Author Topic: [Solved] Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect  (Read 751 times)

Marc Galloway

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** I have switched out the 3Com card for a Xircom to continue troubleshooting **

I'm needing help if anyone has any suggestions. I have a Thinkpad 600e with OS/2 Warp 3 Connect installed. I'm having trouble getting the PCMCIA 3Com EtherLink III 3C589D card working. When booting up I get a error saying interface does not exist. Here are the steps I have taken with some pictures:


1. Installed PC Card Director for OS/2 version 4.12 - https://thinkpads.com/support/Thinkpad-Drivers/download.lenovo.com/lenovo/content/ddfm/600e.html
2. Installed 3COM 3C589 Etherlink III PCMCIA ethernet card NDIS driver https://www.os2site.com/sw/drivers/network/3com/589os2.zip
3. Configured TCP/IP and NETBUI



« Last Edit: October 24, 2025, 08:29:51 am by Marc Galloway »

Marc Galloway

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Re: PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2025, 03:54:30 am »
Rest of the pictures

Lars

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Re: PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2025, 01:25:53 pm »
Can you post your setup.cmd and also protocol.ini ?

The error does not sound as if this is HW or driver related. It rather sounds like TCP/IP not being set up correctly.

By the way: you might also consider applying the patch to the NDIS driver:
https://www.os2site.com/sw/drivers/network/3com/3c589patch.zip

That might not strictly be necessary on your system but it surely won't hurt either. In addition, it will make the "3net_log.exe" utility work.

Finally, look here, it is about Warp 4 but since you are using Warp 3, it might apply nonetheless:
https://www.os2world.com/olderforum/OS2World%20Ultraboard/www.os2world.com/cgi-bin/ultraboard/UltraBoardea6e.html?action=Print&BID=62&TID=1518&SID=
« Last Edit: October 20, 2025, 02:20:06 pm by Lars »

Marc Galloway

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Re: PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2025, 12:11:25 am »
Can you post your setup.cmd and also protocol.ini ?

The error does not sound as if this is HW or driver related. It rather sounds like TCP/IP not being set up correctly.

By the way: you might also consider applying the patch to the NDIS driver:
https://www.os2site.com/sw/drivers/network/3com/3c589patch.zip

That might not strictly be necessary on your system but it surely won't hurt either. In addition, it will make the "3net_log.exe" utility work.

Finally, look here, it is about Warp 4 but since you are using Warp 3, it might apply nonetheless:
https://www.os2world.com/olderforum/OS2World%20Ultraboard/www.os2world.com/cgi-bin/ultraboard/UltraBoardea6e.html?action=Print&BID=62&TID=1518&SID=

Hi Lars, I swapped out the 3Com for a Xircom CreditCard Ethernet Adapter IIps (PS-CE2-10) which I have made further progress with than I have had with the 3Com. Since this card uses the pointed driver from my understanding I configured socket services to exclude slot 1. On boot-up I see some link activity but once fully into the WPS I get no activity on adapter lights or ping response. The adapter is picking IRQ and Memory address. I have tried a few different IRQs to see if that made any difference but get the same result. I have not tried to manually set Memory address. I have uploaded the requested information. 
« Last Edit: October 21, 2025, 12:14:08 am by Marc Galloway »

RTAN

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Re: Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2025, 09:17:27 pm »
Hi Mark,

I know from experience that the 3C589D drivers are very buggy so you did the right thing to swap to a Xircom. I've got a few Xircom PCMCIA and CardBus cards and have never had problems with OS/2 Warp Connect with them.

They definitely don't need any additional PCMCIA card/socket drivers so you definitely want to make sure that all of that is uninstalled (disabled might not be enough).

Fire-up Selective Install and make sure PCMCIA support looks like the photo below. This is how I have it on my IBM ThinkPad 390X with a Xircom R2BE-100BTX and you can see it's pinging away quite merrily over TCP/IP.

Make sure too that you're using exactly the right driver for your Xircom PCMCIA or CardBus NIC. They have very similar model names but the right drivers aren't interchangable. For example the driver for an RBE won't work for an R2BE and vice versa.

Best,
Richard.

Steven Levine

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Re: Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2025, 11:11:31 pm »
Many years ago I ran this card on a 770X.  I never could get the supposedly Card Services compliant CE2NDIS.OS2 driver to work so I used the point enabled XPSNDIS.OS2 driver.

