Arcnet is not the same as Ethernet. It will only network with other Arcnet systems. While Ethernet has a version that uses coaxial cable (aka 10Base-2 or 10Base-5), the cabling is different. Ethernet uses 50 ohm cable, Arcnet uses 93 ohm cable.
Token Ring is also a different animal. You'd need a MAU (Media Access Unit), and another system that also has a Token Ring card.
Best bet is to find an Ethernet card that has DOS drivers. Many do.
This site might be the easiest way to go. It's not supported any longer, but there are drivers for many network cards there, and an automated method to create a boot floppy. Once the floppy is created, you can transfer the files to the hard drive, just need to change the drive letter as needed. The makedisk program will run under Win2K/XP
Bart's Network Boot Disk
Or you can create it using the Microsoft Client, but I doubt if this will work on 2K/XP/Vista, at least not without messing up your system, so you'd need a Win9X system.
This is a 3Com document that shows how to create a DOS boot floppy that will connect to an ethernet network using the NetBEUI Protocol. NetBEUI can be installed on XP, but is not supported on Vista. If you want to use TCP/IP, you'll also need to download this disk:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/clien...ent/dsk3-2.exe
Extract it into the same folder as Disk 1; there are 2 duplicate files,
AVEXTRA.TXT and
LICENSE.TXT. You can overwrite or not, they are the same file.
Then, in step 12, after removing IPX, choose TCP/IP instead of NetBEUI. It will be configured to use DHCP. If you need to manually specify addresses, select the TCP/IP Protocol and select the Change Settings option.
The procedure will work for any card that has DOS drivers, if you don't install the driver during this procedure, you just need to edit the files to change the names as needed to match the card.
I haven't tried installing the Microsoft Network Client version 3.0 on an XP system, so I don't know if that would work.
Code:
Creating a Dos Client Boot Disk using Microsoft Network Client version 3.0
NOTE: The third-party products discussed here are manufactured by vendors independent of 3Com; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability. This document is provided as a courtesy and is not supported.
If you don't have access to an NT Server to create a bootable client disk, you can use the following procedure to create one manually on a system running Windows 95/98 by installing Microsoft Network Client version 3.0 onto your Win9x machine, then copying the necessary files onto a floppy disk.
Make backup copies of the following files (if they exist) on your system, as installing Microsoft Network Client version 3.0 may modify them:
- C:\Autoexec.bat
- C:\Config.sys
- C:\Windows\Protocol.ini
- C:\Windows\System.ini
1. Create a bootable floppy disk for your system:
a. Insert a blank floppy into your A: drive
b. In My Computer, right click the 3.5" Floppy, then choose
Format... from the shortcut menu
c. Make sure
Copy System Files is checked under
Other Options, then click
Start
d. When the disk is formatted, create a new folder named
NET on the floppy
2. Create a new folder in the root of your hard drive named
MSCLIENT.
3. Download disk 1 of the Microsoft Network Client version 3.0 from Microsoft's FTP site into the
MSCLIENT folder. This file is at the following URL:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/clients/msclient/dsk3-1.exe
4. Double click on
dsk3-1.exe to extract the setup files into the
MSCLIENT folder.
5. Double click on the
setup.exe file in the
MSCLIENT folder to begin the Microsoft Network Client version 3.0 setup program.
6. When the setup program starts, press
enter.
7. Press enter to accept the default installation path (C:\NET), or enter a different path.
8. When the Select an adapter screen is displayed, choose 3Com Etherlink III from the list and press enter
a. Alternately, choose "
Network adapter not shown on list below...",
b. Insert the disk containing the DOS drivers for your card.
c. Enter the path to the DOS driver setup information file, usually A:\
d. Choose your card from the list, and press enter.
9. Press
Enter or
C as desired on the
Set Network Buffers screen.
10. Enter a user name to use for the client computer.
11. On the next screen, select
Change Names and press
Enter.
a. Enter the correct workgroup and domain name for the client to use.
b. Enter a unique computer name (may be the same as the User Name).
c. Select "The listed names are correct." and press
Enter.
12. Once the correct names are set, choose
Change Network Configuration and press
Enter.
a. Remove the
NWLink IPX Compatible Transport. The
Select Protocol screen will appear.
b. Choose
Microsoft NetBEUI and press
Enter
c. Select
Network Configuration is correct and press enter.
13. Select
The listed options are correct and press
Enter.
14. Setup will copy files to the
C:\NET folder. When it is finished, press
F3 to exit setup.
15. Copy the
C:\Autoexec.bat and
C:\Config.sys files to the bootable floppy.
16. Restore your original system files:
C:\Autoexec.bat
C:\Config.sys
C:\Windows\Protocol.ini
C:\Windows\System.ini
17. Copy the following files from the
C:\NET folder to the
A:\NET folder on the floppy:
IFSHLP SYS
NDISHLP SYS
NET MSG
NET EXE
NETH MSG
PROTMAN DOS
PROTMAN EXE
PROTOCOL INI
SYSTEM INI
WFWSYS CFG
18. Copy the following 2 files from the
C:\Windows folder to the
A:\NET folder:
Himem.sys
Emm386.exe
Now all that's left to do is to modify the system files for the card you are using if needed, and copy the DOS driver file into the
A:\NET folder. If you installed the drivers for your specific card, this shouldn't be needed.
