Dial-Up Connection Simulation

[KelleyMcChes]

Hello all, I have a problem pertaining to my host and guest. I am running an MS-DOS guest on a Windows 7 host. I would like to use Arachne as my browser in the guest. I have the problem of not having a dialup connection in my home. I understand that you can use Ethernet with Arachne. I don't think that there is a packet driver for the Virtualbox Ethernet bridged adapter though. So I guess I am looking for a way to simulate a dialup connection on Virtualbox.Thanks in advance!

-Kelley

If this post is in the wrong section, tell me so I can change it!

[mpack]

Moved to "Other Guests".

I'm afraid VBox doesn't include a simulation of a dialup modem AFAIK.

[KelleyMcChes]

Moved to "Other Guests".

I'm afraid VBox doesn't include a simulation of a dialup modem AFAIK.

So is it possible to get a packet adapter for the Ethernet built into Virtualbox?

[dlharper]

Are you sure you really need this? Don't you rather need a driver for the (simulated) network card? (Click the "Advanced" drop-down on the Network Settings page - default is AMD PCnet.) The Bridged Adapter / NAT / Host-only element is about how the network is tied together, and is more akin to the router in a physical system. In most cases it doesn't need a driver.

In any case, have a look at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Sharing_files_with_DOS. It is a few years old, but it may well still work, or at least give you pointers about which way to go. I haven't tried it myself yet, but I will have a go over the next few days.

[KelleyMcChes]

Are you sure you really need this? Don't you rather need a driver for the (simulated) network card? (Click the "Advanced" drop-down on the Network Settings page - default is AMD PCnet.) The Bridged Adapter / NAT / Host-only element is about how the network is tied together, and is more akin to the router in a physical system. In most cases it doesn't need a driver.

In any case, have a look at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Sharing_files_with_DOS. It is a few years old, but it may well still work, or at least give you pointers about which way to go. I haven't tried it myself yet, but I will have a go over the next few days.

Yeah, I looked at that link and I didn't quite understand it. They didn't really explain it that well... On the other hand, is there a packet driver somewhere for the simulated network card? That was what I meant when I said the "Ethernet Card". For some reason, I thought it was a simulated ethernet card. Whoops!

[dlharper]

Yeah, I looked at that link and I didn't quite understand it. They didn't really explain it that well... On the other hand, is there a packet driver somewhere for the simulated network card? That was what I meant when I said the "Ethernet Card". For some reason, I thought it was a simulated ethernet card. Whoops!

I agree that the page is not easy to follow (especially since one of the links is wrong, and the Microsoft Knowledge Base article referred to has now been replaced with how to do the same thing in Windows NT.)

However if you download the two DSK files and the NDIS file, and expand them to floppy disk images, then they will work to set up TCP/IP on NDIS2 using the simulated AMD PCnet Ethernet card that VBox provides. As you say, though, you also need a packet driver to get Arachne working. The Arachne documentation suggests that DIS_PKT9 ought to work. Maybe it will, but the documentation file that comes with it is horrendous.

One further problem is that conventional memory is very tight. This lot will not run together unless, at the very least, you can get EMM386 working properly. You have to configure it manually in VirtualBox (see https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10022). Even then it is difficult to fit a mouse driver into memory as well, and Arachne is not much use without one.

I am going to have a search for what further information I can find.

[dlharper]

Just found this: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=845&p=2958. It is perhaps worth working through.

[michaln]

This lot will not run together unless, at the very least, you can get EMM386 working properly. You have to configure it manually in VirtualBox (see https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10022). Even then it is difficult to fit a mouse driver into memory as well, and Arachne is not much use without one.

If you are using the EMM386 line given in the above ticket exactly, you're losing out. I usually use something like this:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS I=B000-B7FF I=C800-EFFF

With this and properly configured PC DOS 2000 I get 626K free conventional memory and 189K upper memory total. Once the fat MS networking stack is loaded (with the E1000 driver, which is bigger than the PCnet driver), there's 459K free conventional memory left. Nothing to write home about, but enough to run most stuff.

[dlharper]

If you are using the EMM386 line given in the above ticket exactly, you're losing out. I usually use something like this:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS I=B000-B7FF I=C800-EFFF

Thanks for this. I had a look at how memory was being used, and reckoned you probably could drop the start of the upper block to D000, but wasn't at all sure about bringing it any lower.

[michaln]

There is the VGA BIOS at C000-C7FF. It used to be slightly larger in older VirtualBox versions but nowadays the C800-DFFF range is completely empty.

There is actually stuff in the E000-EFFF range, but it's the LAN boot ROM, DMI tables and maybe some other junk that normal DOS installs could not care less about, so it's safe to use. The entire F000-FFFF segment is the system BIOS and I don't think there are any usable pages in there.