Question about using a LAN under DOS - China DOS Union Forum

Why is everyone so interested in networking under DOS?
Unless I’m absolutely forced to, I would never use DOS networking.
When there are systems like win98 and win2000 that make networking so easy, why not use them?
Is this thing really that challenging?
Learning DOS is actually about learning a kind of “learning skill”; a lot of problems have to be solved by yourself.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand, as long as you understand “how to learn.”
It’s not about learning how to solve one problem, but how to “learn” to solve a problem.
There are some fairly classic networking tools under DOS, but they may have some limitations, for example they may not recognize FAT32 or NTFS hard disks. But maybe you can find a way, for example do some preprocessing, first transfer the data you want to send to a local FAT16 hard disk, then let the other machine connect through interlnk. That way you can get around the problem of not being able to read FAT32 or NTFS. Or maybe you’ll say that this machine doesn’t have a FAT16 partition, then maybe you can use a virtual hard disk to create a FAT16 hard disk. Then you may run into another problem: under win2000 you can’t create a virtual FAT16 hard disk, or you create it but after rebooting into DOS it disappears, and the data was copied for nothing. In that case, you could just create a virtual FAT16 hard disk directly under DOS. Then yet another problem comes up: under DOS you can’t access NTFS partitions. Then you can go find some software that reads NTFS partitions under DOS, right? －－－－This is the kind of method thought up in order to solve this problem! And quite a few new problems come up within this method, and they all get solved one by one! If you’re not fairly familiar with DOS, or not very familiar with the way of thinking needed to solve problems, I think it will be very hard for you to solve this.

Also, judging from how the OP describes it, it seems like he wants to use DOS as a client to connect to win2000. I don’t think I have any way to do that... Maybe there will be in the future, maybe someone else does, but at present I have no way...

Actually it seems like it can be done. Take a look at this article by wengier.
http://newdos.yginfo.net/dosuse.htm#dosnet

But if you can understand it, and know how to follow what wengier says there to guide your own attempt, then you can try it yourself. I’m not interested in this. Don’t come to me.

Floor1　万丈	Posted 2003-07-08 00:00
初级用户　Posts 4　Credits 121
I want to use a LAN under DOS and connect to a WIN2000 computer. I’m using the DOS7.10 boot disk made by the boss. The operating system is WIN2000 ADV Server, and the network card is a D－link530 10M～100M adaptive card. How should I connect them? Please teach me. Thanks. After booting with DOS7.10, can I still use the NET and NETSTAT commands?

Floor2　ko20010214	Posted 2003-07-08 00:00
版主　Posts 1,628　Credits 7,296
Why is everyone so interested in networking under DOS? Unless I’m absolutely forced to, I would never use DOS networking. When there are systems like win98 and win2000 that make networking so easy, why not use them? Is this thing really that challenging? Learning DOS is actually about learning a kind of “learning skill”; a lot of problems have to be solved by yourself. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand, as long as you understand “how to learn.” It’s not about learning how to solve one problem, but how to “learn” to solve a problem. There are some fairly classic networking tools under DOS, but they may have some limitations, for example they may not recognize FAT32 or NTFS hard disks. But maybe you can find a way, for example do some preprocessing, first transfer the data you want to send to a local FAT16 hard disk, then let the other machine connect through interlnk. That way you can get around the problem of not being able to read FAT32 or NTFS. Or maybe you’ll say that this machine doesn’t have a FAT16 partition, then maybe you can use a virtual hard disk to create a FAT16 hard disk. Then you may run into another problem: under win2000 you can’t create a virtual FAT16 hard disk, or you create it but after rebooting into DOS it disappears, and the data was copied for nothing. In that case, you could just create a virtual FAT16 hard disk directly under DOS. Then yet another problem comes up: under DOS you can’t access NTFS partitions. Then you can go find some software that reads NTFS partitions under DOS, right? －－－－This is the kind of method thought up in order to solve this problem! And quite a few new problems come up within this method, and they all get solved one by one! If you’re not fairly familiar with DOS, or not very familiar with the way of thinking needed to solve problems, I think it will be very hard for you to solve this. Also, judging from how the OP describes it, it seems like he wants to use DOS as a client to connect to win2000. I don’t think I have any way to do that... Maybe there will be in the future, maybe someone else does, but at present I have no way... Actually it seems like it can be done. Take a look at this article by wengier. http://newdos.yginfo.net/dosuse.htm#dosnet But if you can understand it, and know how to follow what wengier says there to guide your own attempt, then you can try it yourself. I’m not interested in this. Don’t come to me.

Floor3　摆一碗	Posted 2003-07-10 00:00
初级用户　Posts 5　Credits 110
Good

Floor4　万丈	Posted 2003-07-11 00:00
初级用户　Posts 4　Credits 121
Thanks, I really do want to use DOS as a W2K client. If it can’t be done, then forget it. To be honest, I’m learning DOS because I want to learn hands-on skills. With today’s Windows, you just click a few buttons and that’s it; the way of learning has already shifted from principles to operation, and what the textbooks introduce is also how to use it, not why. Once Windows crashes, you don’t know what to do anymore.