www.tropinet.com


Nigel's (unfinished) list of
PPP & Internet Applications for DOS




PLEASE NOTE: This page is no longer maintained, as I now use FreeBSD instead of DOS. You are welcome to use the information here, but not all links will work.




The comments about IP addresses are to help when using dynamically assigned IP addresses from your ISP.

You may also find my tutorial on Using the Internet with DOS useful.
Dan Komáromi has written a step-by-step guide to setting up E-Mail on DOS machines.



DOSPPP05

http://www.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/pktdrvr/dosppp05.zip

A good fast Freeware DOS port of Linux ppp2.2.0f. Both Class 1 (Ethernet) and Class 6 (Serial Line) drivers are supplied. A couple of dialer options are included and lots of configuartion samples. It can configure software via BOOTP. For best speed use the "asyncmap 0" & "crtscts" options in the config file.



EtherPPP - Merit's PPP Packet Driver

gopher://gopher.archive.umich.edu:7055/99/msdos/communications/ncsa/etherppp.zip.new

This is a packet driver and dialer in one. It is rather memory hungry but can be loaded into high memory. In my experience this packet driver is as fast as DOSPPP05, but not as stable. It can auto configure software via BOOTP or RARP



Frank Molzahn's PPP Packet Driver (ODI Shim)

ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.2/dresden/network/tcpip/ppppkt06.zip

This is a Packet Driver shim for Novell's SLIP_PPP.COM driver. Also requires LSL.COM. Sample versions of these Novell drivers were available in the past; current versions are now available for legal Novell users. (The package includes somewhat out of date details on this - plus a list of tested applications.)



Klos's ODI PPP Driver and Packet Driver

http://www.klos.com/get.pppshare.html

This is a Freeware ODI PPP Driver/Dialer. It has features such as Dial on Demand. The setup and operation is all menu driven. Is is more stable than EtherPPP and requires less memory (it can also be loaded into high memory). It lacks the ability to resolve the local IP address through RARP or BOOTP, but it does include a program to update the configuration file for Waterloo based applications.

It can be used with Packet Driver applications via the supplied shim, or (if you can afford it) with Novell's LanWorkPlace suite of applications.

A commercial version (US$29.95) is also available with a few extra features such as VJ Header Compression, and is IPX compatible. For more details see Klos Technologies Web Site.



EtherSLIP

http://www.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/pktdrvr/pktd11.zip

A very efficient SLIP packet driver. The ZIP file contains this and many Ethernet packet drivers. A seperate Dialer is required to establish the connection. Automatic IP setting based on RARP will not work with this driver.



COMTOOL

http://mvmpc9.ciw.uni-karlsruhe.de/public/x_slip/tools/comtool.zip

A mini terminal program. Works well as a scripted dialer for SLIP packet drivers.



Frank Molzahn's IPrarp & IPread

ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.1/simtelnet/msdos/internet/ipcfg010.zip

These handy little utilities put the correct IP address into an environment variable. IPrarp only works with PPP Packet Drivers. IPread works by grabbing the IP address off screen, so can be used with SLIP packet drivers.



Waterloo TCP Applications

http://wattcp.supro.com

Erick Engele's Waterloo TCP. There is a good listing of WATTCP based programs.

If you're using EtherPPP (version 1.9.49 or later) then use "my_ip=bootp" in the WATTCP.CFG. If your using Klos's driver, then use the supplied WATCFG utility to automatically change the IP address. Otherwise you'll have to put the correct IP in manually each time.

These are some other WATTCP packages:
ftp://sunee.uwaterloo.ca/pub/wattcp/disappearing/apps.zip - various network utilities.
ftp://sunee.uwaterloo.ca/pub/wattcp/disappearing/ftp.zip - a good ftp program.



NCSA's Telnet/FTP

ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu:/PC/DOS/Telnet/tel2308b.zip

A good Telnet client - and a background FTP server in the same program.

Use myip=rarp in CONFIG.TEL



MS-Kermit

ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/bin/msvibm.exe

A comms package with TCP/IP telnet built-in. Useful as a scripted dialer for SLIP packet drivers.



Pegasus Mail for DOS and POP/SMTP add-on

ftp://risc.ua.edu/pub/network/pegasus/pmail331.zip
ftp://risc.ua.edu/pub/network/pegasus/pmpop110.zip

This is a mail client written by David Harris. It is intended for use on Novell networks, but with add-on's can be used in many other situations. (eg UUCP and POP/SMTP). It supports UUencoding and BinHex encoding.

The local IP address comes from the WATTCP.CFG file (see above)

There is a bug in the SMTP (sending) part of the program, which causes a "handshaking error" on some SMTP servers. This should be fixed very soon. (ie any version after pmpop110 should have the problem fixed).

An alternate POP/SMTP add-on is POPGATE, available at ftp://risc.ua.edu/pub/network/pegasus/misc/popgt10d.zip. This is a shareware program.

Dan Komáromi has written a step-by-step guide to setting up Pegasus Mail.



Trumpet Newsreader

http://www.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/pktdrvr/trmp106b.zip

This in an on-line newsreader (unthreaded). It gets the local IP address from the MYIP environment variable.

This is shareware (Registration Costs $10)



Trumpet IRC Client

http://www.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/internet/irc101.zip

IP address, Gateway, Netmask, and DNS must be set as environment variables or on the command line.



VOICE - Viper's Own IRC Client v0.02

ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.12/irc/clients/msdos/voice002.zip

From the voice002.txt file: "VOICE is a DOS-based, unix ircII-style IRC client. It is still in it's alpha (pre-beta) phase. It supports some CTCP commands including ACTION's, and features an ircII type interface.



Minuet

ftp://minuet.micro.umn.edu/pub/minuet/latest/minuarc.exe

WWW, Mail, News, FTP, Telnet, Gopher, Finger, Ping all in one program. The FTP client is Tree based. The Newsreader is not threaded and allows offline reading and replies. Uses the MYIP environment variable (see IPrarp) for local IP address.

The graphical Web Browser won't display jpeg's on less than a 386.

This is shareware - Registration is US$50.



NuPOP

ftp://ftp.acns.nwu.edu/pub/nupop/

POP, FTP, Telnet, Finger, and Gopher Client.

I haven't tried this because I don't have enough memory left after I load the packet driver (I've only got 640k).



HTGET

http://www.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/internet/htget101.zip

Retrieves files from the WWW via HTTP. Does not allow viewing.



Arachne

http://arachne.browser.org/

A graphical web browser. See page for details.



Spin

http://www.spin.saturnus.nl/engels/

A graphical web browser (requires a 386 or better).




Other Useful Sites


The SimTel.Net Collection of DOS Internet Software

Jeff Hayes' (tvdog) DOS internet page

Phil Karn's (KA9Q) Network Operating System

Dan Kegel's Pages for DOS TCP/IP Programmers.

NSBIOS - 32 bit network-aware SDK.

Null Modem Driver for Windows 9x/NT




Online since: 7 April 1996
Last updated: 18th August, 1998

Visitor Number: 151034
(Since 25th August, 1996)
© Copyright 1997
nigel@tropinet.com