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yeah i know they've had libraries to interface quickbasic with winsock.dll under windows for years now, but that's not very helpful if you're on... say, a 286 or an 8088 in DOS 6.22 right?

i've searched for ways to do this for a LONG time now, and i was never able to find any instructions on how to do it. i wanted to use a DOS packet driver and a DOS TCP/IP stack on my old 286 machine so i could build internet applications for it.

anyway, as they say... if you want something done right(and in this case, at ALL), do it yourself! i painstakingly figured out how to access the Waterloo TCP (aka. WatTCP... http://www.wattcp.com ) stack using standard quickbasic interrupt calls and made it do the things i need.

so, yeah... you no longer need to rely on windows for TCP/IP network access in quickbasic. i have the whole project pretty much finished. i just need to add some DNS resolution functions to it, and then it's ready for release!

i was going to release it in the form of a .QLB file, and also supply the source code for the .QLB

i will let you guys know what's up very soon. as i type this, my 286 is to the left of me running an IRC client i'm in the middle of coding. :cool2:

just curious, how many of you would actually use something like that? i dont know how many people actually run quickbasic under REAL mode DOS... im sure most just use it from inside a winXP or win2k command shell.

EDIT: i also want to add, that i am going to work on a DOS AOL Instant Messenger client. who says 286's are obsolete? hah!

Mike

Firstly, judging by the number of your post, welcome to the forum.

I have used a Dos tcp/ip stack for a number of years.
I was using my own (asm version) of packet driver for a tcp/ip stack. (With enormous input from other sources)
Each cpu board controlled a number of weighing processes, which were linked to a master cpu via ethernet.
I guess I was using ethernet in industrial applications before it was considered cool to do so.
Like you, I have spent years investigating how to implement a tcp/ip stack in dos.

About 1 1/2 years ago i rewrote the code for a single fast cpu.
So, now it all happens on a single cpu.
But, the next phase is to allow my customers to connect to me, via internet, from dos.

No idea yet how I am going to implement that,
but your message prompted me to reply that, yes there are users out there running applications in dos,
that need internet connectivity.

Additionally, the cpu thing has gone full circle.
I can now get cheap cpu boards with all the bells and whistles,
the size of a credit card.
Now I am actively contemplating a project where these will be used
as process controllers reporting to a master.

Look forward to seeing your work.

I don't personally use it, but I'd like to say congratz, that was a huge thing people wanted back when QB was still the main BASIC to program in. Nicely done!

I didn't know there was an interface for winsock.dll...
A major use for this, if I understand your description correctly, would be for multiplayer games. It's kind of annoying having to split a keyboard with someone just to do multiplayer. Maybe I'll do a multiplayer IF game when I finish my IFLib project.

Quote:I didn't know there was an interface for winsock.dll...
A major use for this, if I understand your description correctly, would be for multiplayer games. It's kind of annoying having to split a keyboard with someone just to do multiplayer. Maybe I'll do a multiplayer IF game when I finish my IFLib project.

yeah, there was first a library called qbsock.qlb

there are some others now... cant think of the name of one off the top of my head.

Do you have documentation for the routines in the library?

There are a few real mode tcp/ip stacks available, they've been around for many years. Problem is that dos is dead, has been for a long time. And you can forget about getting the same program work on all computers with dos, especially since no one uses it any more. The reason people left dos is that the same program works on all computers in modern oses, and that's becuase programmers don't have to mess with the low level stuff, the people who do are the hardware vendors, and they can do it best becuase they know their hardware.

Quote:Do you have documentation for the routines in the library?

yes, i do. i've actually written a completely new(much better) TCP interface, and now it's for TCPDRV 2.01+ ... it includes routines for servserver apps too, with a tcpListen(port%) function.

here you can dl it if you want to see it: http://rubbermallet.org/ntcpqb10.zip

it's based on the freely available documents from
Trumpet. http://wiretap.area.com/Gopher/pub/tsoft...cification