Quote:How much memory does DOS recognize?

640k Conventional
384k Upper Memory

IIRC, 64mb Extended/Expanded under all versions of MS-DOS. (FreeDos can use all available memory).

Quote:Are there speed limitations via networking with DOS?

I've never seen any 100m NIC drivers for DOS....it's been awhile since I last played around with DOS NIC drivers but a couple of months ago while playing around with an integrated NIC on a DELL using a Ghost Disk I believe the drivers were 10m. A DOS database program wouldn't benefit from a 100m NIC anyway. I would just verify that your running at half/dup or full/dup (depending on your network configuration)

Quote:What other limitations are there with DOS?

There are plenty but none that I can think of that would slow down your transfers. I recommend trying this tho. Get a test Windows 2000 workstation. Load up Connectix Virtual PC with MS-DOS on it and try your Database program from there. It's possible that transfer rate/response time would increase.



Are you actually running the program under DOS or under Windows 95? If possible try to run it under Windows 95 since you'll have the added benefit of more driver support, later drivers and a faster TCP/IP stack.

I'm not sure about this, but, I think that the fact DOS is 16 bits has something to do with it.
 
I remember using win3.1 over a network and getting only 15K/s with a 10mbits NIC, but when I upgraded to win95, the speed went up.

Could also try some other things that MIGHT offer a speed increase. Not sure how your DOS Database program works but defraging the HD and loading SMARTDRV may help.

As DOSFreak mentioned, I'd also try out a test box with Win 2K Pro on it with Virtual PC running a DOS machine and see if that helps out. I'm thinking that if you have a 100Mbit switch and NIC's this will help out with reducing your packet collision. This may or may not be a factor in your current setup however. You'll have to do some experimenting and see

The reason Windows 2000's dos emulation is slower is that it's using Win2K unoptimized DOS virtual machine. That is Windows 2000 all it's many layers are running underneath your DOS application. That is everything else is getting more direct access to your CPU and memory. Windows 95 on the other hand runs on DOS so it's not emulating DOS, because DOS is actually running. Therefore DOS is the closest and most actively used element by your CPU. Here's something most people don't know: Windows 95 is a DOS GUI just like Windows 3.1. In fact the only version of the Windows 9X platform that doesn't run on dos is Windows Millenium which nobody uses anyways since Win2K was better and came out first to boot. You could try the virtual machine, but I doubt that will help. Have you tried just using DOS? Do the workstations require Windows functionality as well like e-mail, web browsing, and the like?
 
While FreeDos might support all of your system's memory I don't think most DOS apps were written to see anything over 64 so that probably won't do you a bit of good in terms of memory gains. On the other hand FreeDos would have the most recent optmizations. YOu may however run into problems getting your real mode drivers working since FreeDos uses a different Kernel than MS-DOS. I think giving freedos a try would be an excellent idea though. Also I think there are 100Mbit drivers for dos and I'm pretty sure I observed performance gains related to them while working with a DOS/Ghost based imaging system in 1999.

Alec...can you help me out? I can't seem to download that program...is there any other place I can download that program?

I can find earlier versions fine mostly v5.0...but every v7.0 link turned up dead. I searched 4 engines and a couple shareware sites like that simtel.com you mentioned. No luck. Let me know if you think of a place to get it. I might have time to search again later.

Thank you...e-mail has been sent.