Win98 boot diskette with network support

I'm trying to create a Win98 boot diskette with network support so
that I can download AV updates and command line scanning utilities via
my ADSL modem. My NIC is a PCI card based on Realtek's RTL8139 chip.
Basically I'd like to use David Lipman's multi-AV CLS utility, except
that I'd prefer to avoid booting a potentially compromised hard drive.
I've tried Bart's Modboot (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/modboot/) but
the boot process hangs during network initialisation when Netbind is
being loaded.

My problem is that I have virtually no DOS networking experience. I've
tried reading the *.bat files supplied with Modboot but they are quite
large. Could someone please reduce the requirements to a basic set of
files/drivers so that I can try to understand what is going on? I can
always add the bells and whistles (eg ram disc, CD-ROM support) later.
BTW, the PPPoE client is in the modem, and DHCP is disabled, so I
expect that I'll need to enter my TCP/IP data into a protocol.ini
file.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

From: "Franc Zabkar"

| I'm trying to create a Win98 boot diskette with network support so
| that I can download AV updates and command line scanning utilities via
| my ADSL modem. My NIC is a PCI card based on Realtek's RTL8139 chip.
| Basically I'd like to use David Lipman's multi-AV CLS utility, except
| that I'd prefer to avoid booting a potentially compromised hard drive.
| I've tried Bart's Modboot (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/modboot/) but
| the boot process hangs during network initialisation when Netbind is
| being loaded.
|
| My problem is that I have virtually no DOS networking experience. I've
| tried reading the *.bat files supplied with Modboot but they are quite
| large. Could someone please reduce the requirements to a basic set of
| files/drivers so that I can try to understand what is going on? I can
| always add the bells and whistles (eg ram disc, CD-ROM support) later.
| BTW, the PPPoE client is in the modem, and DHCP is disabled, so I
| expect that I'll need to enter my TCP/IP data into a protocol.ini
| file.
|
| - Franc Zabkar

Frank:

You could try asking me :-)

Basically you are talking about creating a DOS Boot Disk using a DOS Stack with TCP/IP
support.

You would have three choices of DOS Stacks; NDIS2 (Microsoft), Packet Drivers
(Crynwr/Brigham Young) and ODI (Novell).

The most common are NDSI2 and Packet Drivers. Or a "shim" to convert one stack to another.
For example using a NDIS2 Protocol Manager and NDIS2 NIC driver and a NDIS to Packet Driver
Shim.

Then you would need a DOS command line FTP and HTTP utility. Similar to the GNU WGET.EXE
utility I use. The difference is that WGET.EXE is a Win32, WINSOCK, compliant command line
utility.

There is the WATTCP library that is used to create DOS TCP/IP compliant programs. And
example application would be Symantec/Norton DOS Ghost.EXE which is a WATTCP created TCP/IP
client that uses Packet Drivers.

There is a Usenet News Group dedicated to DOS TCP/IP stacks; comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc

Look for the posted Subject; "FAQ: DOS Applications for Internet Use"
or
ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/doc/ibmpc/dos-apps.txt


--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 22:38:30 -0400, "David H. Lipman"
put finger to keyboard and composed:

From: "Franc Zabkar"

| I'm trying to create a Win98 boot diskette with network support so
| that I can download AV updates and command line scanning utilities via
| my ADSL modem. My NIC is a PCI card based on Realtek's RTL8139 chip.
| Basically I'd like to use David Lipman's multi-AV CLS utility, except
| that I'd prefer to avoid booting a potentially compromised hard drive.
| I've tried Bart's Modboot (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/modboot/) but
| the boot process hangs during network initialisation when Netbind is
| being loaded.
|
| My problem is that I have virtually no DOS networking experience. I've
| tried reading the *.bat files supplied with Modboot but they are quite
| large. Could someone please reduce the requirements to a basic set of
| files/drivers so that I can try to understand what is going on? I can
| always add the bells and whistles (eg ram disc, CD-ROM support) later.
| BTW, the PPPoE client is in the modem, and DHCP is disabled, so I
| expect that I'll need to enter my TCP/IP data into a protocol.ini
| file.
|
| - Franc Zabkar

Frank:

You could try asking me :-)

Basically you are talking about creating a DOS Boot Disk using a DOS Stack with TCP/IP
support.

