China DOS Union

How to dial up broadband internet with DOS 7.1 system and IBM network card?

There are usually two ways to access the Internet. One is dial-up access, which is through a modem, and the other is through a network card. For ISDN, ADSL, etc., the method is similar to using an ordinary network card to access the Internet. Therefore, the methods of accessing the Internet are also divided into two categories. Let's first talk about accessing the Internet with a network card. Usually, the network card driver disk has a driver program called Packet driver, which is usually in the PKTDRV folder of the driver disk. It is the most critical network interface driver for connecting to the Internet under DOS. Most Internet programs under DOS need it to realize the function of accessing the Internet (if the Packet driver program is not found in the network card driver disk, you can search on http://www.crynwr.com/). For example, if your network card is NE2000, you can use NE2000.COM in the PKTDRV folder of the driver disk to drive the network card. Just enter NE2000 on the command line. However, the Packet driver program of some network cards needs to enter the installed IO address, which is usually 0x60 (that is, 98 in decimal), that is, execute the command NE2000 0x60 to install the driver program. If the address is not entered, generally the network card is installed on 0x60 or 0x62 according to the default value. If you use dial-up access, there are two methods. One is to use the Packet driver program of the modem, and the other is to use the built-in dialer when using the browser. For the former, you can use a program called LSPPP (which can be downloaded in the "Driver Programs" of this site). Its function is very powerful, and there are relatively many command line parameters. You can use the command LSPPP /? to view. Usually, the parameters that need to be specified are: the port number where the modem is located, the phone number to dial, the username, and the password, etc. For example, assuming that the modem is on COM4 and the number to dial is 163, you can enter LSPPP /n:4 /d:163 /U:user /P:pwd on the DOS command line to access the Internet (be sure to pay attention to the case and the spaces between each parameter). Once the Packet driver program of the network card or LSPPP runs successfully, the DOS system is actually connected to the Internet. At this time, various Internet software under DOS can directly access the network (of course, to truly complete the functions of the Internet, the TCP/IP protocol built into the network program is also needed). If you want to disconnect the Internet connection after loading the Packet driver program of the network card or modem, you can either use the method of uninstalling the Packet driver program, such as executing the command NE2000 -U, or use the universal Packet driver termination program TERMIN (which can be downloaded in the "Network Tools" of this site). For example, if the installation address of the Packet driver program is 0x60, using TERMIN 0x60 can do it. If you want to use the built-in dialer of the browser instead of the Packet driver program of the modem to access the Internet, you can look at the use of Arachne below.

As we all know, a web browser is needed to browse web pages. The best graphical browser under DOS is Arachne, which is very powerful and can be downloaded in this site. To use it for dial-up access, a modem supporting DOS is needed (including a hardware modem or a software modem with a DOS driver, and it can also be used in the DOS window of Win9x). After selecting "Access the Internet using Modem" in the settings screen, Arachne will detect each possible port where the modem is located, and as long as it successfully detects one, it can be used. Then enter the correct phone number, username, and password, and you can dial. Of course, if you have already used the above-mentioned LSPPP to load the Packet driver program of the modem, you don't need to dial in Arachne anymore. At this time, the method of setting Arachne is the same as the method of setting Arachne to use the Packet access of the network card. If accessing the Internet through the network card, you need to first run the above-mentioned Packet driver program of this network card. Note that it must be installed on the address 0x60, otherwise Arachne cannot recognize it. In the settings screen in Arachne, select "Access the Internet using network card" and select DHCP automatic configuration. As long as the network is normal, you can view web pages. To speed up, you can load the disk buffer program SMARTDRV.EXE under DOS before running the Arachne browser. For the specific use method of the Arachne browser, you can see the "DOS Articles" column.

Of course, there are many other methods to really use the Internet under DOS. For example, after using the Packet driver program of the modem or network card, you can use programs such as WATTCP (such as WGET, Lynx) to realize the reading of online materials. For example, you can use the command WGET www.yahoo.com on the DOS command line to download the homepage of the Yahoo website. WGET even supports the breakpoint continuation function. To use email, you can easily realize sending and receiving emails with programs such as Barebones E-mail (you need to know the POP3 and SMTP server addresses of the mailbox). For operations such as FTP and Telnet, you can also use corresponding programs to achieve, such as Wattcp and FTP, which can be specifically seen in the "Network Tools" of this site. There are many network-related programs under DOS, and it will not be described in detail here.

Are there fewer web pages viewable under DOS than under Windows?

Of course, almost none of the domestic websites can be accessed.