[arachne] Re: Getting Arachne to run on a 286

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

On Tue, 2009-06-23 at 06:14 -0700, Mr Ian Primus wrote:
> Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!
> 
> 
> First off, I'm new to this list - go easy on me :)
> 
> I've got Arachne running on my 486, and it works perfectly. I recently 
> started messing with a 286, and decided to give Arachne a try. I downloaded 
> the version from http://www.glennmcc.org/arachne/195-8086/ that supports the 
> older processors, and got it unpacked on the 286. But, when I try to run 
> Setup, it just hangs after displaying "Arachne is taking off". I've let it 
> sit there for a good half hour (I know that the machine is slow...), but no 
> go.
> 
> Some information about the machine. It's a Compaq Portable 286. 80287 
> coprocessor installed. 640k conventional memory, 8mb of XMS memory provided 
> by an Intel Above Board ISA. The video card is the stock Compaq card, I 
> believe it supports CGA and MDA modes. I'm using a 3COM EtherLink III with 
> it's associated packet driver. 44mb MFM hard drive on a WD controller board. 
> I'm running MS-DOS 6.22
> 
> I'm pretty sure that the computer itself works OK, as I've gotten it on the 
> network with several other programs: MT (telnet), Bobcat (lynx clone) and 
> LeetIRC. But, at the same time, I've been having a hell of a time getting 
> SSHDOS to work properly. It'll connect just fine, but hang right after login 
> to the remote box. It displays my prompt and everything, but then no longer 
> responds to keystrokes.
> 
> I understand that Arachne is going to be really slow on this little thing, 
> but it should run, right?
> 
> -Ian
>                   Arachne at FreeLists                  
> -- Arachne, The Premier GPL Web Browser/Suite for DOS --

Hello Ian:

I used to run for about a year an old version of Arachne on a 286
machine having a CGA video card and monitor.  I used a dialup
connection, 14400 bps modem.  In those days that was the only machine 
I had that could surf the internet.  The connection speed seemed OK
for me in those days because most web pages were not at all so bloated
and overly graphics-intensive back then.  Like yours my machine had 
8MB XMS memory.  No problems until the old CGA monitor eventually
started displaying very drab and dim colors  Then I upgraded the video
card and the monitor for EGA.  As I recall the version of Arachne I was
running at the time was one of the versions 1.20 to 1.4x series.  

I'm going to look for an ethernet card for which I can get a DOS 
driver that will work with Arachne.

There are some supposedly DOS drivers for some of the ethernet cards 
I already have, but I can't use any of those because none of those
drivers will work under real-mode DOS.  They should not even be 
described as DOS drivers if you have to suffer the pain and the risks 
of running DOS under a Wndoze box in order to use them.  

Any suggestions about any specific brands, types, and models of 
ethernet cards I should look for?

Sam Heywood

                  Arachne at FreeLists                  
-- Arachne, The Premier GPL Web Browser/Suite for DOS --

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