Harry Potter wrote on 2024-11-05, 11:31:

you can find it at http://www.retroarchive.org/garbo/pc/net/index.html.

I noticed the same page has something called "easy-lan" which says it's a two-system peer-to-peer network
running over serial ports, and claims to be designed for networking "desktop and laptop"

Does anyone have experience with this - could it help the OP?

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

I looked at it. It seems to be just for DOS and has to be loaded from config.sys, but it looks good. I have to try it out, but I have to be at my mother's house first, then I have to finish setting it up then get two replacement Zip100 drives. My mother ordered one the last time I was there.

Harry Potter wrote on 2024-11-07, 20:46:

I looked at it. It seems to be just for DOS and has to be loaded from config.sys, but it looks good. I have to try it out, but I have to be at my mother's house first, then I have to finish setting it up then get two replacement Zip100 drives. My mother ordered one the last time I was there.

Sounds like you really need a hard drive in the laptop. You mentioned in your first post that you thought it needed a "caddy" that you don't have.
If it's just a physical (non-electronic) carrier, you may be able to Mcgyver something... Does the laptop take some sort of standard drive (IDE or SATA)?
Does it have any sort of normal connector for it? I've managed to get drive in to laptops that wanted a carrier.. usually involving some plastic/wood/cardboard
shims etc. I don't recall if you mentioned the exact make/model... that might help as there's proabably "look inside" pics. available
somewhere...

You also mentioned "Win98" (It's in the thread title)... Win98 can boot to it's version of DOS .. IIRC it supports FAT32 partitions which the various DOS
networking tools (INTERSRV, EAST-NET, NSLAN, mTCP etc. might not be able to deal with... but perhaps you could make a FAT16 partition and share that
when booted to Win98-DOS, that would at least give you a nice big "blob" that you use to move things between the Laptop and Win98
(reboot to DOS to transfer, back to Win to access) - I know that sounds painful, but IIRC early on you indicated that you wouldn't need to network after you
got your files saved/restored but it would be "nice" to have available in the future.

For that matter, if you can't get it to work with Win98 DOS, and you have some sort of bootable media (Floppy, CD/DVD, Flash etc.)
you could probable boot an earlier DOS and it should be able to access a FAT16 HD partition, ignoring the rest.
(For that matter, you might be able to multi-boot between a FAT32 Win98 partition and a FAT16 DOS partition)

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

I know mTCP works under Win98 DOS; I test it there in a FAT32 partition.

The other programs should generally be fine if they are using DOS services to open and close files. Win 98 DOS will just simply hide the extra metadata that the older programs don't ask for; I think you have to use new dos functions to get the long file name support.

mbbrutman wrote on 2024-11-08, 04:38:

I know mTCP works under Win98 DOS; I test it there in a FAT32 partition.

The other programs should generally be fine if they are using DOS services to open and close files. Win 98 DOS will just simply hide the extra metadata that the older programs don't ask for; I think you have to use new dos functions to get the long file name support.

I think the main concern would be if the other programs support FAT32 (a lot of older DOS stuff didn't) which is why I mentioned that
he might have ot make a separate FAT32 partition if they can't see/access the main FAT32 one.

Have you found a "serial(ie COM) packet driver" that mTCP works with? If so, perhaps he can use mTCP?

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

NSLAN does support FAT32, as I had it working on an old Win98SE tower. The hard drive is a 2.5" hard drive, and while it is Apple brand, its labels imply that it's meant for PCs. I don't know the type otherwise, though. I will Google "mTCP" and "mTCP serial packet driver" now. Thank you.

mTCP doesn't seem to be what I want. 🙁

Harry Potter wrote on 2024-11-08, 11:18:

NSLAN does support FAT32, as I had it working on an old Win98SE tower. The hard drive is a 2.5" hard drive, and while it is Apple brand, its labels imply that it's meant for PCs. I don't know the type otherwise, though. I will Google "mTCP" and "mTCP serial packet driver" now. Thank you.

I saw in a previous post that the laptop is "NEC Versa 2000D" - not a lot of info that I could find on its hard drive
setup... It appears that the hard drive is IDE .. I see a few NEC caddies on EBAY... I saw one that didn't appear to have
any electronics or cables, you could prob. just "shim the drive to fit". but another shows a little cable adapting the
standard IDE connector to something much smaller. I've attached a photo - you would have to look into where
the hard drive goes it and see what kind of connector it needs.

If NSLAN was working with Win98SE, why not use it again?

mTCP itself isn't what you want, but Mike indicated that he's added a new "NetDrive" module which might be useful.
(If you can get it to work - needs packet driver - and being block mode would be slow if you can get serial to work)

Btw "NEC Versa 2000D" appears to have two PCMCIA slots!
I do recall that I had a PCMCIA NE2000 compatible network adapter running in DOS (and possible some others - I know I
had a wireless adapter - but IIRC it needed windows)

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

NSLAN works on Win98 but only n DOS mode. I'm glad the laptop has two PCMCIA ports. 😀 It could use a sound card.

At this point the OP really should drop the networking idea and just figure out how to get a hard drive (IDE or CF) into the available space.

You're right. Once the hard drive is installed, I'd still need the network for CD access and to install large programs, though, but I want it to be an option. NSLAN appears to be the only choice to have it an option.

mbbrutman wrote on 2024-11-08, 15:26:

At this point the OP really should drop the networking idea and just figure out how to get a hard drive (IDE or CF) into the available space.

Agreed, we just need to see what he needs to connect it ... (Perhaps a detailed pic of inside the drive bay?)

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

Well...once the hard drive is installed, I will no longer need the network, but I want an option to use the network to access CDs and install large programs.

I just looked at easy-net, and it seems to do everything I want it to do except work from Windows mode. The next time I'm on my DOS laptop at my mother's house, I plan to try it.