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jhhoward / MicroWeb

DOS Web browser for 8088 class machines
GNU General Public License v2.0
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No Network Available while using Etherslip #34

Open giobbino opened 1 month ago

giobbino commented 1 month ago

hi, I'm trying to use a wifi modem on serial port, this one: https://github.com/Bluelavasystems/RetroWiFiModem.

The modem itself appears to work fine, I can download a web page (i.e. http://frogfind.com page) using any terminal software like Telix etc.

So, I:

Etherslip returns the following parameters (they seem all ok to me, however I'm sure what interface class is): packet interrupt = 0X7E Interface class = 1 Interrupt = 4 I/O port = 0x3F8 Baud rate = 4800 (the modem is also set as 4800) Receive buffer = 3000 Ethernet address = [mac code in 6 groups of 2 digits]

It returns: Error loading page No network interface available

I supposed the EtherSlip should be a network emulator, making the microweb to believe it's connected to a LAN...

Where I'm going wrong?

jhhoward commented 1 month ago

There a couple of things here that you need to address. Firstly, the RetroWifiModem that you linked is emulating a Hayes AT style, not a SLIP network. This means that the EtherSLIP driver isn't going to work properly as they are different protocols. You can either use a different DOS packet driver (maybe dosppp if the modem firmware properly supports PPP? I've never done this myself), or alternatively see if there is a way to enable SLIP communication on your device. I've used a similar device from TheOldNet which has an alternative SLIP firmware that can be flashed. See here: https://github.com/TheOldNet/theoldnet-wifi-firmware-binaries

Secondly, if you are getting the 'no network interface available' error message, this is most likely because mTCP hasn't been configured. You will need to first create a mTCP configuration file and set the MTCPCFG environment variable to point to it. For example: set MTCPCFG=C:\MTCP\MTCP.CFG

Once you have got a working network and can PING a server then you should be able to use MicroWeb without any issues. Here is the mTCP documentation for reference on how to set everything up: https://www.brutman.com/mTCP/download/mTCP_2023-03-31.pdf

giobbino commented 1 month ago

Thanks for your answer! I've seen it right now, since I was doing some tests. Unfortunately microweb hangs very often in any video config I tested (cga, vga, ega...) --> I opened another issue about it, some weeks ago. I have to reboot many and many times, and only sometimes it works, so any little changes in parameters etc. requires a lot of patience....

I'm going to carefully look at your instructions. For what I've read, it seems my chances to make it to work are few (or none) :-(

However, below, there's an explanation about what I did until now:

I did a little (maybe useless) step ahead: I've seen the TCP.CFG file requires your IP address, so I got it during the modem connection step and wrote it into the TCP.CFG.

Now I'm stuck with a DNS issue; the browser doesn't resolve the address name.

Currently this i my TCP.CFG:

PACKETINT 0x7e IPADDR 192.168.10.101 NETMASK 255.255.255.0 GATEWAY 192.168.10.1

NAMESERVER 208.67.222.222 I don't understand what the nameserver stands for; I put the Opendns address, it doesn't work

NAMESERVER 192.168.10.1 I tried to put the same address of the router, that should resolve the dns queries. However I don't know if it works, because microweb hangs repeatedly