*** NETWORKING ***
For enabling network connectivity you first need to know what kind of network
adapter you have, and obtain a suitable packet driver for it. The "crynwr"
package contains lots of packet drivers for a variety of network adapters.
There is also a packet driver for Intel Pro cards in the e1000pkt package, and
a driver for AMD PC-NET cards in the pcntpk package.
You need to get the packet driver for your card onto the machine, and load it.
Then, you should be able to access the internet and get anything else you need
using wget, htget, gopherus and other network-enabled applications.
Note that packet drivers are mostly available for old-ish interfaces. If you
have some modern ethernet card, then there might not be a packet driver
available for it.
FILE SHARING
Perhaps these links could provide some pointers:
<http://wiki.freedos.org/wiki/index.php/Networking_FreeDOS_-_MS_Client>
<https://www.lazybrowndog.net/freedos/virtualbox/?page_id=374>
There is also EtherDFS, which is a very lightweight and easy solution for
file-sharing between DOS and Linux (but it does require a Linux PC and some
basic understanding of how Linux works):
<http://etherdfs.sourceforge.net/>
VIRTUALBOX - PACKET DRIVER
VirtualBox is able to emulate an AMD PC-NET NIC (you need to make sure of that
in the configuration of your VM, VirtualBox calls it "PCnet-FAST III" and it
should be set to "NAT"). Then, in SvarDOS you have to install the pcntpk.svp
package - you don't even need to download it, it's already present on the
installation image.
1a) If you have SvarDOS floppy images present, it should be as simple as that:
pkg install a:\pcntpk.svp
Proceed with step 2.
1b) If you want to use the ISO image instead, boot from the virtual CD-ROM
drive and press ESC to leave the SvarDOS installer. Then type:
set dosdir=C:\SVARDOS
pkg install pcntpk.svp
Reboot your SvarDOS VM from hard disk.
2) Finally, load the packet driver as such:
c:\drivers\pcntpk\pcntpk int=0x60
...and that's it. From now on, you should be able to search through the
available online packages and install extra software, for example:
pkgnet pull gopherus
pkg install gopherus.svp
(gopherus is a gopher browser)
To search through the list of available packages in the online repository, use
that:
pkgnet search your_search_term