Category Archives: Networking

When Networking Doesn’t Work

Posted on May 4, 2026 by Michal Necasek

Last week I spent far too much time trying to get my Windows 11 machine to talk to an antique Tyan SMDC (Server Management Daughter Card) IPMI module over the network. At first, I tried Tyan’s own old TSO (Tyan … Continue reading →

Posted in Bugs, Intel, IPMI, Networking, PC hardware, TCP/IP | 2 Comments

NetWare Pure IP on DOS

Posted on December 10, 2025 by Michal Necasek

It is fair to say that Novell struggled with moving from the IPX protocol to TCP/IP. Of course a big part of the problem was that IPX worked extremely well on LANs and IP brought absolutely no advantages for basic … Continue reading →

Posted in DOS, NetWare, Networking | 29 Comments

Learn Something Old Every Day, Part XVII: DHCP and ARP Don’t Mix in WSA SMP

Posted on July 19, 2025 by Michal Necasek

I just spent an inordinate amount of time debugging a VM running OS/2 Warp Server Advanced SMP (WSA SMP). The VM was working fine (except for sometimes hanging very early during boot, a known issue with the SMP kernel), but … Continue reading →

Posted in Bugs, IBM, LSOED, Networking, OS/2, TCP/IP | 3 Comments

1990 Networking: LAN Manager 2.0

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Michal Necasek

In 1990, Microsoft released LAN Manager (LM) 2.0, a member of a long line of Microsoft’s networking products that started with MS-NET circa 1984 and eventually morphed into Windows NT file sharing. LAN Manager 1.0 was released in 1988 as … Continue reading →

Posted in 3Com, LAN Manager, Microsoft, Networking, PC history | 10 Comments

1989 Networking: 3+Open LAN Manager 1.1

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Michal Necasek

The previously mentioned warez dump on archive.org contains a lot of little gems that would have been otherwise lost. One of those might be 3Com’s networking package from 1989, the 3+Open LAN Manager version 1.1. The software was released in … Continue reading →

Posted in 386MAX, 3Com, DOS, LAN Manager, Microsoft, Networking, OS/2 | 22 Comments

OS/2 TCPBEUI Name Resolution

Posted on October 8, 2024 by Michal Necasek

Sometimes I have the following problem to deal with: An OS/2 system uses NetBIOS over TCP/IP (aka TCPBEUI) and should communicate with a SMB server (likewise using TCPBEUI) on a different subnet. This does not work on OS/2 out of … Continue reading →

Posted in IBM, Networking, OS/2, TCP/IP | 49 Comments

1989 Networking: NetWare 386

Posted on July 20, 2024 by Michal Necasek

Thanks to the recent warez mega dump, another long lost gem has come to light: NetWare 386, also known as NetWare 3.0. In September 1989, Novell released NetWare 386 V3.0, the first in a long line of 32-bit network operating … Continue reading →

Posted in 386, NetWare, Networking, Novell, PC history | 61 Comments

1989 Networking: OS/2 NetWare Requester 1.1

Posted on May 7, 2022 by Michal Necasek

When I wrote about the pre-release NetWare Requester for OS/2, the oldest archived officially released NetWare OS/2 Requester was version 1.2 from 1990. In the meantime, version 1.1 of the requester showed up, although I only became aware of that … Continue reading →

Posted in NetWare, Networking, OS/2, PC history, Virtualization | 11 Comments

DOS SMB Client Performance

Posted on May 20, 2021 by Michal Necasek

Recently I had the need to use several different DOS VMs that all used a SMB network client. Although I did not use networking heavily, I noticed that there are massive differences in performance between the VMs. Copying a circa … Continue reading →

Posted in DOS, IBM, Microsoft, Networking | 15 Comments

Was the NE2000 Really That Bad?

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Michal Necasek

Over the last few months I have been on and off digging into the history of early PC networking products, especially Ethernet-based ones. In that context, it is impossible to miss the classic NE2000 adapter with all its offshoots and … Continue reading →

Posted in 3Com, Ethernet, Networking, Novell, PC history | 30 Comments