Hi Tom! >> So on the driver side, PKT and ODI drivers fade out, which only >> leaves NDIS2. > And packet driver over NDIS >> Which means we are stuck with MS Client / LAN Manager
> this is unrelated. > NDIS (or packet driver) is a network driver (layer 2) > MS client is a protocol handler (layer 3/4), which is something entirely > different Thanks for correcting me! I really was too unspecific. Of course "NDIS" means a whole architecture which is structured according to the ISO model you quoted. NDIS specifies a) drivers for the network card, b) protocol drivers and c) the Protocol Manager driver and d) some other layers in between, like bridges (see <http://www.ndis.com/faq/ndis201.txt>). So I try again. ;-) What I meant to say: 1. Most network drivers that card manufacturers still release for DOS (and hopefully continue to write) are supposed for the NDIS 2 architecture. 2. Hardware drivers for the NDIS 2 architecture can be used as packet drivers through a free converter called "DIS_PKT". This is a good thing, as most TCP/IP applications for DOS need a packet driver interface. 3. To activate the hardware driver and the DIS_PKT converter we need other parts from the NDIS 2 universe: The Protocol Manager driver (PROTMAN.DOS, PROTMAN.EXE) and the Bind utility (NETBIND.COM). This is unfree software, the files are included in MS Client, LAN Manager and Co. > Teach DIS_PKT to talk directly to NDIS, and you are done. Yes. The current situation is a bit absurd: We have a multiprotocol driver (the packet driver) working atop of another multiprotocol driver (NDIS). And the only protocol still needed is TCP/IP. > probably easier (and much more useful) than teaching Arachne NDIS Yes, sorry, bad idea. WatTCP and Watt-32 are free and widely used TCP/IP stacks that work great against the packet driver interface. So the only missing free link is that from DIS_PKT to the NDIS2 hardware driver. I did a bit of googling. DIS_PKT 9 incl. source (used by many people): ftp://ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca/software/pc_network/dis_pkt9.zip or DIS_PKT 11 (newer, there's no difference for me as user): <ftp://ftp.danlan.com/ftp.danlan.com/pdr_shim/dis_pkt/dis_pkt.zip> The NDIS documentation <http://www.ndis.com/faq/ndis201.txt> Much harder to find are source code examples of ndis2 hardware drivers. There was a "NDIS device driver kit" (NDDK) about NDIS 2. It was part of the OS/2 Device Driver Kit (OS2 DDK) that IBM once offered for download, but has been withdrawn from their website. Things seem to be really historic. People desperately asked for example source code for NDIS2 hardware drivers more than 10 years ago. So this is not really a new territory. ;-) (But I am writing this to people developing a free version of *DOS* so this might be not new to them either). :-) Ulrich ------------------------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace. It's the best place to buy or sell services for just about anything Open Source. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;164216239;13503038;w?http://sf.net/marketplace _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
