!DOS mTCP over ethernet dongle
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19 June 2026
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I'm reconsidering two things while I'm hacking on
this tonight:

1. Wired networks. I thought getting the parents/
   kids to run an ethernet cable to get online might
   be a bridge too far for non-technical families,
   and residential modems/routers increasingly have
   no available ethernet ports. But part of the
   point is to build technical skill, and kids are
   tremendously motivated by social opportunities.
   I'm still interested in LoRa/RNode, but may ditch
   the wifi problem.

2. A separate dongle for "dumb terminal" mode. As
   long as I have a (ethernet, etc) device that
   FreeDOS can drive, maybe I'll just wrap a DOS
   SSH/telnet program in a batch file that starts up
   networking and forces connection to the BBS only.
   Kids that can figure out how to hack the batch
   file deserve the freedom they earn.

[divarin] Yeah I know what you're talking about,
like a bootable thumb drive with something like mTCP
(a modern TCP/IP stack for DOS) but also being a
wifi adapter at the same time.

I haven't experimented with mTCP with a wifi device
but a quick keyword search on www.brutman.com/mTCP/
for "wifi" shows some promise.