DOS Boot Disk with PCMCIA Network?

In the words of Penelope Pistop: HHHeeeeyyyyyllllpppp!

I've got an old laptop with a 3Com 3C589C PCMCIA card which I want to wipe the drive on and put a fresh Windows install on. The problem is that this laptop has no CD drive, so I want to copy the setup onto the drive first over the network.

I want to create a DOS-booting disk that enables my network card as well, so I can see the shared CD drive on my main machine and simply file-copy the stuff I need. I'm using a x-over RJ45 cable to hook into the other machine as I have no hub.

I've not been able to get this working as I'm not really too sure as to what I'm doing - I'm just a programmer not a network tech!

Anybody offer me a walkthrough guide or point me to sites with the right info?

Ta,

Check out this site ... it may help you:
http://www.bootdisk.com/

as much as i appriciate the Bootdisk i don't think there is one over there.
I once did it by creating a Dos based Ghost disk boot. from the Menu it let me Choose the Card for which there a driver.

Quote:

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Originally posted by noone:
Check out this site ... it may help you: http://www.bootdisk.com/

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Already tried that and found a 3Com Boot Disk... BUT...

The problem happens when it tries to locate a DHCP host to aquire an IP address. As I said above, I'm using an RJ45 cross-over cable to simply back-to-back this with my main PC, so there is no DHCP servcies running.

What I guess I want to know is how do I configure the Boot-Disk to assign a certain IP address (eg, 10.10.10.01 with subnet of 255.255.255.0) so that my main PC can see it?

I've just downloaded the disk to look at what problem you might have ran into...

well there are some lines in the ini-files (i don't know which driver you use) that contain the specified information - and must surely be updated if you want to specify it yourself...

<code>
[TCPIP]
NBSessions=6
SubNetMask0=255 0 0 0
IPAddress0=0 0 0 0
DisableDHCP=0
DriverName=TCPIP$
Bindings=ms$elpc3
LANABASE=0
</code>

... has surely to be changed to ... let's say:
<code>
[TCPIP]
NBSessions=6
SubNetMask0=255 255 255 0
IPAddress0=10 10 10 1
DisableDHCP=1
DriverName=TCPIP$
Bindings=ms$elpc3
LANABASE=0
</code>
... or whatever fits your netdesign


try to change every instance of a similar code in that ini- or batch-files to be sure it might work

Quote:

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Originally posted by ?¿?:
well there are some lines in the ini-files (i don't know which driver you use) that contain the specified information - and must surely be updated if you want to specify it yourself...
snip

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I've already tried this too...

When I then run NET CONFIG (or whatever it is to run the popup window) I can't seem to connect to my other machine, or map a drive using NET USE.

Let's assume that the driver is installed, with the correct IP address and is running fine. What do I need to do to map a drive or to check and see if the other machine is there, or search for other machines.

Remember this is all in DOS...

Quote:

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Originally posted by antonye:
Let's assume that the driver is installed, with the correct IP address and is running fine. What do I need to do to map a drive or to check and see if the other machine is there, or search for other machines.

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If all is setup fine the "net use" command should work appropriate... but perhaps you should tell more about your net-setup... do you want to connect to a NT/2000 or a Win9x drive?
If it's the NT... you must somehow provide user/password-information with the net-use-command (don't know yet how to) and set it up correctly at the NT-box

Main box is Win98SE, with a shared dir that has no restrictions on it.

How can I check what IP addresses are assigned in DOS on the Laptop, like IPCONFIG through Windows ?

Are there any other know issues using a cross-over cable?

Thanks for your help so far...

check this for correct crossover layout http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin...c&f=6&t=000281

... but NO... there is definetly NO difference between networking via HUB/Switch or crossover - only the layout of the PINs (and perhaps some full duplex capability)

The problem at DOS is, that it doesn't provide the tools to check the IP... so first check the lights on your NIC (they should be ON... somehow) and try to ping from the connected Win98-machine - if it doesn't work from there it wouldn't do the other way round...
Try to ping 127.0.0.1 (localhost) too, as it shows whether the IP-stack of the Win98 is working fine

BTW: have you set up right IP and Subnet on both PCs? (just a silly question... but sooo necessary)
10.10.10.1 255.255.255.0 on DOS
10.10.10.2 255.255.255.0 on Win98 for example (and make sur you entered the data on the NIC not on the dial-up-adapter - check this with ipconfig)

Thanks ... I've tried all the stuff mentioned so far, but because (as you say) there's no way to check what the IP is in DOS then I can't be sure that it's all setup right.

I'm sure I'm 99.99% there, but it's just something really small that is stopping me from linking.

I will try again and see if I have any luck!

Perhaps silly but:

revised by myself ... that was toooo silly *argh*

good luck ... ;)