Accessing a DOS computer via a network

Gene Heskett gheskett at shentel.net
Mon Aug 29 16:52:11 UTC 2016


On Monday 29 August 2016 11:42:54 John R. Sowden wrote:

> I am not sure is this is sarcasm or reality.  I use the computers for
> a 24 hour per day business.  I have been using this network since
> about 1986.  The network OS is called Little Big Lan, using standard
> Ethernet BNC connector cards.  It is a peer to peer Lan. I am not sure
>  what you want a picture of:  The Ethernet cards, the coax, the
> original floppy LBL disk, or the smile on my face due to its long term
> reliability.
>
> Now, the network still works, but one of the computers died.  I moved
> the HD to another computer (FreeDOS/4DOS only, no Windows). Plan on
> setting it up with a minimal Linux (I use Xubuntu in my office on a
> non-networked computer.  I am going to try to find a card newer card
> with BNC and RJ-45, but I am concerned about the setup.
>
Your chances of that are somewhere between 0.00000001 * slim and none,  
The first thing I would do is see if the card in the dead computer is 
still functional.  But that I suspect will take an ISA bus mainboard in 
the new computer. Has the new dosbox such an antique, speed killing 
beast?  Your test is easy if the hd was moved, the drivers should still 
be there.

But those are made out of pure un-obtainium as far as new mainboards are 
concerned, so you have likely lost the ISA slot it lived in.

I believe I have such a card in my midden heap, but I am equally sure its 
an ISA card. But IIRC this one may be bnc only.  If your new dosbox has 
an ISA slot, and your old card won't work, let me know and I'll see if I 
can locate that piece of history.

It did work in about 1998-1999 because it connected my first linux box I 
had built in late 97, to an elderly Amiga 2000-040.

> John
>
> On 08/29/2016 01:46 AM, Karl Auer wrote:
> > On Mon, 2016-08-29 at 09:36 +0100, Chris Green wrote:
> >> On Sun, Aug 28, 2016 at 07:13:24PM -0700, John R. Sowden wrote:
> >>> My network was a daisy chained RG-58 coax network.
> >>> It has worked flawlessly for a couple of decades.
> >>> Peer to peer DOS only.
> >
> > Wow. That is something truly beautiful.
> >
> > Do you have pictures? What do you DO with your DOS systems? What
> > network stack is running on them?
> >
> > Regards, K.


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>




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