Subj : Dead EchoArea?
To   : Gerald Miller
From : Frank Reid
Date : Sat Mar 29 2003 03:48 pm


>LEGACY (DOS) Machine -
>  Pentium MMX 200MHz
>  512Mb RAM
>  two IBM 512Mb hard drives
>  one AOpen 10/100 MBPS fast EtherNet adapter card
>  one external USRobotic 56K fax/modem
>
>Windows 2000 Pro Machine -
>  AMD Duron 760MHz
>  576Mb RAM
>  one Maxtor 20Gb and one Maxtor 60Gb hard drives
>  one AOpen 10/100 MBPS fast EtherNet adapter card
>
>Additional -
>  one D-Link VKM-4 switch
>  one SMC (wired) Barricade router
>  one Motorola cable modem

You can network the DOS machine, but it's a bit more work (and won't yield the
same breadth of available applications) then the Windows machine.

First, Microsoft does produce (but probably no longer supports) a DOS-based
Windows network client on the Windows NT CD.  I'm not sure if this is still
distributed on the W2K CD, but it's probably available on ftp.microsoft.com
under the BUSSYS folder.

I'm guessing that the SMC router does network address translation and assigns
non-routable address space already to your W2K machine.  In other words, the
router has two Ethernet interfaces -- one connected to your cablemodem and
using the 66.* address to the world, and the second connected to your D-Link
switch.  Hosts that live on that switch, including your Windows machine,
receive an address dynamically when booting... probably in the 192.168.0.*
network.  This 192.168.*.* network is non-routable address space, meaning that
Internet providers treat this as private and don't route the path to get there
across the Internet.

You'll want to connect your Ethernet cable from the DOS box to the D-Link
switch.  After installing the Microsoft DOS client you got from either the NT
CD or Microsoft's FTP site, you'll see two files you'll need to modify in the
directories it creates.  In PROTOCOL.INI, you'll need to set a static (fixed)
IP address for the DOS machine.  (DOS machines running this client are
notorious for not negotiating BOOTP/DHCP addresses well, and this will ensure
that isn't an issue.)  

Assign an address in the middle of the 192.168.*.* subnet, based on the
current address of your Windows machine.  For instance, if the address of your
Windows machine (viewed by doing IPCONFIG from a CMD prompt) is 192.168.1.50,
then change PROTOCOL.INI to be 192.168.1.200.  (The first three octects vary,
depending on the router manufacturer.)  Change the subnet, gateway and default
DNS values also to match IPCONFIG on the Windows machine.  Typically, this is
255.255.255.0, 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.1, but these also vary by
manufacturers.

Next, edit the [DOMAIN] and [WORKGROUP] sections in both files to match the
workgroup that's defined on your Windows machine.  By default, this is
WORKGROUP, but Microsoft has recently started varying this.  This is under the
Network properties, where you'll see Machine Name and Workgroup defined.

Now, cross your fingers and reboot.  With some luck, you should be able to use
the "NET.EXE" command on the DOS client.  One common task is to "map" a network
drive to be available to the DOS machine, for copying files, etc.  Issue the
command: 

     NET USE X: \\W2K-Machine-Name\C$

It will prompt you to authenticate to the Windows machine... use the
Administrator account and associated password.  This should allow you to access
the files on the C: drive of the Windows machine.

You are not yet ready to share the DOS file system to the Windows machine,
however... you are also not ready to run DOS Internet applications on the DOS
machine.  This requires a bit more configuration and, possibly, the
installation of a DOS "packet driver".  Let us know if you succeed on the first
part, and we can progress.

Frank

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