The MicroWeb DOS web browser

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi.

Today I read about this text web browser for DOS.
- https://github.com/jhhoward/MicroWeb/releases/download/v0.51/MICROWEB.EXE

It works on DOS full screen on my ArcaOS 5.0.7 VM, but I have no network under DOS.

Can someone please give me some tip or pointer on how to set the network on VDM DOS?

Regards

 

[Dave Yeo]

Hi Martin, not sure if you can enable networking in a DOS session. The place to start is x:\TCPIP\dos\bin but might only be for WinOS2.
You could always try installing whatever network stack goes with the MicroWeb browser and hope it doesn't use long file names.

[Ibrahim Hakeem]

Hi Dave, I'm sure I must be missing something here... but I thought networking works in DOS sessions out of the box, since you're able to ping from one.

[Dave Yeo]

Hi Dave, I'm sure I must be missing something here... but I thought networking works in DOS sessions out of the box, since you're able to ping from one.

So you can, never tried before. Still trying the microweb browser, it complains about no network interface available so something is missing.

[Roderick Klein]

Hi.

Today I read about this text web browser for DOS.
- https://github.com/jhhoward/MicroWeb/releases/download/v0.51/MICROWEB.EXE

It works on DOS full screen on my ArcaOS 5.0.7 VM, but I have no network under DOS.

Can someone please give me some tip or pointer on how to set the network on VDM DOS?

Regards

As Ibrahim already explained TCP/IP support is working in the DOS VDM.
I think the issue is that the web browser is expecting a different interface then can be found in the DOS VDM.

https://github.com/jhhoward/MicroWeb

Network setup
MicroWeb uses Michael Brutman's mTCP networking library for the network stack. You will need a DOS packet driver relevant to your network interface. You can read more about configuring DOS networking here.

I do not know how you can get the Brutman mTCP interface to work. https://www.brutman.com/mTCP/
Very quickly reading I think its expects an Ethernet driver under DOS to talk to. But I only read this extremely quickly this link.

Roderick

[Olafur Gunnlaugsson]

VDOSTCP.SYS emulates a Windows TCP/IP stack interface, MicroWeb uses a DOS TCP/IP stack (mTCP) that relies on DOS packet drivers, which are different to the Windows packet drivers, they are a bit more like early Unix an Linux packet drivers. It might be possible to configure the program to use the native stack .

It is possible to run DOS packet drivers in a DOS session if you disable the DOS/2 networking, but not recommended, FTP Software (the company) also sold a TCP/IP stack for OS/2 that had a VDD that allowed DOS sessions to use DOS packets via emulation, but alas that is impossible to get hold of these days. The Essex Systems stack also had some VDD trickery, but I cannot remember it it supported the FTPS packets specification.

You can also try the Archane browser, it used to work with Windows sockets/packets in an OS/2 DOS window, it saw some updates in the last two years.
http://www.glennmcc.org/arachne/

[Dave Yeo]

Also found a port of Dillo at https://sourceforge.net/projects/fltk-dos/files/Applications/Binary%20versions%20of%20FLTK%20applications/DILLODOS-302b.zip supports graphics and HTTPS but once again fails due to no packet driver found.

[Sean Casey]

It is possible to run DOS packet drivers in a DOS session if you disable the DOS/2 networking, but not recommended, FTP Software (the company) also sold a TCP/IP stack for OS/2 that had a VDD that allowed DOS sessions to use DOS packets via emulation, but alas that is impossible to get hold of these days. The Essex Systems stack also had some VDD trickery, but I cannot remember it it supported the FTPS packets specification.

Is it true these older OS/2 TCP/IP and NetBIOS over TCP implementations used proprietary APIs which limited their use to only the network applications/services that were distributed with these packages? 

[Martin Iturbide]

Thanks for feedback.

So, MicroWeb DOS web browser can not connect to the internet because it uses "mTCP" and those does not works on our VDM DOS sessions, and it seems there is not as easy as change a VDM DOS settings to make it work.

I will try to contact the mTCP author to see if he has some time to try OS/2 on some VM and see if he wants to support DOS VDM too.

Thanks.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

I got this reply from Mike, the mTCP author.

I wrote mTCP to bring networking to my old computers.  Think about machines like the original IBM PC (1981), the PCjr (1983) and the PC AT.  mTCP works fine in an emulated machine, and possible even in a virtual DOS machine.  But it needs a packet driver which has direct and exclusive access to a network card.  And it provides its own TCP/IP implementation.

