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skiselev / isa8_eth

ISA 8-Bit Ethernet Controller
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Not clear how to access driver in MS Client 3.0 #1

Open Scuffles opened 8 months ago

Scuffles commented 8 months ago

The ISA 8-bit Ethernet Card is not listed in the driver choices in Microsoft Client 3.0. I tried several options that included NE2000 in their labels - including one titled "Microsoft NE2000 driver" - and nothing worked. I also tried pointing to the ne2000.com driver in the "Network adapter shown on list below" and it rejected it.

I tried executing the NE2000.com file in DOD and it reported OK.

skiselev commented 8 months ago

You'll need to have an NDIS driver that can support an NE2000-compatible Ethernet controller in an 8-bit slot. I'd think that the common variety of the driver will assume 16-bit operation, and won't work properly in 8-bit slot. It is a good question if someone already has such a driver. Quick Internet search didn't find much... Another good question is whether a source code is available for the 16-bit driver. If so, it shouldn't be too difficult to modify that...

Scuffles commented 8 months ago

I'm only interested in transferring files among my several desktops - two of which are "legacy" computers. Are you familiar with EtherDF (see attached)? Is it a possible work-around? (This is my first foray into setting up a network...)

https://sourceforge.net/projects/etherdfs/

On Sun, Feb 18, 2024 at 5:33 PM Sergey Kiselev @.***> wrote:

You'll need to have an NDIS driver that can support an NE2000-compatible Ethernet controller in an 8-bit slot. I'd think that the common variety of the driver will assume 16-bit operation, and won't work properly in 8-bit slot. It is a good question if someone already has such a driver. Quick Internet search didn't find much... Another good question is whether a source code is available for the 16-bit driver. If so, it shouldn't be too difficult to modify that...

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/skiselev/isa8_eth/issues/1#issuecomment-1951545537, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BGIBRLLFXCVWFE3M3ZKGC53YUKTWRAVCNFSM6AAAAABDOQ4VRWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSNJRGU2DKNJTG4 . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: @.***>

               ETHERDFS - THE ETHERNET DOS FILE SYSTEM
                   http://etherdfs.sourceforge.net

EtherDFS is an 'installable filesystem' TSR for DOS. It maps a drive from a remote computer (typically Linux-based) to a local drive letter, using raw ethernet frames to communicate. For years, I was using LapLink to transfer files between my various "retro" computers. It works, yes, but it's also annoyingly slow and requires constant attention. One day I thought, "Wouldn't it be amazing if all my DOS PCs could share a common network drive, similarly to how NFS operates in the *nix world?". This day EtherDFS was born. I clearly didn't invent anything - the concept has been around almost as long as the first IBM PC, and several commercial products addressed that need in the past. I am not aware, however, of any free and open-source solution. Besides, all the commercial solutions I know require to set up a pretty complex network environment first, while EtherDFS doesn't need anything more than just a packet driver.

EtherDFS is the "client" part, ie. the TSR running on the client DOS computer. The client requires an EtherSRV instance to communicate with. Currently, an implementation of EtherSRV exists only for Linux (ethersrv-linux).

Since EtherDFS runs over raw ethernet, it doesn't need any TCP/IP stack. It only requires a working packet driver. The catch of using raw ethernet frames is that EtherDFS is, by design, unable to communicate outside of a single LAN. In some context this might actually be a strenght, you don't need to worry that your EtherDFS transfer will somehow leak outside your LAN - it's simply not possible.

Syntax: etherdfs SRVMAC rdrv1-ldrv1 [rdrv2-ldrv2] [rdrvX-ldrvX] [options] etherdfs /u [/q]

where: SRVMAC is the MAC address of the file server EtherDFS will connect to. You can also use '::' so EtherDFS will try to auto-discover the server present in your LAN. rdrv is the remote drive you want to access on the EtherSRV server. ldrv is a local drive letter where the remote filesystem will be mapped.

Available options: /p=XX use the network packet driver XX (autodetected in the range 60h..80h if not specified) /n disable EtherDFS cksum - use only if you are 100% that your network hardware is working right and you really need to squeeze out some additional performance (this doesn't disable Ethernet CRC) /q quiet mode: print nothing on screen if loaded/unloaded successfully /u unload EtherDFS from memory

Examples: etherdfs 6d:4f:4a:4d:49:52 C-F /q etherdfs :: C-X D-Y E-Z /p=80

Note: EtherDFS arguments are case-insensitive, and can be passed in any order.