You would have three choices of DOS Stacks; NDIS2 (Microsoft), Packet Drivers
(Crynwr/Brigham Young) and ODI (Novell).

The most common are NDSI2 and Packet Drivers. Or a "shim" to convert one stack to another.
For example using a NDIS2 Protocol Manager and NDIS2 NIC driver and a NDIS to Packet Driver
Shim.

Then you would need a DOS command line FTP and HTTP utility. Similar to the GNU WGET.EXE
utility I use. The difference is that WGET.EXE is a Win32, WINSOCK, compliant command line
utility.

There is the WATTCP library that is used to create DOS TCP/IP compliant programs. And
example application would be Symantec/Norton DOS Ghost.EXE which is a WATTCP created TCP/IP
client that uses Packet Drivers.

There is a Usenet News Group dedicated to DOS TCP/IP stacks; comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc

Look for the posted Subject; "FAQ: DOS Applications for Internet Use"
or
ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/doc/ibmpc/dos-apps.txt

Sorry for taking so long to respond, but I've had no success, so there
has been very little to report. I've tried taking the easy way out and
using three different automated boot disks based on the DOS Client for
MS networks, but the net start process always hangs at either
netbind.com or tcptsr.exe. The boot process creates a ramdisk whose
contents become inaccessible after the hang. Therefore I can't see
what files have been created (protocol.ini, system.ini), or what
environment variables have been set, or what modules have been loaded.
(I guess I could insert debug points into the .bat files and take
snapshots at various points before the hang.)

I've also been to MS's FTP site and downloaded MS Client v3.0.
However, installing MS Client on a DOS system is a problem as I have
no sacrificial box to experiment with. One of the network boot disks
required an XP DOS startup diskette which I had to acquire from a
friend (I didn't realise at the time that it was actually Win ME DOS).
The FAQ you mentioned above is a little too heavy for me as I have
basically no knowledge of the subject. To get to first base I would
need to build a DOS MS Client boot disk that actually boots. To do
that, I would need to understand why my disks don't boot. And to
understand that, I would need to understand what each module (eg
netbind, tcptsr) is doing. I guess it's time to break out the books,
or find an appropriate networking group. The one you mention appears
to be aimed at professionals, not someone like me.

This will be my next attempt:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/art.../dosclflp.html

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

From: "Franc Zabkar"

|
| Sorry for taking so long to respond, but I've had no success, so there
| has been very little to report. I've tried taking the easy way out and
| using three different automated boot disks based on the DOS Client for
| MS networks, but the net start process always hangs at either
| netbind.com or tcptsr.exe. The boot process creates a ramdisk whose
| contents become inaccessible after the hang. Therefore I can't see
| what files have been created (protocol.ini, system.ini), or what
| environment variables have been set, or what modules have been loaded.
| (I guess I could insert debug points into the .bat files and take
| snapshots at various points before the hang.)
|
| I've also been to MS's FTP site and downloaded MS Client v3.0.
| However, installing MS Client on a DOS system is a problem as I have
| no sacrificial box to experiment with. One of the network boot disks
| required an XP DOS startup diskette which I had to acquire from a
| friend (I didn't realise at the time that it was actually Win ME DOS).
| The FAQ you mentioned above is a little too heavy for me as I have
| basically no knowledge of the subject. To get to first base I would
| need to build a DOS MS Client boot disk that actually boots. To do
| that, I would need to understand why my disks don't boot. And to
| understand that, I would need to understand what each module (eg
| netbind, tcptsr) is doing. I guess it's time to break out the books,
| or find an appropriate networking group. The one you mention appears
| to be aimed at professionals, not someone like me.
|
| This will be my next attempt:
| http://www.windowsnetworking.com/art.../dosclflp.html
|
| - Franc Zabkar

Franc:

What is your NIC ?
Does it include a NDIS driver ?

If I understand what you are tring to do the ALL you need to do is load a TCP/IP stack ontop
of the NDIS2 Protocol Manager. Then you would use a DOS based FTP and HTTP client to
download the needed signatures and engines. Certain aspects of the Multi AV Scanning Tool
conform to 8.3 naming convention.


--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 17:53:27 -0400, "David H. Lipman"
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Franc:

What is your NIC ?

It's a generic NIC based on Realtek's RTL8139 chip:
http://www.dolphinfast.com/products/6003.html

Does it include a NDIS driver ?

