China DOS Union

I read a “DOS article” on “New DOS Era” — “Using LapLink, a tool for connecting two PCs”
and found it very inspiring. I tried it right away. The software installed successfully, but the connection failed, and the two computers could not find each other.
So I’d like to ask the experts:
1。Are there any requirements for the connection cable? I used a parallel-port printer cable extension cable to connect the two computers,
but I don’t know whether that will work.
2。The two machines have different operating systems, and the FAT of their hard disk partitions is also different:
one is an old “notebook” with MS-DOS 6.22, and its hard disk partition is FAT16;
the other is a desktop in Win98 DOS mode, and its hard disk partition is FAT32.
Will this work?

I hope the experts won’t hesitate to give me some advice. Thanks in advance!!!

That kind of protected-mode DOS won’t work. Download and install a full installation edition of MS-DOS 7.10 and try it.

I have already downloaded the full installation edition of MS-DOS 7.10, but during installation, the system prompts:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MS-DOS 7.10 SETUP
=================
Setup Will now check the partitions on your hard drives.
If you want to skip this process, specify the switch /H for SETUP.

Note: Please ensure that there is no error on your hard drives.
You can verify this by running SCANDISK or similar first.

MS-DOS 7.10 Setup is now checking partitions on your hard drives...
Warning: Coprocessor not present and DPMI setup failed!
If application attempts floating operations system may hang!
(E) Cannot read sector 0 of fixed disk 2 -- Invnlid function or parameter
(E) Cannot access fixed disk 2 -- Invnlid function or parameter
(W) Drive letter assignments may be incorrect
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is the reason for this?
Also, the hard disk was reformatted using DOS-6.22 FORMAT, and no system has been installed.

Did you boot and install using MS-DOS 7.10 installation disk 1? If it still doesn’t work, then *follow the on-screen prompt* and start the SETUP program with the /H parameter (that is, SETUP /H) and that will do it!!! Didn’t you understand the prompt above?

Hello, moderator.
I’m very sorry! My English isn’t good, so I didn’t understand it clearly.
Following the prompt, I added the parameter /h and have now successfully installed MS-DOS 7.10!
...
Then I installed LapLink V5.0 again ...
After running LL5.exe, the two machines still cannot find each other!
Connection failed!
Why?
Please enlighten me.

Please make sure both computers are in *pure* DOS (not virtual DOS or a DOS window), and that LL5 has been set up correctly (its settings are done through menus, so it should be fairly easy to operate), and also make sure the connection cable/device and so on are properly connected.

Question:
How can I DIY a cable for parallel-port direct connection (mainly the pin wiring layout)?
Thanks!

You can use two old square-port (serial-port) mice to make this kind of connection cable yourself. The specific method is very simple: you just need to open the mice and take out the serial mouse cables. You will see that each is made up of four wires, namely 2, 3, 5, and 7. To make a serial connection cable, you only need 2, 3, and 5. Connect the wires according to “2-3, 3-2, 5-5”, and it can be used for linking the machines.

Specific method for making a parallel-port cable
2---15　　3---13　　4---12　　5---10　　6---11
15---2　　13---3　　12---4　　10---5　　11---6　　25---25

Parallel cable is recommended; its speed is faster than serial.

Thanks

I have the same problem too, though two years later. I used the parallel port to interconnect two machines, using this method:
Using LapLink, a tool for connecting two PCs
    Looking at it from the software side, there are several programs under DOS that can implement a two-PC connection, such as XTLink, DriveMap, FastLynx, InterLnk/InterSvr, among which LapLink v5.0 (abbreviated LL5) is a very famous one in China and can be downloaded from this site’s “communications software” section.
    Below I’ll briefly introduce how to use LL5: 
    When installing larger software such as UCDOS 6.0 on a computer without a CD-ROM drive, you can use a “two-PC direct connection cable” to connect the COM port or LPT port of two computers, and run LapLink v5.0 to access the other computer mutually. First find a parallel or serial “two-PC direct connection cable,” install the “direct connection cable” on the same-named ports of the two computers respectively (note: only one connection cable is needed), download and install LapLink v5.0 on both computers. Below, COM port is taken as an example to briefly introduce the use of LL5 (for parallel port, just set IRQ to Polled; other settings are the same). Use a “serial direct connection cable” to connect the COMn ports of the two computers, boot both computers into a pure DOS environment, start ll5.exe on both computers, and the ll5 program window will appear. Go into Options->Port/Modem Setup->set the ports you are not using to Disabled (same on both machines), select the port you are using on this machine, such as COMn->check Enable Port, uncheck Use Modem->select Automatic->use Reset to test, and if Self Testassed appears, then->OK->Done. Exit LL5 on one computer, start LL5, wait a few seconds, and 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 machine’s file area. Select “HHFF Northeast on COMn(115.200)” or “HHFF Northeast on LPTn” on the right side of the LL5 window after the connection is established and press Enter. Do you see the remote machine’s drives? Select a drive->press Enter, and try file operations. Note the data flow direction when using F2=copy.
    A reminder here: when using the MS-DOS 6.x built-in InterSvr and InterLnk commands to connect two computers through a “two-PC direct connection cable,” InterLnk cannot recognize large hard disks or FAT32. However, other interconnection software such as XTLink can recognize them, and DriveMap can even recognize the CD-ROM drive, which makes things even more convenient for everyone.

But I just can’t get the other machine to appear! Has anyone ever succeeded?