Setting up Windows 3.1 with Networking using Microsoft Network Client 3.0 on VirtualBox or VMWare

readme.md

Tracking all the pieces for this were a bit tricky. The Microsoft Network Client uses 16-bit drivers, which are also used by Windows for Workgroups 3.1. (Windows for Workgroups 3.11 is a separate system with 32-bit networking that uses 32-bit drivers).

You need the Microsoft Network Client installer, and the Windows For Workgroups 3.1 drivers, originally called [wfw31.exe]. It can be found here: https://archive.org/details/pcntn3.386. Note that wfw31.exe is a 32-bit Windows self extractor, you can extract it with 7-zip. Put the contents (pcntnd.dos and oemsetup.inf) in C:\drv\amd.

The Microsoft Network Client can be found on the NT 3.51 Server CD (Clients\MSClient\Disks). It can also be found here: https://archive.org/download/MSCLIENT30 (the two executables are DOS self extracting executables, they can go into a directory together).

Base installation

• Run Setup.exe, in DISK1 on the NT 3.51 CD, or extracted from the downloadable archive. When you get prompted for a network adapter, select unlisted, enter C:\drv\amd.
• Enter a default username for file sharing.
• Choose to Change Network Configuration.
• When the protocol configuration comes, select Add Protocol, and choose Microsoft TCP/IP. (It defaults to DHCP so this probably doesn't need to be changed.)
• Remove IPX if you won't need it and finish install.
• If you get prompted for the OEM driver disk, that's DISK2.
• Reboot

Set up DNS (and optionally, Windows sockets)

When the system boots, it should get an IP address from DHCP, and you should be able to ping an IP address (e.g. 8.8.8.8). DNS is not configured by default.

To configure DNS:

• Edit C:\net\tcputils.ini
  • under [tcpglobal] and hostname=<something>, replace <something> with the desired hostname.
  • add a [dnr] section:

  [dnr]
  drivername=DNR$
  bindings=TCPIP
  

  • To make DNS configurable in Windows, under [sockets], change bindings=TCPIP_XIF to bindings=TCPIP. (See https://www.betaarchive.com/wiki/index.php?title=Microsoft_KB_Archive/128751 )
  • Note that if you manually enter IP addresses, the separator is a space, not a period. (WARNING: Do not use separator periods in the IP addresses. If you do, TCP/IP will not load. )
• Edit C:\autoexec.bat. Above "C:\NET\net start", add C:\NET\dnr.exe to start DNS, and C:\NET\sockets.exe to start Windows Sockets.