Yes.
http://www.dolphinfast.com/drivers/6003/6003_driver.zip

I've also been to Realtek's website and downloaded their latest
generic driver.

If I understand what you are tring to do the ALL you need to do is load a TCP/IP stack ontop
of the NDIS2 Protocol Manager. Then you would use a DOS based FTP and HTTP client to
download the needed signatures and engines. Certain aspects of the Multi AV Scanning Tool
conform to 8.3 naming convention.

I understand what you are saying but I have not found any resource
that is of any assistance in this regard. At least none that I can
follow. All the resources appear to be aimed at network boffins.

Anyway, I've sat down about a dozen times since your last post with
the intention of typing a response but each time I decided to have
another go. I've been persisting with MS Client because, AFAICS, it
should install most of the needed components, including the OEM
driver.

My latest attempt has produced a boot disk that produces the following
error when executing NET INIT:

"An error occurred accessing the security-settings file."

The MSKB talks of a missing WFWSYS.CFG file which is indeed missing,
as is SHARES.PWL. I don't understand why a DOS client would need any
of this. shrug

Anyway, I've given up for now. I appreciate your input, though.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

From: "Franc Zabkar"


|
| I understand what you are saying but I have not found any resource
| that is of any assistance in this regard. At least none that I can
| follow. All the resources appear to be aimed at network boffins.
|
| Anyway, I've sat down about a dozen times since your last post with
| the intention of typing a response but each time I decided to have
| another go. I've been persisting with MS Client because, AFAICS, it
| should install most of the needed components, including the OEM
| driver.
|
| My latest attempt has produced a boot disk that produces the following
| error when executing NET INIT:
|
| "An error occurred accessing the security-settings file."
|
| The MSKB talks of a missing WFWSYS.CFG file which is indeed missing,
| as is SHARES.PWL. I don't understand why a DOS client would need any
| of this. shrug
|
| Anyway, I've given up for now. I appreciate your input, though.
|
| - Franc Zabkar

Franc:

WFWSYS.CFG and SHARES.PWL are the NetBIOS over IP components and that means you may have
loaded more than what's needed.

Attached are the files required to to create a NDIS2 stack for the RealTek 8139 which
includes the NDIS to Packet Driver Shim.

Note that you'll have to extract the files with the .\net folder.

Now what is needed is a TCP/IP NDIS2 or Packet Driver and DOS utilities for FTP and HTTP

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 09:25:16 -0400, "David H. Lipman"
put finger to keyboard and composed:

From: "Franc Zabkar"


|
| I understand what you are saying but I have not found any resource
| that is of any assistance in this regard. At least none that I can
| follow. All the resources appear to be aimed at network boffins.
|
| Anyway, I've sat down about a dozen times since your last post with
| the intention of typing a response but each time I decided to have
| another go. I've been persisting with MS Client because, AFAICS, it
| should install most of the needed components, including the OEM
| driver.
|
| My latest attempt has produced a boot disk that produces the following
| error when executing NET INIT:
|
| "An error occurred accessing the security-settings file."
|
| The MSKB talks of a missing WFWSYS.CFG file which is indeed missing,
| as is SHARES.PWL. I don't understand why a DOS client would need any
| of this. shrug
|
| Anyway, I've given up for now. I appreciate your input, though.
|
| - Franc Zabkar

Franc:

WFWSYS.CFG and SHARES.PWL are the NetBIOS over IP components and that means you may have
loaded more than what's needed.

Attached are the files required to to create a NDIS2 stack for the RealTek 8139 which
includes the NDIS to Packet Driver Shim.

Note that you'll have to extract the files with the .\net folder.

Now what is needed is a TCP/IP NDIS2 or Packet Driver and DOS utilities for FTP and HTTP

Thanks again. I believe the root cause of my problems is that my
Realtek NIC does not have any resources assigned to it by the BIOS, so
no matter what I try, the system hangs after the NIC is accessed. The
BIOS is configured with "PnP aware OS = No", so AFAICS the BIOS
*should* be endeavouring to allocate resources to all identified
devices, not just those on the motherboard. However, when I launch
Realtek's packet driver ...

rtspkt.com 0x60 -m auto

.... it reports ...

