Complete collection of methods for direct DOS two-PC interconnection
Generally speaking, when it comes to direct DOS two-PC interconnection, it only means “dual serial port” or “dual parallel port” interconnection, while “dual network card” or “dual MODEM” are newer things and are not discussed in this article for now. The following are several articles I searched for and organized. I’m putting them together here so you can compare them. I hope this can help you. (requested by a forum user)
Method 1, Interlnk
Interlnk download link: http://doshome1.51.net/dos/lnterlnk.zip
DOS6.22 extracted edition download link: http://doshome1.51.net/dos/dos622.zip
Buy one serial-port or parallel-port connection cable, and you can use DOS software to carry out data transfer and
resource sharing between two microcomputers. Under the DOS platform, the two microcomputers can only communicate in client/server mode.
1. Client-side setup
Copy interlnk.exe and intersvr.exe to c:\dos; of course, any directory will do.
Add the following to Config.sys
device＝c:\dos\interlnk.exe
After modifying it, you should restart the system.
If the server side is already ready, you will see that each drive letter on the server microcomputer has been mapped to the
local machine. If you want to check the current communication status, at the DOs prompt type Iiterlnk and then press Enter. The display will be the same as when the system started network communication, showing: the port used for communication; the drive letters mapped to the client; the server’s drive letters, etc.
2. Server-side setup
Run Intersvr.exe in the DOS environment to enter the server screen. At this time you can see the correspondence between
the drive letters and printer ports on the server microcomputer and those on the client. Press ALT+F4 to exit the server
function.
3. Data communication
When the server is ready (showing the INTERSVR screen), run INTERLNK.EXE on the client side, and
you can again see the corresponding mapped drive letters. At this time the client can handle the server’s mapped drives as local drives
and transfer data between the two microcomputers. When data is being transferred between the two microcomputers, the server screen will display
the currently used drive, read/write status, and transfer speed.
4. Notes
Set a sufficiently large lastdrive value in the client’s Config．sys, otherwise the server’s drives may not
all be mapped to the client.
It is recommended to put interlnk.exe on the last line of Config.sys so that it does not affect the drive letters of other existing virtual drivers;
If you want to share the CD-ROM drive, you need to add the parameter “／S” to the command in the server’s autoexec.bat;
When running Intersvr in a windows DOS box, it is not advisable to have other windows programs running in the background.
(Intersvr requires exclusive use of resources)
Method 2, Netware Lite For DOS
Download link: http://doshome1.51.net/nwlite.zip
Related article: http://www.enanshan.com/others/nwlite.htm
We should thank Novell. They concentrated Netware’s basic functions into NWLite and slimmed it down by dozens of times (it can fit on half a floppy disk). It does not require a Pentium II or even a hard disk, and without a dedicated server, you can build a peer-to-peer network at minimal cost for transferring files, playing games, and printing. For example, with three machines, all of them can be installed in both server and workstation mode, sharing all online resources, and the workstation only needs a floppy drive and a network card. The great thing is that you can enjoy it in just a few minutes.
(1) Scope of application
1. If you have two computers at home, and one old machine needs to share the latest data;
2. If your company’s NetWare server has been shut down, but you still want to use the network to play games;
3. If you currently have only one PC, then NWLite can also let you have both a server and a workstation at the same time—that is, a network of only one machine!
(2) Installation
If you’ve installed NetWare before, then most of what follows is probably nonsense to you. This example uses the minimum hardware setup to build a simple and practical home network: two computers and one printer. New computer: 6x86 MX CPU, 3.2GB hard disk, 3.5-inch floppy drive, PHILIPS CD-ROM; old computer: 386DX CPU, 100MB hard disk, 3.5-inch floppy drive and 5.25-inch floppy drive. The printer is an LQ-1600K, connected to the 386 computer. The two network cards are both Topstar NE2000-compatible ISA cards, connected with coaxial cable; theoretically the distance between users must not be less than 0.5 meters. Two network cards + cable + two T-connectors + two terminal resistors cost less than 150 yuan.
Step one. Make sure your hardware is connected correctly, then turn on the power and begin. ① Run Install in the NWLite directory, as shown in Figure 1, and choose “Make this machine a client and a server”. ② Enter the server names, 386 and 586 respectively, and it will automatically create an NWLite directory in the root of drive C. ③ It asks whether to automatically add parameters such as FILES and BUFFERS to config.sys (if they were not already there). ④ Next choose the network card type (Novell/Eagle NE2000), interrupt, and address (generally IRQ=3, I/O=300H). These parameters are saved in NET.CFG. If correct, press ESC to continue. ⑤ Finally press ESC to complete installation; the method is the same on both machines. After full installation it occupies only 430KB of hard disk space—small enough, right!
Step two. Check the config files. Below is a typical example that preserves the maximum amount of conventional memory. One thing to note: when loading the CD-ROM drive on the server, MSCDEX.EXE must run after SERVER.EXE. If MSCDEX.EXE is loaded into memory first and then LH SERVER is used, the machine will hang.
CONFIG.SYS:
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\dos\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
switches=/f
DEVICEhigh=c:\dos\CDROM.SYS /D:MSCD000
files=30
buffers=30
shell=command.com /p
stacks=9,256
lastdrive=z
AUTOEXEC.BAT:
@echo off
lh C:\dos\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000
lh c:\dos\smartdrv b- /v
LH C:\DOS\doskey
PATH C:\;C:\DOS;C:\UCDOS;c:\win32
set temp=c:\temp
call c:\nwlite\startnet.bat
startnet.bat::
lh LSL
lh NE2000; network card driver
lh IPXODI A
lh netbios; some programs need it to recognize the network, such as games
lh SHARE; DOS sharing program (this line is not needed if used only as a workstation)
SERVER; server (this line is not needed if used only as a workstation)
lh CLIENT; workstation
① In the NWLite directory, there is a startnet.bat, which will take you into the network (ODI mode). When the other machine also goes online, there will be a prompt box on the screen showing the number of the machine that just connected, such as “Violation with node: 000021002802”. Press ESC to exit. At this point, the two machines are truly physically connected.
② Now it’s time to log in. Type net login and enter the username supervisor. At this time the superuser has no password set; just press Enter. Now you are on the network as the superuser.
Step three. ① Type NET to enter the interface shown in Figure 2. Doesn’t it look a lot like SYSCON? ② Select “Supervise the network” and Figure 3 will appear. ③ Suppose we are on the 586 server and select “Network directories”; the default setting shown is CDRIVE 586. Press Enter and detailed information appears. “Actual directory path (48 max) :” is the actual physical disk location pointed to by CDRIVE. Press ESC to return to the previous dialog box, and use the DEL key to delete CDRIVE. ④ Press INSERT to create a new one, choose server 586, give it the name 586C, and set Actual directory path to C:\tools. Press ESC to confirm and save. ⑤ Repeat ④, with the new name 586CD, changing C: to F: (F: is the 586’s CD-ROM drive), and set Default access rights to “ALL”. At this point, the 586’s C drive tools directory and CD-ROM drive have been made into network shared drives. (The sharing setup on the 386 server is the same.) ⑥ On the NET main menu on the 386 machine, select “Map drive letters”, find an unused drive letter such as E, and in the dialog after pressing Enter there will be the 586C and 586CD we just created. If you select 586CD, then E: becomes the 586’s CD-ROM drive. Return to DOS, put a CD into the 586’s CD-ROM, and on the 386 type dir e:. If all goes well, you will see the CD’s directory displayed on the 386’s screen! Of course, you can also share the 386’s floppy drive on the network, so you don’t have to waste the Pentium machine’s capabilities dealing with floppy disks! This way the 386 also has a CD-ROM—simple, right! The above operations are usually added to batch files in command-line form. (Note: when a user logs in again, all mappings become invalid. When a server crashes, it usually does not affect other machines reading that server’s hard disk.)
Step four, create users. In Figure 3, the default value of the Users option is Supervisor. At this time press INS to add a new user, and at the same time you can set parameters such as those listed in Table 1. This is very similar to Novell users.
Step five, create a network printer. ① On the 586 machine type NET, and under “ Supervise the network” → “Network printers”, press INS to add a new printer; ② choose the server connected to the printer: 386; ③ give the printer a name, such as LQ; ④ choose port LPT1 and confirm, with Default access rights set to ALL; ⑤ return to the NET main menu, where under Print there are three ports, LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3, available for selection. After choosing LPT1, the printer LQ you just created appears; ⑥ enter the printer settings box, set Banner (print header) to OFF, Form Feed (whether to feed paper after printing, etc.) to NO, and after exiting, 586 LPT1 will have a printer. Of course, the above process can also be created with the equivalent command line net capture lpt1 lq 386 b=n. When using it, whether it is dir>lpt1 or printing from EDIT, it is exactly the same as a printer connected locally, and at the same time there can be three printer ports.
At this point, your network has been formally established. The remaining work is to organize your own network shared drives. For example, it is more convenient to use NET command-line mode in batch files. The command format is: net map “mapped drive letter” “defined network directory name” “server name”.
net map d: 586cd 586 (the 586’s CD-ROM drive used as 386’s D: drive)
net map e: 586c 586 (the 586’s C: drive used as 386’s E: drive)
Set commonly used software directories as network drives, such as UCDOS, WT, GAME, etc., so that the 386 can access the 586’s various storage devices at relatively high speed without affecting the 586’s operation—a best-of-both-worlds solution. There is also NLSNIPES.EXE under NWLite, Novell’s original game, so use it to celebrate getting the network up and running.
Method 3, LapLink v5.0
Download link: http://doshome1.51.net/dos/ll5.zip
From the software point of view, there are several ways to do DOS two-PC interconnection. I think LapLink v5.0 (LL5 for short) is the easiest to use.
Below I’ll briefly introduce how to use LL5:
When installing relatively large software on a computer without a CD-ROM drive, such as UCDOS60, you can use a “two-PC direct connection cable” to connect the COM ports or LPT ports of the two computers, and run LapLink v5.0 to achieve mutual access between the two computers. First find a parallel-port or serial-port “direct connection cable”, install the cable on identically named ports on the two computers (note: only one connection cable is needed), download and install LapLink v5.0 on both computers. Below, COM ports are used as an example to briefly introduce how to use ll5 (for parallel ports, you only need to set IRQ to Polled; the other settings are the same). Use the “serial direct connection cable” to connect the COMn ports of the two computers, start both computers into pure DOS, start ll5.exe on both computers, and the ll5 program window will appear. Enter Options->Port/Modem Setup->set the ports you are not using to Disabled (same operation on both machines), select the port actually connected on this machine such as COMn->check Enable Port, remove the check in front of Use Modem->select Automatic->use Reset to test, and if Self Test
assed appears, then OK->Done. Exit ll5 on one of the computers, start ll5, and after waiting a few seconds the two computers will automatically find each other. In the ll5 program window, you will see that the left half is the local file area and the right half is the remote file area. Select the connected “HHFF Northeast on COMn(115.200)” or “HHFF Northeast on LPTn” on the right side of the LL5 window and press Enter. See the remote machine’s drives? Select a drive->press Enter, and try file operations. Note: pay attention to the data flow direction when using F2=copy. A reminder here: when using the “two-PC direct connection cable” with Intersvr and Interlnk commands to connect two computers, Interlnk on DOS622 cannot recognize large hard disks or FAT32.
