I have been trying to use the WATTCP TCP/IP library for a messaging program that I am creating for DOSBOX, but I have not gotten it to work yet on anything other than nullmodem(which is connected directly to my computer as a localhost).
Does anyone know if DOSBox works with TCP/IP, and if so, how do I adjust the settings so that I can use it?
I had no idea where I could ask this question at, so I just brought it here.
Sorry about my strange wording with this question. It is almost 3:30 here XD.
DOS is a very low-level operating system. You will need to find a full device driver / networking stack that works on DOS to make that work – and, typically, it will be tuned to the specific network card it supports.
Unfortunately, DOSBOX doesn't emulate the most common network adapter (NE2000,) so you may have to dive really deep into the archives of floppies you can find in garage sales to get something there. There are some instructions here: https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Network_Setup but they don't go all the way to “how do I program for this” – you then have to download code for programs that use the API in question and pick it apart to figure out what's going on.
If you don't already know network programming, and low-level C programming for raw systems like DOS, and your goal is to learn network programming, it might be easier to build something on top of Linux or Windows or MacOS, perhaps a simple multiplayer Pong or MUD game or something …
@hplus0603 I already have made game engines with networking with Win32, but I just wanted to do something similar in DOS.
@hplus0603 Okay, so I have discovered that ipxpkt.com works with DOSBOX. I tested it out with NC.exe, which is a demo program for the mTCP library, and it worked with a computer that I have at home and a computer that a friend of mine is using, so I found one that works. But however, I still do not get results with WATTCP. mTCP works well, but it is under a license. Im not sure where I should go from here… I could try and make something similar to mTCP but more low level, but that will be quite hectic.
… perhaps this is one reason why people stopped developing DOS programs? :-)
It was a right pain, having to worry about so much stuff that later OS-es just do for you. Then again, it DOES force a certain amount of low-level understanding, so pushing forward might still have value.