================================================== =================
Packet Driver for Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI/Cardbus Fast Ethernet
Network Interface Cards, Version 3.40
Copyright 2000(c), Realtek Semiconductor Inc.

Line Speed 10 Mbps
Half Duplex
System: [345]86 processor, PCI bus, Two 8259s
Packet driver software interrupt is 0x60
Interrupt number is 0x
I/O port is 0x
My Ethernet address is 00:05:nn:nn:nn:nn
================================================== =================

The NIC's MAC address is reported correctly (I have disguised it), but
the Interrupt number and I/O port appear to be unassigned. FWIW,
Control Panel reports an IRQ of 12 and an IO Range of 1000-10ff for
this card when running under Windows.

My next plan of attack is to use a DOS PnP manager/configurator to
manually assign resources to the problem card(s). I'm going to try
this one:

ftp://download.intel.com/design/motherbd/icu

If this works, I expect that all I will need to do is to build an
ordinary [networkless] boot diskette, and add the packet driver to the
autoexec.bat file. I would then add a wattcp.cfg file plus the
following utilities:

http://wcarchive.cdrom.com/pub/simte...rnet/ftp07.zip
http://wcarchive.cdrom.com/pub/simte...t/htget102.zip

They support FTP and HTTP, respectively. Both have built-in TCP/IP
stacks.

AFAICS, the only additional requirement would be a utility to provide
LFN support, eg doslfn. Alternatively, I could use DR-DOS/OpenDOS with
native LFN and FAT32 support.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:00:35 +1000, Franc Zabkar
put finger to keyboard and composed:

My next plan of attack is to use a DOS PnP manager/configurator to
manually assign resources to the problem card(s). I'm going to try
this one:

ftp://download.intel.com/design/motherbd/icu

Success!

As expected, ICU told me that the NIC had no resources assigned to it.
After some futile experimentation, I reconfigured the BIOS setup for
Pnp Aware OS = Yes. At the very next boot the BIOS assigned an IRQ and
an I/O address range to the NIC. The packet driver, rtspkt.com, then
loaded correctly. This behaviour is contrary to all the information
I've read on the subject, including Intel's own documentation. shrug

If this works, I expect that all I will need to do is to build an
ordinary [networkless] boot diskette, and add the packet driver to the
autoexec.bat file. I would then add a wattcp.cfg file plus the
following utilities:

http://wcarchive.cdrom.com/pub/simte...rnet/ftp07.zip
http://wcarchive.cdrom.com/pub/simte...t/htget102.zip

They support FTP and HTTP, respectively. Both have built-in TCP/IP
stacks.

Success again! Using ftp and htget I was able to retrieve various
files from the Kaspersky Labs URLs.

AFAICS, the only additional requirement would be a utility to provide
LFN support, eg doslfn. Alternatively, I could use DR-DOS/OpenDOS with
native LFN and FAT32 support.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

From: "Franc Zabkar"

| On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:00:35 +1000, Franc Zabkar
| put finger to keyboard and composed:
|
My next plan of attack is to use a DOS PnP manager/configurator to
manually assign resources to the problem card(s). I'm going to try
this one:

ftp://download.intel.com/design/motherbd/icu
|
| Success!
|
| As expected, ICU told me that the NIC had no resources assigned to it.
| After some futile experimentation, I reconfigured the BIOS setup for
| Pnp Aware OS = Yes. At the very next boot the BIOS assigned an IRQ and
| an I/O address range to the NIC. The packet driver, rtspkt.com, then
| loaded correctly. This behaviour is contrary to all the information
| I've read on the subject, including Intel's own documentation. shrug
|
If this works, I expect that all I will need to do is to build an
ordinary [networkless] boot diskette, and add the packet driver to the
autoexec.bat file. I would then add a wattcp.cfg file plus the
following utilities:

http://wcarchive.cdrom.com/pub/simte...rnet/ftp07.zip
http://wcarchive.cdrom.com/pub/simte...t/htget102.zip

They support FTP and HTTP, respectively. Both have built-in TCP/IP
stacks.
|
| Success again! Using ftp and htget I was able to retrieve various
| files from the Kaspersky Labs URLs.
|
AFAICS, the only additional requirement would be a utility to provide
LFN support, eg doslfn. Alternatively, I could use DR-DOS/OpenDOS with
native LFN and FAT32 support.
|
| - Franc Zabkar



Ooooorah !

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm