Hello All;
I have been trying to learn the next level to networking. I have been 
swamping myself with the layer 1 (I think you guys/gals call it), and I do 
posses a CNE guide. I suppose I am missing some of the in-between knowledge 
that comes after laying the wire, and before running NOVEL. I've hopelessly 
tried to find a FAQ on the gap.
I've recently acquired a heap of NICs and thought it might be time to learn a 
bit about them. I seem to have remarkable success in procuring the right 
driver disks for most of them, but I must be running into what I can only 
suspect to be a memory conflict with DOS. Do I have to reserve a part of 
memory (386-486 IBM compatibles)- as I do my video card - from EMM386 for the 
NICs? (DOS 6.22) The last time I messed around with a card, I thought I had 
Xed out an appropriate range (C000-C00f) but it didn't seem to cut the 
mustard. Any advice?
And about the BIOS business. From what I've read, I know that these will be 
able to boot a machine without any drives attached, and work as a not-really 
dumb terminal. Not really, as they will be going into CPUed MBs. Would 
someone be so kind as to concur with this? Now, what if I have a BIOS in a 
NIC in a machine that also boots with its own drive? Would this mean that I 
would not have to run the drivers, or just a reduced set...?
I'm also wondering what the minimum amount (?) of software I would need to 
run to get two machines to talk to one another. My only real experience with 
the software side (level 2 and up?) of networking is TCP sockets (I think 
it's called), DOS Doorway, and reading the Interserve/Interlink help files. I 
own W/fWG, OS/2 (ver 3), W'95, and System V. Do I posses the "right stuff?" 
 I've read in an echo (so I'm not putting too many eggs in the basket) 
that I could tack on a TSR to Wf/WG and it will run as a full blown network 
server or work station. Could this be?
For my first system, I am hoping to hook up the System V on a Motorola 
(Whatever the Motorola #ing scheme was... 80836?) to a couple of EISA boxes. 
I've got the EISA NICS, and if I understood the System V docs right, it's 
ready to be plugged into. Any words from the wise will likely have to be 
printed for later mastication. Be gentle? 
james.bradley@t8000.com
James Bradley (Sysop) 1:134/213.0
... Thank You for your time and consideration.               James
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