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Modem Server Software?

T

tcpf429

Experienced Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2013
Messages
57
Location
Alaska, United States of America
Hi all,
I have been searching for software that can be run on a 90's-era PC that does several things.
Long story short, I have mountains of modem cards and I want to use them for something. Because I don't have dial-up (thank goodness) I want to have one computer with a pile of modem cards and one Ethernet card in it. This would be the "server" computer. "Client" computers could dial into the modems, and receive the Internet access the server has. I'm looking for software to do this. Why? First, because I can ... err... might be able to. Second, finding Ethernet drivers for things like Win 3.11 WFW or DOS 6.22 are somewhat difficult (at least for me). Google is not being my friend right now, so I'm out of luck here.
Anyone know of anything that might work? As an added bonus, could it also be run on Windows NT (I have the Server edition)?
 
You might be able to get Desqview to do this.

As for the network Lantastic is fairly easy to setup and manage, especially if you're only going to use it on two machines.
 
tcpf429 said:
Hi all,
I have been searching for software that can be run on a 90's-era PC that does several things.
Long story short, I have mountains of modem cards and I want to use them for something. Because I don't have dial-up (thank goodness) I want to have one computer with a pile of modem cards and one Ethernet card in it. This would be the "server" computer. "Client" computers could dial into the modems, and receive the Internet access the server has. I'm looking for software to do this. Why? First, because I can ... err... might be able to. Second, finding Ethernet drivers for things like Win 3.11 WFW or DOS 6.22 are somewhat difficult (at least for me). Google is not being my friend right now, so I'm out of luck here.
Anyone know of anything that might work? As an added bonus, could it also be run on Windows NT (I have the Server edition)?
Click to expand...
Sounds like an interesting project. *nix will probably do the job. What model nics do you have? We may be able to help on the dos/wfw ethernet driver front you need it. I've done the reverse on windows 98 using dailup for internet access on that and connected another machine using using AnologXs' small proxy server program via ethernet. It might be useful to you. http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/Network/proxy/Freeware.htm I remember a in a forum a Linux nut going off his rocker cause the machine hooked up was my Linux machine. Couldn't have a lowly dos based win9x machine serving up the internet to a *nix box could we now? ;)

Stone has raised a good point. How many machines do you intend to connect up using modems?
 
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How many machines? I'd say about 3 or 4.
Concerning NIC's, I have
-2 3com Etherlink III's (WFW 3.11 has drivers)
-2 NIC's that came with drivers (Yes, even DOS ones)
-1 "SMC Ultra Chip", with no drivers-I haven't looked for any yet
I also have a spread of 90's PCI NIC's that anything after 3.11 has drivers for. ;)

Lantastic sounds great, it's only that I know zero about old DOS software (negating QBASIC). I was born after that era...
 
I would think NT will act as a dialup server out of the box but you would need suitable 90's era hardware, e.g. Pentium pro chip. Older versions of free BSD would also do this. Lastly Phil Karns KA9Q or NOS package will also work to a certain extent...

http://www.ka9q.net/code/ka9qnos/

Main problem will be that you probably can't get more than four modems in a server....
 
tcpf429 said:
I also have a spread of 90's PCI NIC's that anything after 3.11 has drivers for. ;)
Click to expand...
You'll probably be surprised how many PCI nics, especially the more well known manufactures ones, have wfw/dos packet drivers as well as OS/2/Netware drivers. Wfw was it was used in bussiness or quite some time.
 
g4ugm said:
Main problem will be that you probably can't get more than four modems in a server....
Click to expand...

Heh, just figured that out. My issue now is drivers. I have 3 US Robotics 56k Modems (Model 0637), that I can't install. I have the drivers, NT detects them, but doesn't detect the cards, and instead prompts me to install the drivers on "COM1" and "COM2" (the serial ports on the back of the computer). How might I remedy this? (The modems were made in '98 and have no jumpers with which to force them to a specific COM port).
 
hey, man. this kind of stuff turns me on!
listen, i used this linux appliance software called Freesco
it was one of my early experiences with linux, back in the 90's.. I was using a single floppy 486 to dial-up my ISP and share my internet on ethernet.
single-floppy router distributions with 4MB of RAM is where it was at at the time, no pricey CD-ROM drives or HDD.
the distro did everything you needed as a modern ISP router, including DHCP, NAT, Firewall, etc.

today, i'm not sure where the Freesco distribution stands on being a single floppy solution, but I would start there.
it supports being a dial-in server with up to 10 modems (with a rocketport or digiboard solution connecting external modems).
it should easily support 4 internal modems, if internal modems are what you actually have.. 4 internal modems of various manufacturers may be a challenge due to IRQ sharing and inconsistencies between mixed brands.

anyway.. it's not exactly off the shelf kind of thinking, but you don't really need to be a linux guru because it's made to be simple.. that's why it was one of my early success' with linux products.
i hope this helps.
 
Ok, I tried Freesco. After a bit of confusion, I got it to run. However, it only supports ISA PnP modems, not PCI ones. No luck there.
So I'm back to NT. I tried the ISA PnP installer, but that didn't work either Is there any way to install drivers for these modems, or should I try something else?
 
tcpf429 said:
Ok, I tried Freesco. After a bit of confusion, I got it to run. However, it only supports ISA PnP modems, not PCI ones. No luck there.
So I'm back to NT. I tried the ISA PnP installer, but that didn't work either Is there any way to install drivers for these modems, or should I try something else?
Click to expand...

You aren't perhaps trying to use Winmodems are you? Those are MS-Windows only and not "real" modems to the rest of the world. :) I don't think the 0637 is one of those, but I don't know for sure.

I've mostly used modems with MS-DOS, and there are no drivers for that. In that world, modems are serial devices and addressed by their respective comports. I have less experience with modems in Linux, but don't recall having to have a driver there either - presumably because it is also treated as a serial port. As for your stated fear of DOS, don't worry, it's really just a simplified UNIX implementation designed for the non-professional. Much as I dislike MS, I really think they did a masterful job of achieving an easy-to-use OS when they developed this.

I guess what you're really trying to do is make one box act like an ISP. In my limited experience that requires pppd, which is available for DOS (ask me if you can't find it) and which is built into Linux. You might want to have a look at the Linux Serial How-To, IIRC it explains how to set up an ISP like situation.
 
Hey, there tcpf.
I've had plenty of winmodems work in linux. And when they're used modems lacking some knowledge on the make/model, it takes a TON of time to seek-out the manufacturer's software to configure the modem.
Not all winmodems will work, but I have used about a dozen.
One thing may help, is just knowing the chipset of that PCI modem.. the manufacturer's software *may* be best, but not always necessary.
Here is a site that can offer more information: http://www.linmodems.org/
Thise really takes me back and is pretty old school and I bet I would still have a ton of time into it. Once you start having success, you'll fall in love with freesco.
I hope this helps.
 
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Let me clarify things. I apologize if I confused you.
My problem at this point is that the cards are not assigned to COM ports. Again, I have 3 USR Model 0637 modems, and they do appear to be winmodems.:( If that's my issue and there really is no way around it, I will put this on hold for a while until I can actually find some real modems.
When I have some time this week, I'll keep trying more solutions.

As an aside: freesco is pretty nifty. I had no idea you could start Linux from DOS!
 
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