Networking FreeDOS - Quick Networking HowTo

Networking FreeDOS
Quick Networking HowTo Introduction History of DOS networking DOS networking today Novell Netware MS Client TCP/IP applications Others Installation of packet drivers or other compatible drivers Packet driver installation ODI driver installation NDIS driver installation Loading the TCP/IP Kernel (Stack) WatTCP / Watt-32 TCPDRV / NTCPDRV mTCP Others Conclusion

The next chapters of this document will describe DOS networking with a lot of detail. But for the impatient users, here's a quick HowTo: It explains how to set up a network with FreeDOS 1.2.

Install the networking software

By default there is no network preinstalled with FreeDOS.

But the installer makes it pretty simple to set it up.

• Install FreeDOS according to http://www.freedos.org/install/

• Afterwards, leave the CD in the tray, reboot and choose "Boot from system harddisk".

• After the reboot run the package manager FDIMPLES:

(The install CD has to be present to see all the packages available.)

• In the left window choose Networking, in the right the programs you wish to install.

• FDNET is mandatory for networking in virtual machines. I would also recommend at least mTCP and wget. Confirm with OK.

• Reboot.

The boot messages above show that the C:\FDOS\BIN\FDNET.BAT network batch file was able to identify my system correctly as running in VirtualBox. It loaded the correct packet driver PCNTPK.COM. DHCP.EXE from mTCP also found the network and was configured automatically.

So far FDNET.BAT is able to identify the following virtual machines: QEMU, VirtualBox, VMWARE.

If you don't run FreeDOS in a virtual machine

If you don't run FreeDOS in a virtual machine, you should first try to find a packet driver for your network interface card (NIC).

Many packet drivers are written and collected by Russell Nelson and his Crynwr Software. Download them from there or from the FreeDOS repository.

If you found a packet driver, please add it to your AUTOEXEC.BAT right before the line with FDNET.BAT. For instance for the 3COM 3c589 PCMCIA card you'd add:

LH 3C589PD.COM 0x60 5 0x300
if exist %dosdir%\bin\fdnet.bat call %dosdir%\bin\fdnet.bat start

Without a packet driver

If you can't find a packet driver for your network card, there is a good chance to find a driver that was supposed to work with Novell Netware (ODI driver) or with the Windows Lanmanager or with Windows for Workgroups (NDIS driver). It's a bit of work, but you can use these drivers as packet drivers. Learn more about NDIS drivers or ODI drivers in this documentation.

The network's up. Now what?

If you're using FreeDOS in VirtualBox, please check your settings for your network adapter. You have to decide between bridged Networking or NAT. Please see the HowTo about VirtualBox.

You need to configure your networking programs. For instance set the name and password for the FTP server by editing C:\MTCP\FTPPASS.TXT.

Some DOS networking programs need to find the network configuration in C:\FDOS\WATTCP.CFG. In FreeDOS 1.2 it looks like this:

my_ip = dhcp 

Unfortunately some old programs are not able to get the values by DHCP themselves. So either you put fixed IPs in here. Or you use a nice utility written by Canadian programmer Dave Dunfield: It will get the correct network settings via DHCP and insert them in C:\FDOS\WATTCP.CFG.

If you want to do the latter,

• Open C:\FDOS\WATTCP.CFG and delete the line

my_ip = dhcp 

• Go to Dave Dunfields "DOS Widgets" page.

• Download "DDHCP" from the network tools section.

• Put it into an directory C:\DDHCP and add these lines to AUTOEXEC.BAT, right after the FDNET.BAT line:

if exist %dosdir%\bin\fdnet.bat call %dosdir%\bin\fdnet.bat start
C:\DDHCP\DDHCP /W /F

(The "/F" parameter will fill in all values that are missing in WATTCP.CFG.)

Now with every reboot, WATTCP.CFG is updated with the correct network settings.

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Index

Networking FreeDOS <--- Quick Networking HowTo ---> Introduction