Networking FreeDOS - MS client

Where to find it

    (Picture of MS client 3.0)
  Microsoft's programs "LAN manager" and "MS Client 3.0" can be
  downloaded from Microsoft's ftp-site and are free for "internal use",
  but not for distribution.
    * MS LAN manager Client (1998) can be found at:
        ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/Clients/LANMAN/ (*01)
    * MS Client 3.0 (1995) can be found at:
        ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/Clients/MSCLIENT/ (*02)

Links

  There are numerous webpages about the installation and usage especially
  of MS Client 3.0:
    * A general review and comparison, see:
      http://www.jacco2.dds.nl/samba/dos.html (*03) of both Microsoft
      products has been undertaken by Dutch programmer Jacco de Leeuw,
      see: http://www.jacco2.dds.nl/ (*04).
    * U.S. programmer Jonathan Young has created a nice looking MS Client
      installation walkthrough,see:
      http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~joyoung/msnetclnt/Page1.shtml (*05)
      with many screenshots. James Hatridge wrote an article, see:
      http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5837 (*06) about MS Client
      for Linux Journal in 2002. Johnson Lam has also written an
      installation report, see: http://johnson.tmfc.net/dos/msclient.html
      (*07).
    * Ken from British website "DOS Solutions" gives a detailed overview
      over many resources related to MS Client, see:
      http://www.dossolutions.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/network.htm#tcp (*08).
    * Installation guides in German language have been written by Gerhard
      Zeiser, see: http://www.comp-o-ass.de/dokumente/ms-dos-client.pdf
      (*09), by Gerd Roethig, see:
      http://www.gerd-roethig.de/dosnet.html (*10), by Michael Vogl, see:
      http://home.arcor.de/michael-vogl/tcpip-fd.htm (*11) and by Stefan
      Mayrhofer, see:
http://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/FreeDOS-Kompendium:_Konfiguration:_Netzwerk
     (*12).
      The magazine "c't" published an article about MS Client in 1999,
      see:
http://www.heise.de/kiosk/archiv/ct/1999/21/310_DOS_im_SMB-Netzwerk
     (*13). Volker Rueddigkeit wrote some howtos (german) about MS
     Client bootdisks, here:
http://medien.bildung.hessen.de/einrichtungen_medien/support/archiv/
clients/clients.html (*14) and here:
http://medien.bildung.hessen.de/einrichtungen_medien/support/
archiv/msclient.html (*15).

MS Client as Server

  It is possible (but not officially supported) to use a Microsoft
  update to add server functionality to MS Client. This Update is called
  WG1049.EXE and can be downloaded here:
    ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/wg1049.exe (*16)
  In effect this adds features comparable to those of the "Workgroup
   Add-On for DOS", which is not longer sold by Microsoft.
    (Picture: DOS Workgroup Add-On for MS-DOS)

Critics

  The integration of a DOS machine into a modern Windows XP or GNU/Linux
  SMB Workgroup is limited though. For instance it doesn't seem to be
  possible to access a DOS share from GNU/Linux using smbmount. And the
  use of TCP/IP as protocol in MS Client consumes much memory and may
  lead to an unstable DOS system.
  Steven Baker critically remarks that, see:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070314043508/http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~gillies
/9802net.html (*17), while the core TCP/IP protocol remained stable
  over the years, Microsoft's SMB protocols changed from upgrade to
  upgrade and exist "in a dozen different dialects". So compatibility is
  an issue. Other problems can be caused by the authentication methods
  that are used by Windows or Samba.
  Apart from that it can be considered a good thing that Microsoft still
  allows to legally download and use this software. Some files from the
  "MS Client" package are also essential for the use of TCP/IP appli-
  cations over today's common NDIS drivers.

