# Help!! Can't get out of my DOS machine



## pvtus (Feb 10, 2004)

Oh good people, would you help this poor soul who is hanging for WEEKS with this silly problem. I have at home 2 PCs. When they both startup as Windows XP they are connected fine in a WORKGROUP network (indicating that their respective NICs and Cables function well). However, when one of them starts up as DOS (using the BOOT diskette) trying to access the other as a mapped network Ghost - the network does NOT function. That is, the DOS machine seems to smoothly operate all its DOS components: SiS900 driver, TCPIP drivers, NET, etc.  all indicate successfully completed. Yet, PING gets no response from any other IP address except its own:
- Ping localhost (127.0.0.1) is OK.
- Ping the DOS BOOT PC (192.168.0.1) is OK (Does pinging its own address means that the NIC itself is involved in the operation, including accessing its cable??).
- Ping the XP PC (192.168.0.64) does NOT work. Neither works the ping from the XP to the DOS.

Let me add that I don't use a HUB but a crossed wires network cable (which, again, functions fine in both XPs configuration). Here are my configuration files:

Config.sys
------------
FILES=20
device=A:\NET\ifshlp.sys
LASTDRIVE=Z

Autoexec.bat
---------------
SET PATH=A:\NET
A:\NET\net initialize
A:\NET\netbind.com
A:\NET\umb.com
A:\NET\tcptsr.exe
A:\NET\tinyrfc.exe
A:\NET\nmtsr.exe
A:\NET\emsbfr.exe
A:\NET\net start

System.ini
----------------
[network]
sizworkbuf=1498
filesharing=no
printsharing=no
autologon=yes
computername=UDI-NEW
lanroot=A:\NET
username=UDI
workgroup=WORKGROUP
reconnect=yes
dospophotkey=N
lmlogon=0
logondomain=WORKGROUP
preferredredir=basic
autostart=basic
maxconnections=8

[network drivers]
netcard=sis900.dos
transport=tcpdrv.dos,nemm.dos
devdir=A:\NET
LoadRMDrivers=yes

[386enh]
TimerCriticalSection=5000
UniqueDosPSP=TRUE
PSPIncrement=2

[Password Lists]
*Shares=A:\NET\Shares.PWL

Protocol.ini
--------------
[network.setup]
version=0x3110
netcard=MS$SIS,1,MS$SIS,1
transport=tcpip,TCPIP
lana0=MS$SIS,1,tcpip

[TCPIP]
NBSessions=6
SubNetMask0=255 255 255 0
IPAddress0=192 168 0 1
DisableDHCP=1
DriverName=TCPIP$
BINDINGS=MS$SIS
LANABASE=0

[MS$SIS]
DriverName=SIS900$

[protman]
DriverName=PROTMAN$
PRIORITY=MS$NDISHLP

Any solution/suggestion/enlighten/response will be DEEPLY appreciated.

Udi


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## coderitr (Oct 12, 2003)

You clearly know more about networking than I do but could a firewall be the problem? When I first set up my home network I had a similar problem --- my laptop could get on the internet just fine but I could not map drives to my desktop or ping it. When I removed the firewall it worked just fine.

Oops. After re-reading your post I see that you can't ping the DOS machine from the XP machine either so it probably isn't a firewall issue. Sorry -- that was my best shot.


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## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

Does your boot floppy actually provide network support?


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## pvtus (Feb 10, 2004)

hi kiwiguy,

Yes, my boot floppy contains all the programs that are listed in the autoexec.bat above. Also, each one of these programs indicates that it has completed successfuly. 
Even more, the ping to the local card (192.168.0.1) would not have succeeded if all the network support had not been provided in advance.

Thanks for reponding, and please keep on showing interest in my problem.

Udi


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## MyBootDisks. (Jan 26, 2003)

If you unplug the network cable from the DOS PC, then try to PING, does it successful PING?

....it shouldn't, but there are some cases where it will return successful 100% sent packets. 

Are you getting successful pings to the DOS PC from the XP Box and from the DOS PC?

PS> Where did you get this bootdisk from?

Regards,
MyBootDisks.com


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## pvtus (Feb 10, 2004)

Hello MyBootDisks.com,

Thank you for finding interest in my problem.

unplugging the network cable from the DOS PC didn't change anything. that is, I keep getting the same results no matter whether the cable is plug or not. these results are:

When I ping the explicit IP address of the DOS PC I get:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, 1991-1993. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) Hewlett-Packard Corporation, 1985-1993. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 3Com Corporation, 1985-1993. All rights reserved.
[1] echo received from 192.168.0.1 with roundtrip < 50 msec
[2] echo received from 2.168.0.1 with roundtrip < 50 msec
[3] echo received from 192.168.0.1 with roundtrip < 50 msec

I get the same results when the plug is off.

