# Networking FreeDOS - MS client

## Where to find it

      (Picture of MS client 3.0)

      Microsoft's programs "LAN manager" and "MS Client 3.0" can be downloaded
      from Microsoft's ftp-site and are free for "internal use", but not for
      distribution.
        * MS LAN manager Client (1998) can be found at:
            ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/Clients/LANMAN/
        * MS Client 3.0 (1995) can be found at:
            ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/Clients/MSCLIENT/

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## Links

      There are numerous webpages about the installation and usage especially
      of MS Client 3.0:
        * A general review and comparison (see: http://www.jacco2.dds.nl/
          samba/dos.html) of both Microsoft products has been undertaken by
          Dutch programmer Jacco de Leeuw (see: http://www.jacco2.dds.nl/).
        * U.S. programmer Jonathan Young has created a nice looking MS Client
          installation walkthrough (see: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~joyoung/
          msnetclnt/Page1.shtml) with many screenshots. James Hatridge wrote
          an article (see: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5837) about
          MS Client for Linux Journal in 2002. Johnson Lam has also written an
          installation report (see: http://johnson.tmfc.net/dos/msclient.html).
        * Ken from British website "DOS Solutions" gives a detailed overview
          over many resources related to MS Client (see: http://www.
          dossolutions.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/network.htm#tcp).
        * Installation guides in German language have been written by Gerhard
          Zeiser (see: http://www.comp-o-ass.de/dokumente/ms-dos-client.pdf),
          by Gerd Roethig (see: http://www.gerd-roethig.de/dosnet.html),
          by Michael Vogl (see: http://home.arcor.de/michael-vogl/tcpip-fd.htm)
          and by Stefan Mayrhofer (see: http://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/
          FreeDOS-Kompendium:_Konfiguration:_Netzwerk).
          The magazine "c't" published an article about MS Client in 1999
          (see: http://www.heise.de/kiosk/archiv/ct/1999/21/
          310_DOS_im_SMB-Netzwerk). Volker Rueddigkeit wrote some howtos
          (german) about MS Client bootdisks (here: http://medien.bildung.
          hessen.de/einrichtungen_medien/support/archiv/clients/clients.html
          and here:
          http://medien.bildung.hessen.de/einrichtungen_medien/support/archiv/
          msclient.html).

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## MS Client as Server

      It is possible (but not officially supported) to use a Microsoft update
      to add server functionality to MS Client. This Update is called
      WG1049.EXE and can be downloaded here:
        ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/wg1049.exe
      In effect this adds features comparable to those of the "Workgroup
       Add-On for DOS", which is not longer sold by Microsoft.

      (Picture: DOS Workgroup Add-On for MS-DOS)

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## Critics

      The integration of a DOS machine into a modern Windows XP or GNU/Linux
      SMB Workgroup is limited though. For instance it doesn't seem to be
      possible to access a DOS share from GNU/Linux using smbmount. And the use
      of TCP/IP as protocol in MS Client consumes much memory and may lead
      to an unstable DOS system.
      Steven Baker critically remarks (see: http://web.archive.org/web/
      20070314043508/http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~gillies/9802net.html), that, while
      the core TCP/IP protocol remained stable over the years, Microsoft's SMB
      protocols changed from upgrade to upgrade and exist "in a dozen different
      dialects". So compatibility is an issue. Other problems can be caused by
      the authentication methods that are used by Windows or Samba.
      Apart from that it can be considered a good thing that Microsoft still
      allows to legally download and use this software. Some files from the
      "MS Client" package are also essential for the use of TCP/IP appli-
      cations over today's common NDIS drivers.

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## Alternatives

      * NFS
      * You could use a FTP server on DOS which runs in the background
        (as Datalight Sockets, which is explained here (see: http://
        sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_name=48BC5752.3090303%40
        mainz-online.de)and a tool to map a FTP server to a drive letter
        (for Windows f.i.: netdrive - see: http://www.netdrive.net/) to
        integrate your DOS machine into a network. GNU/Linux can even mount
        FTP servers without an extra tool.

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      Copyright © 2007 Ulrich Hansen, Mainz (Germany), modified 2010
      by W.Spiegl.
      For more information see here.

      Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
      under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
      any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
      A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
      "GNU Free Documentation License"