Data transfer under DOS via network HELP PLZ!!!

[Treppiede]

Hello everybody.
I couldn't find a better place to post this, so I figured that the Win2K area should be populated by network experts, and here I am explaining you my problem.

I have two older laptops, those thin ones that come only with a built-in floppy drive and an external cd drive (PCMCIA)... well, I formatted the heck out of the two, and I wanted to install a light OS like win98se on both (166mmx and 233mmx, good enough for basics).

My problem is that (as expected) the win98 boot disk can't recognize the pcmcia cd drive, because the pcmcia port uses 32-bit drivers which are not loadable under dos (correct me if I am wrong here).

Bios has been already checked out, no option available...

So guess what? Once I boot into dos from the win98 floppy disk, the only way to exchange data is thru floppy.

I need an idea on how to transfer the .cab files of the win installation folder into a folder of the laptop hdd, and then launch the setup from there... everything is to be done UNDER DOS.

I thought of doing that thru network under dos, and if that is possible please let me know where can I find any sort of NetWork boot disk that enables TCP/IP or any other protocol that I could configure on my other desktop computer for the transfer... what leaves me doubtful is that the NIC is not built in, which means that the same PCMCIA problem that I had with the CD-drive will most likely arise again...

Finally I remembered when I used to connect my friend's computer to mine to play Doom 2 (the first lan parties ;o) - about 7 years ago...) with serial cable... I could use one of those - or better a parallel cable - and connect the two under dos using a determined software... I remember using a program called "LapLink" under dos for transfers, but is that still available? Let me rephrase the question: Is that the best idea? And which software should I use to transfer the files between the two using a Parallel pc-2-pc transfer cable?

Thank you in advance for any answer,
best regards,

Treppiede


A television may insult your intelligence but nothing rubs it in
like a computer.

 

[camieabz]

I'm not sure on this one, but I seem to remember my old man using a program called "Laplink" back in the early days of the 486 laptops.

That was pre - Win 3.1 for him, so it works, but I don't know how well.

<b><font color=blue>The Cisco Kid</font color=blue></b>

 

[camieabz]

I just had a look around and came up with:

<A HREF="http://www.fastlynx.info/LapLink-FastLynx-Comparison.asp?source=espotting" target="_new">Link 1</A>

<A HREF="http://www.laplink.com/" target="_new">Link 2</A>

<A HREF="http://www.alberts.com/authorpages/00014592/prod_685.htm" target="_new">Link 3</A>

Hope these help. Seem a bit expensive. Maybe you can find an older version for download.

<b><font color=blue>The Cisco Kid</font color=blue></b>

 

[Treppiede]

That fast pc linker is a pretty nice idea man, I appreciate... I'll let you know...

thnx again,

Walter

A television may insult your intelligence but nothing rubs it in
like a computer.

 

[Smilin]

you need an MS-DOS client boot disk for an NT network. It uses the old LANMAN networking.

I've made these from time to time but it's so infrequent that I have to look it up everytime. Technet has a howto article on it.

Basically it gives you dos based TCP/IP networking that can login to a "microsoft network" - lanman, NT, peer-to-peer etc.

You can make one yourself but check bootdisk.com or some of the other places to see if you already have one. We use em at work to boot to a diskette then go across the network and run ghost from a shared drive to image a pc.

 

[jihiggs]

i do the same thing, only problem is, the nic is pcmcia and they dont work in dos.

i went to the tomshardware forums and all i got was this lousy signature.

 

[Smilin]

Have you tried it?

I've never had any problems using a PCMCIA NIC in a laptop. Never had to load any drivers except the NIC drivers.

 

[jihiggs]

yes i have, i have gotten several pci nics to work from dos boot disk, though i have never been succesfull getting a pcmcia card to work in dos, modem or nic.

i went to the tomshardware forums and all i got was this lousy signature.

 

[CALV]

I have a generic network boot disk- a very good one that I downloaded from somewhere, as long as you have the LANCARDNAME.dos file on a driver cd for the lan card, then you can get the disk to boot to dos with network support- in which case you can then copy the files over the lan, Check on the driver cd for the lan/pcmcia card, if you have the .dos file, mail me and I'll happily mail you network boot disk files (took me AGES to get one that worked, I cant remember where I got this one but it is good- you run a confgi first where you put details of your network in, reboot, and it does it all)
calv@fuckyou.co.uk is my email


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