Setting up LAN on Vintage computers

Ok, I don't know if this is where I am supposed to put this thread, but this was the onlt likely place. At any rate, I have a bunch of Vintage 8088's with the same basic stuff(Modems, hard drives...) and I read an article in a book about vintage servers. Any way, It said before the internet was available to us civilains, what businesses did was set up a server. There was a computer with alot of hard drives and memory. And all the computers in the workplace where networked into that computer, so for instance, there was the server, computer SE. Then there was two computers hooked to it, computer A and B. Computer A sent a file through a wire(did this use modem, or ethernet?) to computer SE, which stored it on it's hard drive. Then computer B hooked into computer SE and grabbed that file. My question is, how would I go about setting up this type of server on vintage computers? would I use ethernet, or a modem? thanks for any help!

Ethernet works fine. Classic cards, like the NE1000 or 3COM 3D503 work well on 8 bit machines. There were other network technologies at the time, such as Arcnet, IBM Cluster, and IBM PC Network.

The server was usually an XT or an AT that could provide shared disk access to a few PCs. The shared disk usually was broken up into a private area for each PC, and a combined public area. For machines that supported booting over the network using a server there was something that resembled a virtual 'A' drive.

IBM obviously had it's own server software for PC Cluster, PC Network and Token Ring. Novell supported all of those, plus Ethernet. Novell was extremely popular back then. If you were to do this today, an old version of Novell Netware would be the way to go.

Thanks, I found the software easily. Does anyone have an 8-bit ISA Ethernet card or two I could purchase? if anyone does, PM me...

Intel made a LAN card that works in an 8 bit slot. Look on Ebay uner computers using the search terms "Intel" and "8/16". The card is an ISA card for a 16-bit bus, but will work in an 8-bit slot as well. Intel still has the drivers available on its website (don't forget that you will need the drivers/software. There are other cards out there that may work in 8-bit slots but the drivers/software are no longer on the 'net.) I've seen postings where people have these old network cards that work in 8/16 bit slots but they've searched all over the Internet and can't find the drivers.

If you want to use a regular twisted-pair connection (RJ-45) be sure the card you get has that kind of connector.

the xt guy said:

...Intel still has the drivers available on its website (don't forget that you will need the drivers/software. There are other cards out there that may work in 8-bit slots but the drivers/software are no longer on the 'net.) I've seen postings where people have these old network cards that work in 8/16 bit slots but they've searched all over the Internet and can't find the drivers...

Click to expand...

3Com has drivers up for their products, including the 8-bit Ethernet adapter...

the xt guy said:

Intel made a LAN card that works in an 8 bit slot.

Click to expand...

I've got one, it's an Intel EtherExpress 16/PRO. I tried it on my XT but whenever the drivers were installed and a packet was received, any packet, it would crash the computer. I tried every setting and nothing changed it

i have both a 3com 3C503 and an intel etherexpress 8/16. both work perfectly in my 8088 machines.

so you are not planning to connect those old machines to the internet? you are only doing a local server/client thing?

For now I would like to stick with home networking them. After I acheive that, I will dig up my old ethernet adapters, and try to get these old things on the internet. I will get back to people who offer ethernet cards, I am just EXTREMELY busy right now...

If you go the Novell route, use the later ODI client.
The old-old-old novell route stunk - you had to link the drivers.
Pain in the butt (IPX.com + NETX)

Let me know if you need any assistance setting up a Novell server.
I've been doing Netware since the mid 80's (I think 1.0a was the first I worked on)

Tony

ISA Cards

ISA Cards

I have a whole pile of ISA cards. mostly SDLC and modems, but I think I may have some thin-net (Ethernet Coax) cards. I'll dig int the pile , and see if I can make a list to post here.