Copy the appropriate DOS driver file for your card as shown in the driver table below.
Edit the
SYSTEM.INI file in the
\NET directory of your disk and change ONLY the line marked
Netcard=elnk3.dos in the
[Network Drivers] section to match the driver file for your card (See Below.)
12) Edit the
PROTOCOL.INI file in the
\NET directory of your disk and change ONLY the line marked
drivername=elnk3$ in the
[MS$ELNK3] section to match the driver file for your card (See Below.)
**PCMCIA NOTE: If you are running a 3C562 you will have to add 3CELCM.EXE. If you are running a 3CxEM556X you will need to add emenable.exe from disk #2 of the set. If you are running any other Megahertz cards add ENABLE.EXE and ENABLE.INI to this disk to make it work, the enable settings are outlined in additional 3Com documentation. If you are running a 3C589 or a 3C574 PCMCIA card without DOS level Card and Socket Services, then add a new line "PCMCIA_ENABLER=YES" below the line in step 12.
Modify the protocol.ini file and the system.ini file, replacing "elnk3" with the appropriate name from the driver table below, being sure to match case.
NOTE If you used the driver disk for your card in step 8 above, the dos driver file is in the
C:\NET folder. Also, the
Protocol.ini and
System.ini files should already be modified for your card.
Sample CONFIG.SYS:
REM The following 2 lines may or may not be necessary depending on your system.
REM Device=A:\NET\Himem.sys
REM Device=A:\NET\emm386.exe
FILES=20
device=A:\NET\ifshlp.sys
LASTDRIVE=Z
Sample AUTOEXEC.BAT:
SET PATH=A:\NET
A:\NET\net start
Sample SYSTEM.INI
[network]
sizworkbuf=1498
filesharing=no
printsharing=no
autologon=yes
computername=whatevernameyouchose
lanroot=A:\NET
<--Change this from C:\NET
username=whatevernameyouchose
workgroup=whatevernameyouchose
reconnect=yes
dospophotkey=N
lmlogon=0
logondomain=whatevernameyouchose
preferredredir=full
autostart=full
maxconnections=8
[network drivers]
netcard=elnk3.dos
<--Change this to match your card
transport=ndishlp.sys,*netbeui
devdir=A:\NET
<--Change this from C:\NET
LoadRMDrivers=yes
Sample PROTOCOL.INI
[network.setup]
version=0x3110
netcard=
ms$elnk3,1,
MS$ELNK3,1
transport=ms$ndishlp,MS$NDISHLP
transport=ms$netbeui,MS$NETBEUI
lana0=ms$elnk3,1,ms$netbeui
lana1=ms$elnk3,1,ms$ndishlp
[protman]
DriverName=PROTMAN$
PRIORITY=MS$NDISHLP
[
MS$ELNK3]
<--This name must match the names above
DriverName=ELNK3$
<--Change this to match your card
[MS$NDISHLP]
DriverName=ndishlp$
BINDINGS=MS$ELNK3
[MS$NETBEUI]
DriverName=netbeui$
SESSIONS=10
NCBS=12
BINDINGS=MS$ELNK3
LANABASE=0
NOTE: Microsoft Network Client version 3.0 adds the above sections to your existing Protocol,ini file. You'll need to remove the sections that were there before installing Microsoft Network Client version 3.0. A copy of the original file is saved in the C:\NET folder as Protocol.001. You can use this file as a guide to remove the original sections.
Network Card Driver Reference Chart.
3Com DOS PROTOCOL.INI SYSTEM.INI
Card NDIS Driver DRIVERNAME= netcard=
3C503 ELNKII.DOS ELNKII$ elnkii.dos
3C562/563 ELPC3X.DOS ELPC3$ 3celcm.exe,elpc3x.dos (must be loaded before the DOS ODI or NDIS driver)
3C5x9 ELNK3.DOS ELNK3$ elnk3.dos
3C589 ELPC3.DOS ELPC3$ elpc3.dos
3C59x EL59X.DOS EL59X$ el59x.dos
3C90x EL90X.DOS EL90X$ el90x.dos
3c574 EL3C574.DOS EL3C574$ el3c574.dos
XJEM/CCEM and all Megahertz Combo Cards
MHZEM.DOS MHZEMX$ mhzem.dos
XJ10Bx/CC10Bx and all Megahertz LAN only Cards
MHZLAN.DOS MHZX$ mhzlan.dos
3CxEM556X EM556N2.dos EM556N2$ emenable.exe, em556n2.dos (must be loaded before the DOS ODI or NDIS driver)
Drivers are on the etherdisks in one of the directories below:
3Com cards: There will be an \NDIS\DOS or \NDIS2\DOS directory on one of the 2 Etherdisks with one of the above .DOS files.
Megahertz & 3C574 and the cards: The .DOS file is in the \NDIS2 directory
The TCP/IP section from the Protocol.ini file will look like this for a DHCP setup:
[TCPIP]
NBSessions=6
SubNetMask0=255 0 0 0
IPAddress0=0 0 0 0
DisableDHCP=0
[ndishlp$]
DriverName=ndishlp$
Bindings=DC21X4$
HTH
Jerry
Login 
DOS/Other 
Search 
; I just don't always match the answers to the right questions 
Facebook
Twitter
TechGuy.tv
TSG Mobile