt … 0802/downloads/

It essentially lists all the BIOS enumerated, PCI connected or bridged devices that have vendor/device codes on your computer. It's like lspci or scanpci under LINUX.

The 528TX is a Realtek clone.

Just found it, it's a 8139 based NIC *but* stock 8139 software does not work with it, they must have used custom IDs and strings that the RTL SDK allows. No biggie - the 530TX discovery is great 😁

Regarding the RhineIII drivers, the latest version is here: http://download.viatech.com/en/support/driversSelect.jsp (in the menus select "Other" then "DOS" then "Ethernet" and finally "VT6105/L/LOM") and get the "Combo driver version 4.0" , inside there is a LEGACY zip with the latest NDIS3 wfw3.11 driver. (v6.0 drops legacy drivers).

Sometimes having a miss-spent youth running weird operating systems helps!

Thanks for the continued support and driver link.

The card should arrive later this week.

I thought I had a bargain with the £2 (+£2 S&H) on the other card being a Realtek and all; but with lost hours trying to get it to work.

I'm still blaming Phil for this.. 🤣

well, continuing the semi-related discussion 😁
I checked the other NIC I mentioned with the NDIS3/wfw3.11 driver, it's an Accton EN1207D NIC made for HP AFAIK (maybe this explains the good 3.11 driver). Looking in the .386 file there are strings that mention the RTL8139 chipset - needless to say generic 8139 drivers are not working.

So both the Accton EN1207D and the DFE-528TX are 8139 based and perform great with their DOS packet driver. Makes me wonder what's the deal with the generic/chinese 8139 NICs that are terrible at that, bad driver or a different 8139 revision? I am almost tempted to start testing older packet drivers and see if that is the issue ... 🤣

keropi wrote:

Just found it, it's a 8139 based NIC *but* stock 8139 software does not work with it, they must have used custom IDs and strings that the RTL SDK allows.

I really hate D-Link stuff. They always have to do something different.

Not sure, but perhaps Andrews card needs some configuration first (for the on-board eeprom/flash chip) ?
I remember that I once had trouble with NICs and running the configuration program helped.
Sadly, the driver packages rarely ship with such an utility..

Did some more testing with the 530TX and the updated ndis3 drivers from the via website. It works very well and I can send/grab files from my win7 pc easily. On the adapter options I selected the "Enhanced mode NDIS driver" ditching the option for dual-mode (real and enhanced) and now networking does not require the "net start" command prior to loading windows which is nice 😁
I never used networking features with win3x back then so all is new to me 😁