You can securely network DOS and Windows 10 together if you do it this way . . . for now.

The idea is to bring two networks together in a windows 10 PC (I will refer to this PC as the laptop), one network goes to the mill (public, no firewall) and the other goes to the CAD/CAM computer (private, with firewall). Both networks see the “C:\share” directory that has permissions for everybody to read and write. My CAD/CAM windows 10 computer is networked with the laptop. So with this setup, when I post g-code, it is instantly available on the mill.

The single board computer upgrade from Milltronics (SBC) with networking, runs Microsoft Network Client v3.0 for MS-DOS 6.22. In the past we used the simple DOS NetBIOS NetBEUI protocol with the old windows like Windows 2000. However, modern computers running Windows 10 use the TCP/IP protocol. They can still use NetBEUI but only over TCP/IP.

Before the changes brought about by windows 10, my configuration was an Ethernet crossover cable connecting my circa 1998 MV-15 Centurion 6 loaded with a network card to an old Pentium PC running Windows 2000. This Windows 2000 computer has been connected to my mill for years, both before and after I got my SBC in 2015. The windows 2000 computer had two NICs. I have always run my CAD CAM in the most modern Windows possible and output g-code files directly to the Windows 2000’s shared HDD over my Ethernet network. Then I would then go to the mill and run the g-code file directly off that same drive as it was the mapped as F: drive on the mill. It had been working great but connecting Windows 2000 to Windows 10 is getting as difficult as just connecting DOS to windows 10. Microsoft has had to make Windows 10 a fortress against the nasty stuff out there on the net. The last straw for me was when Windows 10 could no longer login directly to my Windows 2000. So I needed to have this same functionality but to do away with the windows 2000 computer.

I have talked to SportyBob, Moldcore and several others many times over the years in posts here on the zone. They have helped in getting me to this solution. If you ask them or Milltronics for help on this subject you tend to get the answer “it can be done but it is fiddley, unsecure and unstable (given Microsoft’s propensity to change things)”. They are right but it is working and it is secure. I do want to say that I am not a networking expert or pro.

SportyBob had been experimenting with a NAS solution with some success but he has told me that the latest NAS he tried did not connect to DOS. I hear that he has a USB solution now that is quite nice so some of you may want to look into that.

I have an old laptop that is running Windows 10. I decided to see if I could get it to connect directly to DOS. At first it was looking hopeless because the error codes do not tell you much. I just kept changing settings and eventually it connected. It tells me it did not connect, but it actually did.

The laptop configuration is a j7 create USB to Ethernet adapter plugged into the windows 10 laptop. Then a crossover Ethernet cable connects it directly to my NIC on my MILL’s SBC. That is it, no switch and no router, though they probably would work in place of the crossover cable. I realize that the USB NIC is not probably needed as the laptop has a built in NIC. I wanted this configuration to stay with the USB adapter.

This configuration is two completely independent networks that both come together in this windows 10 laptop where both networks can access the same shared folder on the C: drive. The Wi-Fi on the laptop is connecting to the shop network of the Windows 10 machines and it is set as a private network!!! This makes it usable and still secure. The USB NIC connects to the mill as an unidentified network, and so automatically defines it as a public network, you can’t even change it to private. But that is kind of the magic. Windows will let you turn off the firewall on the public network and leave the firewall enabled on the private Wi-Fi network. Amazing, that it works out that way because you need the firewall to the internet but you can’t have it going to the mill.

When networking windows 10 to DOS you have to drop the firewall. But it is not a security threat when things are connected this way. I am surprised that this actually works because there is so little information out there on what Windows 10 is going to do with two separate networks connected to it at the same time. If any of you find more detailed information on this aspect of Windows please share it here.

If anybody wants the rest of the network configuration settings I will post them here. All of this is based on windows 10 version 1803 which is after the removal of homegroups.

Cheers
SF