I recently decided to try setting up MSDOS 6.22 and then install Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on top of it. Getting some drivers set up was a bit tricky; in particular getting a driver for higher resolution (SVGA) took a bit of Googling. CDROM wasn't too hard to get set up, most generic CDROM drivers work fine.

Network support is what I'm fiddling with now. With the proper driver, Windows *does* pick up the network card, and I can even see network activity on login. I need to find a TCP/IP stack and software to use it, so I can play around with
the internet on there.

I've installed a few different IDEs, because I was thinking about trying to write some Win 3.11 software. However, I forgot how awful programming for Windows is, and apparently back in the 3.11 days it was even worse & somehow more obtuse and confusing. I may give it another crack, but I guess I'm spoiled
with all the libraries and frameworks available now.

For anyone who hasn't found it yet, WinWorld is an amazing resource for DOS and
Windows 3.x/9x software and utilities. They do have a daily download limit, but it's difficult to actually use it all up. The number of software packages they have is incredible. Once you get CDROM up and running, you can do an ad-hoc VISO with VirtualBox to quickly transfer files back and forth. This is a
great feature and makes file management super easy.

I had a brain fart when I first set up the VM: I set it to have 1.5GB of RAM. DOS seemed to mostly ignore it, but the Windows installer absolutely freaked out and refused to start, as it thought I had -1004345k of RAM or something like that. Huge integer overflow, I guess.

Anyway, my experiement was quite successful and I'd be happy to pass on any other tips if people have questions. I'd also like to hear if anyone has played
with TCP/IP on Win 3.11 and if they had any success. I know it can be done with DOS 6.22 so I see no reason why it shouldn't work in Windows (famous last words).

Cheers


cb»» caAmr
Badass Engineer

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Re: MS-DOS & Win 3.11 in VirtualBox
By: Aurelius to All on Wed Jun 05 2019 06:50 pm

For anyone who hasn't found it yet, WinWorld is an amazing resource for DOS and
Windows 3.x/9x software and utilities. They do have a daily download limit, but it's difficult to actually use it all up. The number of software packages they have is incredible. Once you get CDROM up and running, you can do an ad-hoc VISO with VirtualBox to quickly transfer files back and forth. This is a
great feature and makes file management super easy.

Hmmm... I may check out WinWorld some day and see what they have. Thanks for the tip!

-jag
Code it, Script it, Automate it!
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Hi,

I need to find a TCP/IP stack and software to use it,
so I can play around with the internet on there.

there are multiple TCP/IP stacks to choose from.

If you have Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and a (virtual) network card with
NDIS drivers, you are probably best of with Microsoft's TCP/IP-32 (search for TCP32B.EXE). It contains transparent FTP support (so you can use the File Manager to access FTP servers, without any tools), but I have not tested this extensively.

For virtual dial-up emulation, the Internet Explorer 3 provides both dialer
and TCP/IP stack as well. I have used this within DOSBox (since it provides modem emulation, but you need slirp/pppd as well) and Netscape 4. Worked just fine, but requires PPP.

Lastly, there is Trumpet Winsock. I have used this with a virtual dial-up connection over SLIP/CSLIP and network cards. It can use a packet driver as well, but I found it a bit fiddly to setup and not too user-friendly.

I don't know of any other WinSock implementations.

Best Regards,
Sebastian

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Re: Re: MS-DOS & Win 3.11 in VirtualBox
By: Sebastian Raase to Aurelius on Sat Jun 08 2019 07:46 pm

For virtual dial-up emulation, the Internet Explorer 3 provides both dialer and TCP/IP stack as well. I have used this within DOSBox (since it provides modem emulation, but you need slirp/pppd as well) and Netscape 4. Worked just fine, but requires PPP.

Man... Netscape 4: there's a wave a nostalgia waiting for me there, if I can get to it. I remember using Netscape back in the Internet days, but with Windows 95.

I suspect many sites won't work in Netscape 4 now, but I have to wonder if archive.org would work, and just dig up some old sites.

-jag
Code it, Script it, Automate it!
--- SBBSecho 3.07-Linux
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Hi,

Man... Netscape 4: there's a wave a nostalgia waiting for me there, if I can get to it. I remember using Netscape back in the Internet days, but with Windows 95.

The last version to support Windows 3.1 seems to have been Netscape 4.08. Although there is Internet Explorer 5.0 (including Outlook Express), which is surprisingly capable still. Better have 16 MB of memory, though.

I suspect many sites won't work in Netscape 4 now, but I have to wonder
if archive.org would work, and just dig up some old sites.

Netscape tends to constantly spew out very important JavaScript error
messages which prevent actual browsing. Without JS and CSS, some pages
actually work.

Keep in mind that there is no PNG support in either browser, only JPG and GIF work. And large images may crash the browsers because of memory shortage.

Regards,
Sebastian

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Windows/32)
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Have you tried QEMU/KVM ? IMO it is a whole lot easier than VirtualBox ..

--
With regards,
Djatropine

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