China DOS Union

I’m a DOS newbie.
Because of work, I need a DOS utility like this: it can broadcast on the LAN, so the Windows server side can collect the corresponding information, this computer name and IP address, and then the server side sends a command,
and the client side will execute that command, for example ping.
How can this be implemented? Please give me some pointers, and if any expert has related technical documentation, share a copy, I’d be very grateful.

First you need an NDIS environment, for example MS Client. Then you need the DOS driver for the network card.

After all that is set up, you have two choices:

■ The most “orthodox” approach: use the TCP/IP protocol stack that comes with eRTOS—Wattcp. The wattcp source code is provided free, but the documentation has to be bought. However, that documentation can be downloaded on this forum, search for it yourself.

The advantage of this solution is that it only needs a 16-bit x86 environment, does not require protected mode, and does not need a 386 or higher CPU; the disadvantage is also obvious: eRTOS provides a completely new API that is not compatible with any OS, development and debugging are difficult, and eRTOS has poor DPMI support.

■ The most convenient method: under Windows, use standard socket and Win32 API to develop and debug your application, then use HX DOS Extender and other Win32 extensions to make the application run directly under DOS.

HX’s TCP/IP stack itself is actually also wrapped from wattcp, so the stability of the protocol stack is not a problem. The advantages of this solution are obvious: you can use a familiar development environment and Win32API to develop, test, and debug the application, then directly make it run under DOS. The disadvantage is that the target platform needs protected mode support (at least a 386-class CPU).

Mm, thank you very much, asbai, for your help. I have an idea now.