===[ Requirements ]===========================================================

EtherDFS hardware/software requirements:

ethersrv, on the other hand, requires a reasonably modern Linux system. Future versions will probably provide a DOS version of ethersrv, too.

===[ Can I use other networking software while EtherDFS is loaded? ]==========

EtherDFS provides low-level I/O disk connectivity through networking. As such, it might be adviseable to dedicate a single network interface on your PC solely for the purpose of handling EtherDFS communications - this would provide the best possible performance and reliability. However, if your PC has only one ethernet interface, you still can use EtherDFS simulteanously with other networking applications - EtherDFS will happily share access to the packet driver with any other applications, but in such case performance might not be optimal. Take note that, for such network sharing to be possible, your other networking software must be written in a way that does not require exclusive control over the packet driver.

===[ Why Ethernet ]===========================================================

This is the first question I get whenever I introduce EtherDFS to someone: "Why do you use stupid Ethernet instead of IP/UDP/IPv6/IPX/whatever ?"

I thought about the pros and cons of the multiple technical possibilities, and the advantages of using raw Ethernet frames vastly outweighted the constraints. It is to be noted that Ethernet is ubiquitious, has been for the past 30 years, and is likely to stay here for a while. Here below I paste my "pros & cons" list, so my reasons should become clear.

Pros:

Cons:

===[ Is it secure? ]==========================================================

Shortly said: no. EtherDFS is designed by a hobbyist, for hobbyists. It is not meant to be used in an environment where security is required. The EtherDFS protocol transfers all data as plain text, and doesn't have any provisions for authentication nor access control. It is worth noting that a potentially desirable side effect of using raw Ethernet for communication is the fact that EtherDFS data won't ever make it outside your LAN, simply because it is unrouteable.

===[ But is it still safe for my data? ]======================================

Should be. I did my best to ensure that EtherDFS does not lead to any corruption of data, or any other troubles. You have to keep in mind though, that EtherDFS is a program that takes root deeply in the (often undocumented) internals of DOS, and as such, is a quite complex beast. Besides, every program has bugs, this one is surely not an exception. I can only recommend that you perform periodic backups of your data, just in case.

===[ Contact the author ]=====================================================

I'm always happy to get feedback about my software: bug reports, feature requests, or simply knowing that you use it and it works for you. You won't get my e-mail address here, but you should find contact pointers to me on my website: http://mateusz.viste.fr.

===[ License ]================================================================

EtherDFS is distributed under the terms of the MIT License, as listed below.

Copyright (C) 2017, 2018 Mateusz Viste

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

lpsantil commented 8 months ago

I'm only interested in transferring files among my several desktops - two of which are "legacy" computers. Are you familiar with EtherDF (see attached)? Is it a possible work-around? (This is my first foray into setting up a network...) https://sourceforge.net/projects/etherdfs/

You don’t need Microsoft Client to use EtherDFS. You just need a packet driver loaded. Your card maybe misconfigured if the packet driver doesn’t load.

Scuffles commented 8 months ago

This is what I got when I ran NE2000.com: [image: image.png] So I just need to run this in AUTOEXEC.BAT and then run EtherDFS?

On Sun, Feb 18, 2024 at 7:06 PM lpsantil @.***> wrote:

I'm only interested in transferring files among my several desktops - two of which are "legacy" computers. Are you familiar with EtherDF (see attached)? Is it a possible work-around? (This is my first foray into setting up a network...) https://sourceforge.net/projects/etherdfs/

You don’t need Microsoft Client to use EtherDFS. You just need a packet driver loaded. Your card maybe misconfigured if the packet driver doesn’t load.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/skiselev/isa8_eth/issues/1#issuecomment-1951614323, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BGIBRLOMPFGTVFOP4VOKVCLYUK6SRAVCNFSM6AAAAABDOQ4VRWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSNJRGYYTIMZSGM . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: @.***>

lpsantil commented 8 months ago

Can’t see the photo.

Scuffles commented 8 months ago

Here it is.

On Sun, Feb 18, 2024 at 10:08 PM lpsantil @.***> wrote:

Can’t see the photo.

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lpsantil commented 8 months ago

Did this with a simple copy-paste. image