When I ping the explicit IP address of the XP PC I get:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, 1991-1993. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) Hewlett-Packard Corporation, 1985-1993. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) om Corporation, 1985-1993. All rights reserved.
[1] No response from 192.168.0.64
[2] No response from 192.168.0.64
[3] No response from 192.168.0.64

I get the same results when the plug is off.

When I ping the DOS PC from the XP it also fails and I get: "Request timed out"

I built the Boot disk by myself, using the MS SETUP prgram of the "LAN DOS CLIENT" folder found on the NT 4 CD ROM.

I hope all this give you some clues about this strange situation.

Thank you

Udi


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## MyBootDisks. (Jan 26, 2003)

Ok, there you go, the DOS PC is not on the network at all. The driver could be wrong or you may have staticaly assigned the NIC an IP (but still it should be 100 Lose from same PC).

Regards,
MyBootDisks.com


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## pvtus (Feb 10, 2004)

Hello MyBootDisks.com,

Indeed i feel the DOS PC is not on the network at all. Yet the "net intialize" returns the following:

SiS 900/7016 PCI Adapters DOS NDIS 2.0.1 Driver Version:1.13
(c) Copyright 1998 SiS Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Microsoft DOS TCP/IP Protocol Driver 1.0a
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, 1991. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) Hewlett-Packard Corporation, 1985-1991. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 3Com Corporation, 1985-1991. All rights reserved.
Microsoft DOS TCP/IP NEMM Driver 1.0
The command completed successfully.

which indicates, to my opinion, that the drive is ok because it successfully initialize the NIC and bind the TCPIP to it. Moreover, the ping itself wuold not have functioned at all if all the pre-requisite software had not been correctly prepared in advance. That's why i feel that the dos driver is ok. Is it not?

Now, you mention that I "may have staticaly assigned the NIC an IP". Indeed i have done just that. Isn't it allowed?

Thank you for your involvement

Udi


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## MyBootDisks. (Jan 26, 2003)

Can you please zip that bootdisk and send me the URL for where I can download it, I would like to test it out here and run a few tests... I am not sure if have access to web space, but if you do not have access to one please let me know in your next post.

Regards,
MyBootDisks.com


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## pvtus (Feb 10, 2004)

Hello MyBootDisks.com,

I don't have an access to web space, but I'll be happy to send my zipped bootdisk to your email. If you are reluctant to expose your email here, please send it directly to my email:

[email protected]

il stands for israel which explains the time difference between us.

Thank you for your good will.

Udi


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## MyBootDisks. (Jan 26, 2003)

Email sent.


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## pvtus (Feb 10, 2004)

Hello MyBootDisks.com,

I sent you my zipped bootdisk. If it hasn't arrived, please let me know.

Thanks

Udi


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## MyBootDisks. (Jan 26, 2003)

I've got the file, I will look more into it tomorrow if I have the time.
Have you tried to do this with another network card?

Try booting the XP system with the bootdisk and pinging the IP.

Regards,
MyBootDisks.com


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## pvtus (Feb 10, 2004)

Hello MyBootDisks.com,

I don't have another network card, but I'll try to switch the roles between these 2 pc's.

Have a good night sleep.

Udi


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## pvtus (Feb 10, 2004)

Hello MyBootDisks.com,

While you were sleeping (here it's already your tomorrow  ) I followed your advice and I switched the machines. That is, the previous problematic DOS machine was booted as XP, and the other XP machine booted as DOS with the same bootdisk, except that I changed the NIC's driver as it is by another supplier (via instead of sis). 

It works like charm on first try!

I guess that it suggests that there's something wrong with the sis900.dos driver  even though it initializes the adapter and binds the TCPIP without any complaints. It carries the same version as its XP companion (which works fine) and I downloaded them both in the same package directly from sis' site. So I just don't know what to think. Any idea?

The problem is that I need the previous configuration since the original DOS PC is very old, and is going to die on me any day now. So I can't store on it anything. In fact, that's the reason I want to save its image on the XP just before it crashes. But this is, of course, outside any networking considerations.

Thank you again for getting so involved and I'll be glad if you will nevertheless look into my bootdisk. Who knows, maybe you'll find that stupid thing that I keep missing.

Udi


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## MyBootDisks. (Jan 26, 2003)

Can you send me the updated copy of that bootdisk...what VIA NIC are you using?

Can you not just pull of the working NIC and put it in the DOS PC and transfer it to the XP box?

If not, you can look into other ways to communicate with the DOS PC, there are such programs as LapLink.

Regards,
MyBootDisks.com


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## pvtus (Feb 10, 2004)

Hello MyBootDisks.com,

I sent you the updated copy of that bootdisk.

Thanks,

Udi


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## pvtus (Feb 10, 2004)

Success at last!

I installed a new adapter (Kingston) with a different driver just to face another failure. However, this time, the diagnostics program suggested checking for possible conflict at the BIOS level. Shooting at the dark, I cancelled the Plug-n-Play feature of the BIOS, and things started to play.

Thanks to all who tried to help,

Udi


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