need old computer help

Soundguy · Nov 6, 2006

I don't recall ms dos having direct network support. Are you sure that you are not running a shell software.. like the aforementioned lantastic? or novel? etc?

I have my copy of msdos right here in fornt of me. the only networking the manual speak of is serial and parallel port direct connections.

Post your config.sys and autoexec.bat files. Somewhere there has to be a third party software running.. perhaps a TSR.. etc..

Soundguy

MossRoad · Nov 6, 2006

Look on your DOS 6.22 install disks. Disk 2 has the networking support files on it. Remember the NET commands? NET VIEW, NET USE, NET STAT, NET TIME, NET PRINT, etc... Those are all DOS commands that came with DOS. I think DOS had networking as early as version 3.1 back in 1982. 6.22 came out around 1994, I think.

Soundguy · Nov 6, 2006

I remember net use commands.. but they were all while running lantastic or netware ( novel ).

My msdoss 4.x 5.x and 6.x paper manuals (right here on my desk ) make no mention of built in networking support. ( are you perhaps thinking of a linux clone? )

My windows 2.89, 3.0, 3.1, and 3.11 (workgroups) manuals DO make mention of network support.

Soundguy

MossRoad · Nov 6, 2006

I wish I could stop the production machine and go get that file for you.

All you do is install DOS 6.22 from the floppies. Then you need the DOS drivers and usually an install disk for your NIC. Once you install your NIC and configure it, you are good to go. I think we were using NDIS2 drivers for DOS.

BTW, I did find a floppy with Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools V 10.0 while I was hunting for my DOS disks. That's what we used to configure large disks for small BIOS.

MossRoad · Nov 6, 2006

O.K. I found my old DOS 6.22 disks. There are three install disks and two SUPPLEMENTAL disks. The networking tools are on the first of the two supplemental disks, not the three install disks. Sorry for any confusion.

Soundguy · Nov 7, 2006

That explains it. It wasn't a standard ms dos release, but an add on.. that's what i was thinking. There were also plenty of 3rd party networks for these old machines. i had a program called easynet.. it would even fit on a 360k disk and run on an xt.. etc.

For a while i thought you may have been talking about interlink.. it gave you low functional drive shareing in a peer to peer type setup.. kinda kludgy.. but worked.

Soundguy

MossRoad · Nov 7, 2006

I still have a box with a pile of those parallel port adapters that ran over flat phone wires. They required an external wall wort power supply. We ran a couple of remote office networks with those so they could all share a printer. Man, those were the days... a spool of silver satin and an RJ11 tool was all you needed.

Soundguy · Nov 7, 2006

I got a box of those in my junk room... the d25 shell, with the rj 11/45 connector onthe back right? Yep.. those were the days... had to jumper configure everything manually.. and then pray the drivers all got along with each other!

Soundguy

MossRoad · Nov 7, 2006

All the files for those DOS 6.22 supplemental disks are still available on-line at Microsoft.

MS-DOS 6.22 Supplemental Disk: Description and how to obtain

Here's a direct link to the .exe Right click here and download it. It extracts to whatever folder you execute it in without asking, so don't do it on your desktop.... like I did!

Soundguy · Nov 7, 2006

Thanks for the link. I see they also resurected some older dos utilities that were dropped in later dos versions. For instance.. i made many a batch file using 'edlin' before 'edit' ever came out.. (I actually preferred qedit a shareware program.. etc.. )

i also notice the 'basic' gorilla was there as well...

Join was even back. though not subst

Ahh the days before GUI's...

Soundguy