I had other cards that worked with Card Services, so, unlike Richard, I ran with Card Services installed and setup Card Services to ignore the slot the Xircom was plugged into.

Here are my notes of the relevant CONFIG.SYS and PROTOCOL.INI entries

=== Overview ===

Using point-enabled in upper slot
Using IRQ 10

=== config.sys ===

REM Xircom uses IRQ 10
BASEDEV=RESERVE.SYS /IRQ:10 /MEM:D100,1000 /IO:320,20

REM Ignore upper slot - point enabled by Xircom
BASEDEV=IBM2SS14.SYS /IG0=1

REM -> Xircom PSCE2 9-11-97 v2.50
DEVICE=F:\IBMCOM\MACS\XPSNDIS.OS2

=== protocol.ini ===

[xpsos2_nif]

  DRIVERNAME = XIRCOM$
  IOADDRESS = 0x320
  INT = 10
  MEM = 0xD100
  NOEARLYRX
  VERBOSE


Lars

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Re: Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2025, 10:11:20 am »
Marc, you are saying that you are using XIRCOM card CE2 but you have installed driver CE3NDIS.OS2.

Are you sure that is the correct driver for your card ? On the other hand, I cannot find anywhere a driver CE2NDIS.OS2.

Anyway, the driver that Steve has suggested (the point enabled driver) is here:
https://archive.org/download/Xircom/Xircom.zip
« Last Edit: October 23, 2025, 10:20:06 am by Lars »

Martin Iturbide

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Re: Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2025, 03:55:13 pm »
Hi
On the other hand, I cannot find anywhere a driver CE2NDIS.OS2.
FYI: I found  a version here. (1994-10-05) and other here (1994-06-17)

Regards
Martin Iturbide
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Marc Galloway

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Re: Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2025, 07:16:11 am »
Sorry for the late reply, had some hardware issues on the Thinkpad. The original drive died so I replaced with a flash card. The Xircom dongle also seems to be defective. I installed on a Windows 98 laptop and got the drivers installed but was getting inconsistent pings at the slightest touch of the dongle.

@Martin - I downloaded the drivers you posted, need to get a dongle to test. Thank you.

Question: Do I need to install IBM Peer for OS/2 or IBM LAN Requester 4.0 to access shares on my NAS?

This bring me back to where I'm at now:

1. OS/2 Warp 3 installed
2. PCMCIA Support NOT installed (thank you Richard)
3. Installed Xircom REM56G-100 card -> cem56_100 drivers - https://www.os2site.com/sw/drivers/laptop/cem56_100.zip
4. Configured card using Steven's settings
-Adapter memory address: D100
-Adapter IO address: 320
-Adapter IRQ: 10
-PC Card Slot: 2
-Emulate COM port 1 - 4: No
-Modem and Network share IRQ: Yes
-Enable verbose messages: Yes
5. Ping router address -> success
6. Ping www.os2world.com -> success

 
« Last Edit: October 24, 2025, 07:59:46 am by Marc Galloway »

Lars

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Re: Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2025, 01:40:38 pm »
Sorry for the late reply, had some hardware issues on the Thinkpad. The original drive died so I replaced with a flash card. The Xircom dongle also seems to be defective. I installed on a Windows 98 laptop and got the drivers installed but was getting inconsistent pings at the slightest touch of the dongle.

@Martin - I downloaded the drivers you posted, need to get a dongle to test. Thank you.

In case you want to retry your CE2 card with the driver set that Martin provided (say "FIN-XIR2.ZIP"):
the .NIF installation file would need a "brush up" to actually install the proper entries into the PROTOCOL.INI file.
Gleaning at the driver binary (CE2NDIS.OS2) and other .NIF files from Xircom, I think I would be able to provide you with a fixed .NIF file.

I can also see that even with the CE2NDIS.OS2 driver (and a corrected .NIF file), you will be able to ignore socket services and run the driver in "point enabled" mode which would allow you to always have PCMCIA support installed. If set up correctly via PROTOCOL.INI, the driver will just ignore/bypass the card services.

@Martin: would you see any issues in uploading these drivers to Hobbesarchive ? I am not the legal expert ...
« Last Edit: October 24, 2025, 01:44:51 pm by Lars »

Martin Iturbide

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Re: Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #10 on: October 24, 2025, 03:49:53 pm »
Hello.
@Martin: would you see any issues in uploading these drivers to Hobbesarchive ? I am not the legal expert ...
Usually these kind of drivers were shared in BBS and Shareware CD-ROMs, like a lot of the content that is already in Hobbes. I haven't found anything on the readme files that restrict their distribution.

