Your NIC is probably have IRQ or PORT conflict in DOS. Pause and inspect POST messages about IRQ assignments to various devices. Next either plug in another slot and see how it changes and/or disable onboard devices to free resources. Next load 3Com DOS config utility and change eprom settings for the card to something not conflicting with others.

I'm getting closer. Someone sent me what I believe is the correct driver for my card. I got the driver to see my card and install software for it.

Now I need to figure out how to set up MTCP. I can't figure out how to set up the packet driver. I need an address but I'm not sure what it is. My card has the following stats:

Device Number: 6
Bus Number: 0
I/O Port Address: 5000h to 503Fh

And the Packet Driver program says it the I/O Base is 20480 (0x5000) and the interrupt is 5 (0x5).

The config file wants a PacketInt variable, but I'm not sure what that would be. I would assume 0x5. So in my config file I have:

PACKETINT 0x5
HOSTNAME ATARIPC

that *should* work, but when I run DHCP it says:

Init: could not setup packet driver
Could not initialize TCP/IP stack

Tempest wrote on 2020-03-29, 15:04:

I'm getting closer. Someone sent me what I believe is the correct driver for my card. I got the driver to see my card and inst […]
Show full quote

I'm getting closer. Someone sent me what I believe is the correct driver for my card. I got the driver to see my card and install software for it.

Now I need to figure out how to set up MTCP. I can't figure out how to set up the packet driver. I need an address but I'm not sure what it is. My card has the following stats:

Device Number: 6
Bus Number: 0
I/O Port Address: 5000h to 503Fh

And the Packet Driver program says it the I/O Base is 20480 (0x5000) and the interrupt is 5 (0x5).

The config file wants a PacketInt variable, but I'm not sure what that would be. I would assume 0x5. So in my config file I have:

PACKETINT 0x5
HOSTNAME ATARIPC

that *should* work, but when I run DHCP it says:

Init: could not setup packet driver
Could not initialize TCP/IP stack

Hi, maybe this will give some clue? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgATAo9WVHs

Tempest wrote on 2020-03-29, 15:04:

I'm getting closer. Someone sent me what I believe is the correct driver for my card. I got the driver to see my card and inst […]
Show full quote

I'm getting closer. Someone sent me what I believe is the correct driver for my card. I got the driver to see my card and install software for it.

Now I need to figure out how to set up MTCP. I can't figure out how to set up the packet driver. I need an address but I'm not sure what it is. My card has the following stats:

Device Number: 6
Bus Number: 0
I/O Port Address: 5000h to 503Fh

And the Packet Driver program says it the I/O Base is 20480 (0x5000) and the interrupt is 5 (0x5).

The config file wants a PacketInt variable, but I'm not sure what that would be. I would assume 0x5. So in my config file I have:

PACKETINT 0x5
HOSTNAME ATARIPC

that *should* work, but when I run DHCP it says:

Init: could not setup packet driver
Could not initialize TCP/IP stack

I responded over at VCF but will dupe it here in case you get here first ...

PACKETINT is supposed to be the software interrupt you loaded the packet driver at, not the hardware interrupt the card is using. The PDF docs go over this. If you correct that parameter to the software interrupt you told the packet driver to use then things might start working for you.

Also check out http://www.brutman.com/Dos_Networking/dos_networking.html if you want the background on how all of this works.

Ok I think I have that part working, but running DHCP now freezes the system.

I also cannot get MTCP to work with a 3Com 3C905-TX card and the 3C90XPD Packet Driver. It has failed on both my Pentium MMX and K6-III+ systems. I am using a static IP and there is no IRQ conflicts on either system. Running PING or SNTP usually freezes. I have to use the reset button to restart the computer. I have tired it both MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 98 SE running only from the DOS prompt. It does work fine on another K6-III+ system running Windows 98 SE from the DOS prompt. That computer is using an Intel PRO/1000 GT card.

If you can't get a packet driver to work, there are at least two alternatives to try:
* ODI driver + ODIPKT.COM
* NDIS driver + appropriate shim

Tempest wrote on 2020-03-29, 20:30:

Ok I think I have that part working, but running DHCP now freezes the system.

I'm sorry to not have any better news: I did intensive research into this very problem, and the result is that the packet driver provided by 3com is a steaming pile of cr*p. The most obvious consequence are random lockups during the first transferred packets. You might get lucky with a different release of the packet driver, that would work for you by chance, but I don't know of a quality packet driver for that card yet.

What I do is:

1. Running "3c90xcfg.exe RUN" - this will run the tests and somehow initializes the card so MTCP tools won't crash anymore 😳
2. Run 3c90xpd.com /r /t - this seems to disable early transfer features which helped me to get it stable
3. Then run your tool of choice (ircjr, ping etc.)

I dont't know if you've figured it out, but i managed to get it working with an older version of the packet driver. The v2.0c driver works out of the box with the /r /t switches. I was using the 5.something driver and it just crashed everytime, now it works like it should and is stable.

Strange... I also recall some problems using some 3C905 card with a packet driver, but it was back in the era...
Recently, I've tried a bunch of PCI cards in a Pentium 133 machine, with SIS chipset - and absolutely no problems with 3C905B, 3C905C, 3C905CX, mTCP FTP download speed to NUL with MTU=1500 is around 6 MBytes/s.

Obviously all the problems are dependent on a particular PCI implementation - chipset? board? BIOS?

Anyway, the only 3Com 100 Mbps card I couldn't get to work was 3CSOHO a.k.a. 3C910 - I wasn't able to find any DOS drivers... if there are any, let me know!

I have recently tested a bunch of PCI NICs, including one 3Com:

3C900-TPO

and the results are:

3C90XPD.COM 4.0d - OK
3C90XPD.COM 5.2.6 - the driver loads, but fails to send and/or receive any packets

Never delete older versions!

Yet another post about quality of packet drivers for 3Com's PCI stuff...

3C900-COMBO
hardware seems 100% OK - all internal tests in 3C90XCFG.EXE passed, no problems in Windows 95 OSR2

3C90XPD.COM 5.2.6:
doesn't work (time to rename it to 3C905PD.COM ?)

3C90XPD.COM 4.0d:
RJ45 port - OK
BNC port - only works when set to BNC in 3C90XCFG, when set to AUTO the packet driver hangs on "Attempting to auto detect media..."

I'm running 5.2.6 on a 3c905b and 3c905C perfectly fine under dos, no issues. under a VIA MVP3 chipset.

Yes, 5.2.6 seems OK for the 905 series, but not for 900 - therefore the "90X" in the filename looks wrong...

oooh my bad 🤦🏼 I thought you were testing a 905.

hmm from memory the 3c900 and 3c905 (original) both used the Boomerang chipset and the 905B + C used Cyclone +Hurricane or Cyclone and Tornado chipsets..

I am surprised the 3c900 didnt work with the 3c90xpd.com packet driver, its essentially the same chip but I guess not close enough. I remember from my freebsd days they had a singular driver for 900/905/905b/905c as boomerang/cyclone etc were all the same.

I will note FreeBSD says the 3c900 does not have an "autoselect" you have to choose. thats probably why you get the hang with "AUTO".

BloodyCactus wrote on 2022-08-04, 12:23:

I will note FreeBSD says the 3c900 does not have an "autoselect" you have to choose. thats probably why you get the hang with "AUTO".

You mean the FreeBSD driver for 3C900 lacks autoselect, right?
The hardware surely supports it - there's an option in 3C90XCFG.EXE, and it worked for me in Windows 95 OSR2.