Alternatives

  * NFS
  * You could use a FTP server on DOS which runs in the background
    (as Datalight Sockets, which is explained here, see: http://
sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_name=48BC5752.3090303%40
mainz-online.de (*18) and a tool to map a FTP server to a drive
    letter (for Windows f.i.: netdrive) - see: http://www.netdrive.net/
    (*19) to integrate your DOS machine into a network. GNU/Linux
    can even mount FTP servers without an extra tool.

  (*01) Link is no longer available, new links:
        https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Sharing_files_with_DOS
        AND:
https://archive.org/download/ftp.microsoft.com/ftp.microsoft.
com.zip/ftp.microsoft.com%2Fbussys%2FClients%2FMSCLIENT%2FDSK3-1.EXE
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
        AND
https://archive.org/download/ftp.microsoft.com/ftp.microsoft.
com.zip/ftp.microsoft.com%2Fbussys%2FClients%2FMSCLIENT%2FDSK3-2.EXE
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
        AND:
        http://download.amd.com/techdownloads/wfw31.zip
        AND:
https://archive.org/download/ftp.microsoft.com/ftp.microsoft.
com.zip/ftp.microsoft.com%2FSoftlib%2FMSLFILES%2FWG1049.EXE
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
        AND:
https://archive.org/download/ftp.microsoft.com/ftp.microsoft.
com.zip/ftp.microsoft.com%2FSoftlib%2FMSLFILES%2FNETSHAR.EXE
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
        AND:
        https://jeffpar.github.io/kbarchive/kb/121/Q121086/
        AND:
        https://jeffpar.github.io/kbarchive/kb/128/Q128800/
  (*02) = (*01)
  (*03) Link is still OK, see also:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210322102528/http://www.jacco2.dds.
nl/samba/dos.html
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
  (*04) Link is still OK, see also:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220219070753/http://www.jacco2.dds.nl/
  (*05) Link is no longer available, new link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100819050950/http://www.ocf.
berkeley.edu/~joyoung/msnetclnt/Page1.shtml
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
  (*06) Link is still OK, see also:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220516143802/https://www.linuxjournal.
com/article/5837
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
  (*07) Link is no longer available, new link:
        http://optimizr.no-ip.org/dos/index.html
  (*08) Link is no longer available, new link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081009101401/http://
www.dossolutions.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/network.htm
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
  (*09) Link is still OK, see also:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220516143734/http://www.comp-o-ass.de/
dokumente/ms-dos-client.pdf
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
  (*10) Link is no longer available, new link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120613014412/http://www.gerd-roethig.
de/dosnet.html
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
  (*11) Link is no longer available, new link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100414005634/http://home.arcor.de/
michael-vogl/tcpip-fd.htm
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
  (*12) Link is still OK, see also:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220516143736/https://de.wikibooks.org/
wiki/FreeDOS-Kompendium:_Konfiguration:_Netzwerk
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
  (*13) Link is still OK, but you have to pay for the article.
        Sorry, no new link found.
  (*14) Link is no longer available, new link:
        http://www.tbecker-net.de/clients.pdf
  (*15) Link is no longer available, new link:
https://www.yumpu.com/de/document/view/3363913/mit-ms-dos-
und-einer-diskette-in-alle-microsoft-netzwerke
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
  (*16) Link is no longer available, new link:
        https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Sharing_files_with_DOS
        OR:
https://archive.org/download/ftp.microsoft.com/ftp.microsoft.
com.zip/ftp.microsoft.com%2FSoftlib%2FMSLFILES%2FWG1049.EXE
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
  (*17) Link is still OK, see also:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110831220440/http://www.ece.ubc.ca/
~gillies/9802net.html
        (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)
  (*18) Sorry, no new link found.
  (*19) Link is still OK, see also:
https://web.archive.org/web/20091225235810/http://www.netdrive.
net/home.html  (everything in ONE LINE, NO free space!)

  Copyright © 2007 Ulrich Hansen, Mainz (Germany), updated 2010,
  2020 and 2022 and by W.Spiegl.
  For more information see here.

  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
  under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
  any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
  "GNU Free Documentation License 1.2".