If you want to use the networking available in a DOS VDM the programs need to be rewritten to use those networking APIs directly.  I don't think that is a huge problem, but some quick Googling did not give me any information on what that network API even looks like.  Do you have any links on what the network API for DOS VDMs looks like?

Do you know by chance the API that the DOS VDM uses for networking?

Regards

[Roderick Klein]

Hi

I got this reply from Mike, the mTCP author.

I wrote mTCP to bring networking to my old computers.  Think about machines like the original IBM PC (1981), the PCjr (1983) and the PC AT.  mTCP works fine in an emulated machine, and possible even in a virtual DOS machine.  But it needs a packet driver which has direct and exclusive access to a network card.  And it provides its own TCP/IP implementation.

If you want to use the networking available in a DOS VDM the programs need to be rewritten to use those networking APIs directly.  I don't think that is a huge problem, but some quick Googling did not give me any information on what that network API even looks like.  Do you have any links on what the network API for DOS VDMs looks like?

Do you know by chance the API that the DOS VDM uses for networking?

Regards

Hmmm I do not know if this is even documented somewhere with some examples how to write code to acess this interface.
VDOSTCP.SYS is most likely the driver providing this interface...

https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32026
Mentions:
IBM TCP/IP for DOS 2.1.1 Programmer's Toolkit

The very few times I used the WIN/OS2 TCP/IP stack it crashed my system most cases. So I am not 100% certain how stable it this VDM TCP/IP support.


Roderick

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

So, I need to  find the documentation inside the  "IBM TCP/IP for DOS 2.1.1 Programmer's Toolkit".

On the "IBM TCP/IP VERSION 2.0 FOR OS/2" announcement there are some references to something called "DOS/Windows Access Kit"

DOS/WINDOWS ACCESS KIT:  This facility allows DOS applications written to the IBM TCP/IP for DOS Version 2.1 programming interfaces, and Windows applications written to the Windows Sockets API Version 1.0 or Version 1.1 specifications to run in an OS/2 environment on top of IBM TCP/IP Version 2.0 for OS/2.  This product requires the customer to have the OS/2 Version 2.1 operating system installed.

I'm still trying to find something on a package of TCP/IP 2.0 for OS/2, but I still haven't find that documentation.

Regards

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

Checking also this book: "gg243531 TCPIP 2.0 for OS/2 Installation and Interoperability", chapter 13.

I found these pages (attached), but still no API documentation.

Regards

[Olafur Gunnlaugsson]

Hi

So, I need to  find the documentation inside the  "IBM TCP/IP for DOS 2.1.1 Programmer's Toolkit".

On the "IBM TCP/IP VERSION 2.0 FOR OS/2" announcement there are some references to something called "DOS/Windows Access Kit"

DOS/WINDOWS ACCESS KIT:  This facility allows DOS applications written to the IBM TCP/IP for DOS Version 2.1 programming interfaces, and Windows applications written to the Windows Sockets API Version 1.0 or Version 1.1 specifications to run in an OS/2 environment on top of IBM TCP/IP Version 2.0 for OS/2.  This product requires the customer to have the OS/2 Version 2.1 operating system installed.

I'm still trying to find something on a package of TCP/IP 2.0 for OS/2, but I still haven't find that documentation.

Regards

The OS/2-DOS TCP/IP interface is basically WINSOCK

[Olafur Gunnlaugsson]

It is possible to run DOS packet drivers in a DOS session if you disable the DOS/2 networking, but not recommended, FTP Software (the company) also sold a TCP/IP stack for OS/2 that had a VDD that allowed DOS sessions to use DOS packets via emulation, but alas that is impossible to get hold of these days. The Essex Systems stack also had some VDD trickery, but I cannot remember it it supported the FTPS packets specification.

Is it true these older OS/2 TCP/IP and NetBIOS over TCP implementations used proprietary APIs which limited their use to only the network applications/services that were distributed with these packages?

The stacks were mostly compatible when using the same protocols, the low level or packet interfaces on OS/2 1.x varied from provider to provider however, for OS/2 2x this matterred less since NDIS was provided as standard and most stacks just layered on top of that (NDIS was available for 1.x, but not supplied as standard, except possibly with 1.3).