I had uploaded both under the same of "Xircom_CreditCardIIps_" with the respective reference to the original file name and the saying on the description that it includes CE2ODI.OS2 and CE2NDIS.OS2 so it can be searchable by those names too.

Regards
« Last Edit: October 24, 2025, 06:49:42 pm by Martin Iturbide »
Martin Iturbide
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Marc Galloway

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Re: Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #11 on: October 24, 2025, 08:26:01 pm »
Sorry for the late reply, had some hardware issues on the Thinkpad. The original drive died so I replaced with a flash card. The Xircom dongle also seems to be defective. I installed on a Windows 98 laptop and got the drivers installed but was getting inconsistent pings at the slightest touch of the dongle.

@Martin - I downloaded the drivers you posted, need to get a dongle to test. Thank you.

In case you want to retry your CE2 card with the driver set that Martin provided (say "FIN-XIR2.ZIP"):
the .NIF installation file would need a "brush up" to actually install the proper entries into the PROTOCOL.INI file.
Gleaning at the driver binary (CE2NDIS.OS2) and other .NIF files from Xircom, I think I would be able to provide you with a fixed .NIF file.

I can also see that even with the CE2NDIS.OS2 driver (and a corrected .NIF file), you will be able to ignore socket services and run the driver in "point enabled" mode which would allow you to always have PCMCIA support installed. If set up correctly via PROTOCOL.INI, the driver will just ignore/bypass the card services.

@Martin: would you see any issues in uploading these drivers to Hobbesarchive ? I am not the legal expert ...

If you would be willing to cleanup the .NIF file for install I would be more than happy to test and buy a cup coffee or make a donation for the work put in. I have a dongle on the way and should be here next week.

RTAN

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Re: [Solved] Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2025, 12:30:50 am »
Mounting a drive to your NAS could be "problematic". I never got it to work against my QNAP but others here have had success. You'll need to install either IBM Peer for OS/2 or IBM LAN Requester for OS/2 in order to get the actual "net use" command which is what you need. And you'll need to crank down all the security on your NAS since Warp Connect only supports SMB1 and NTLMv1.

You may find it easier to simply connect via FTP - you should have command line FTP and PMFTP with Warp Connect.

Personally I tend to run FTPd on Warp Connect as a background service and "push" files onto my Warp Connect PC from my modern Windows desktop using FileZilla or equivalent. If you need instructions for that (where to find the settings) then just shout.

Steven Levine

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Re: [Solved] Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2025, 12:42:23 am »
Hi all,

I found a copy of ce2dr250.exe in my archives.  The v2.50 of the XPSNDIS driver. unfortunately the original URL has gone missing.

The archive is dated

  01-29-98  19:51         655,150      0  ce2dr250.exe

and is in arj format, so it's arj x -y to extract.

I've attached it here wrapped in a zip archive to the the forum software happy.



Lars

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Re: Xircom - PCMCIA Ethernet - Thinkpad - OS/2 Warp 3 Connect Help Needed
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2025, 12:53:29 pm »
Sorry for the late reply, had some hardware issues on the Thinkpad. The original drive died so I replaced with a flash card. The Xircom dongle also seems to be defective. I installed on a Windows 98 laptop and got the drivers installed but was getting inconsistent pings at the slightest touch of the dongle.

@Martin - I downloaded the drivers you posted, need to get a dongle to test. Thank you.

In case you want to retry your CE2 card with the driver set that Martin provided (say "FIN-XIR2.ZIP"):
the .NIF installation file would need a "brush up" to actually install the proper entries into the PROTOCOL.INI file.
Gleaning at the driver binary (CE2NDIS.OS2) and other .NIF files from Xircom, I think I would be able to provide you with a fixed .NIF file.

I can also see that even with the CE2NDIS.OS2 driver (and a corrected .NIF file), you will be able to ignore socket services and run the driver in "point enabled" mode which would allow you to always have PCMCIA support installed. If set up correctly via PROTOCOL.INI, the driver will just ignore/bypass the card services.

@Martin: would you see any issues in uploading these drivers to Hobbesarchive ? I am not the legal expert ...

If you would be willing to cleanup the .NIF file for install I would be more than happy to test and buy a cup coffee or make a donation for the work put in. I have a dongle on the way and should be here next week.