Networking Under MS-DOS

[thera34]

@bbond007: You're right, by the "other method" I was referring to MidiLink. Thanks for the tip, will try Qmodem and Procomm to see how they behave.
Next thing will be to test out Syncterm or netrunner, not sure if they will work on Win95, but this is also beyond this topic.

On this topic: anyone tried SSH under MSDOS ?
Found out about SSHDOS (http://sshdos.sourceforge.net/) , gonna try it later and wondered if anyone has already tested it

Cheers and Happy Holidays all !

[bbond007]

Actually, Qmodem Pro 1.0 & Procom Plus 2.01 are the specific versions I use.

I also remember using a Windows version of Qmodem..

[ExCyber]

Anyone have any thoughts on network drive implementations? I played around with Microsoft's "Network Client 3.0" about a million years ago in hopes that it would be able to run games from a suitably neutered Samba share, but found that it took too much conventional memory to run most software. If memory serves, even EDIT couldn't run after loading the network stuff. I very much doubt that I figured out every piece that could either be disabled or shoved into high/UMB/XMS, but I've seen a few scattered mentions that a major chunk of conventional RAM usage is inevitable with that particular stack, so I assume it's a dead end unless someone has experience to the contrary.

Considering that MSCDEX allegedly uses the same underlying driver API as network drives, I have a hard time believing that this is an unsolved problem. I feel like some company should have released a sleek iSCSI or ATA over Ethernet driver (perhaps for arcane corporate market reasons, much like how it's surprisingly easy to find DOS drivers for modern Ethernet chipsets because some versions of Norton/Symantec Ghost can use them), but I haven't seen one.

I'm not even entirely averse to the notion of writing something like this myself (presumably working with mTCP, because I suspect that the idea of having written my own TCP stack is more appealing than the reality of actually doing it). That being said, it would definitely be a learning experience since while I was there for the heyday of DOS and real mode, I didn't really get into programming before protected mode operating systems were the norm.

[mbalmer]

[deleted - I got it working]

[thera34]

Bumping this thread as it has valuable info and it's the base on MS-DOS TCP/IP networking how-to

First things first, the same mTCP configuration will also work on the PC XT core.
I would also like to add several applications I have tested which make use of mTCP stack (other than mTCP's telnet/irc clients):

1. ChatGPT DOS client - works perfect on both ao486 and PC XT, it also requires an external proxy (for convenience I used a RaspberryPI) to process SSL
   Where to get it and instructions (also for setting up a proxy): https://github.com/yeokm1/doschgpt
   Discord discussion/pics/other links: https://discord.com/channels/6479093974 ... 0785183864
   Note - working on getting that HTTP-to-HTTPS proxy to work on DE10-Nano's ARM

2. MicroWeb DOS browser - works blazing fast on both ao486 and PC XT cores.
   It is text and HTTP only, but it can support external HTTP-to-HTTPS proxy. Also supports mouse and for PC XT you should launch it with the "-c" parameter
   Where to get it and instructions (also for the external proxy): https://github.com/jhhoward/MicroWeb
   Discord discussion/pics/other related links: https://discord.com/channels/6479093974 ... 8197096620
   As well as for ChatGPT, working on moving the proxy to ARM side

3. Arachne graphical DOS web browser - works on ao486. Don't expect it to be fast or support modern pages, but on normal older HTTP sites it works like a charm
   Still fiddling with it and hopefully some SSL functionality can be added at some point (maybe some proxy as above or some Arachne plugins)
   Where to get it: http://www.glennmcc.org/arachne/
   Discord discussion/pics/small how-to: https://discord.com/channels/6479093974 ... 5471187007

Finally, some screenshots. Hope you find it useful

My Great Game - My Great Capture_2023-04-04_17-57-52.png (27.4 KiB) Viewed 6786 times

My Great Game - My Great Capture_2023-04-04_17-59-39.png (100.24 KiB) Viewed 6786 times

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20230503_002105-screen.png (90.22 KiB) Viewed 6786 times

20230503_010523-screen.png (154.09 KiB) Viewed 6786 times

[thera34]

1. ChatGPT DOS client - works perfect on both ao486 and PC XT, it also requires an external proxy (for convenience I used a RaspberryPI) to process SSL
   Where to get it and instructions (also for setting up a proxy): https://github.com/yeokm1/doschgpt
   Discord discussion/pics/other links: https://discord.com/channels/6479093974 ... 0785183864
   Note - working on getting that HTTP-to-HTTPS proxy to work on DE10-Nano's ARM

The http-to-https proxy from same author of DOS ChatGPT (https://github.com/yeokm1/http-to-https ... -linux-arm) can be ran on the ARM side of MiSTer, so no more use of an external machine. Copy it in a folder of preference (I used /meadia/fat/Scripts/), edit doschgpt.ini to point to MiSTer's ARM IP address (in my case is 192.168.100.25 while the core's PPP is ofc .254) and that's it:

[thera34]

SSH and SFTP work as well under MS-DOS using the latest fork of SSh2DOS client from here: https://github.com/AnttiTakala/SSH2DOS/releases
Copy it to your DOS VHD, edit the included wattcp.cfg file to reflect your core's PPP IP/netmask/DNS/gateway.

[AmintaMister]

Hi!

I've followed all the instructions, but pinging google.com (or other servers) I get: "error resolving server name".

Sequence:

Code: Select all

C:\>epppdd com1 115200 local
sifaddr pppO: local 192.168.1.254, remote 192.168.1.90, netmask 255.255.255.0.
Installed packet driver handler at vector 0x60.

Code: Select all

C:\>ping google.com
mTCP Ping by M Brutman (mbbrutman@gmail.com) (C)opyright 2009-2023
Version: Mar 31 2023
Error resolving server name: google.com

mtcp.cfg:

Code: Select all

SET MTCPSLIP=true
MTU 1500
PACKETINT 0x60
HOSTNAME ao486
IPADDR 192.168.1.251
NETMASK 255.255.255.0
GATEWAY 192.168.1.1
NAMESERVER 8.8.8.8
LEASE_TIME 86400

[AmintaMister]

Hi!

I've followed all the instructions, but pinging google.com (or other servers) I get: "error resolving server name".

Sequence:

Code: Select all

C:\>epppdd com1 115200 local
sifaddr pppO: local 192.168.1.254, remote 192.168.1.90, netmask 255.255.255.0.
Installed packet driver handler at vector 0x60.

Code: Select all

C:\>ping google.com
mTCP Ping by M Brutman (mbbrutman@gmail.com) (C)opyright 2009-2023
Version: Mar 31 2023
Error resolving server name: google.com

mtcp.cfg:

Code: Select all

SET MTCPSLIP=true
MTU 1500
PACKETINT 0x60
HOSTNAME ao486
IPADDR 192.168.1.251
NETMASK 255.255.255.0
GATEWAY 192.168.1.1
NAMESERVER 8.8.8.8
LEASE_TIME 86400

Ok, fixed, in case is needed by someone I leave here the solution: in mtcp.cfg the IPADDR had to be set to a value of 192.168.1.254.

[thera34]

Yes, because by default the core's IP address assigned via PPP would be .254, first three octets being your LAN specific (like 192.168.1.0/24 in most cases).
Here is the up-to-date how-to on PPP (and not only) connections on different cores/OSes: https://mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_M ... connection

[AmintaMister]

Yes, because by default the core's IP address assigned via PPP would be .254, first three octets being your LAN specific (like 192.168.1.0/24 in most cases).
Here is the up-to-date how-to on PPP (and not only)connections on different cores/OSes: https://mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_M ... connection

Thanks a lot!