On Tue, Jul 10, 2018 at 1:24 PM David McMackins <cont...@mcmackins.org> wrote: > > Even if I did, that doesn't answer my question. Even if I get connected > to dial-up, will TCP/IP applications still work, or will they complain > about drivers since they are trying to access a NIC?
I don't see why not. TCP-IP is a protocol stack. It sees things in terms of packets, and tosses them around. What the TCP-IP applications communicate through may not *be* a NIC. Take a look at the OSI network model. (https://www.lifewire.com/layers-of-the-osi-model-illustrated-818017) The precise medium over which the packets travel is defined on the physical and data link layers. Protocols like http and ftp happen *above* that on the network and transport layers. Here, Internet access from my desktop happens over a CAT5 cable plugged into my router, but my SO's laptop and various Wifi devices communicate over Wifi. The router doesn't care - it sees TCP-IP packets. Incoming arrive over a cable connection. Outgoing arrive via cable or Wifi. As long as the router sees properly formed packets, it can route them. How it gets the packets is irrelevant. Separating the exact physical method by which signals are sent and received from the way they are routed over the net is the point of OSI. Way back when, before I got broadband, I had a 56K dial-up modem connection to an ISP's servers. I could browse the web and do FTP, though an order of magnitude or two slower than what I currently have. Early web developers were advised that the user likely had a 14.4kbps connection, and to send only as much data as was absolutely necessary, so the user didn't grow old and grey waiting. DSL lines still use twisted pair copper, though the DSL model expects to plug into a NIC card. Twisted pair copper, coaxial cable, fiber, Wifi - no matter A packet is a packet is a packet. The bigger challenge here would be coming up with a standard POTS line to *do* dial-up. I went to VIOP ten years ago and dropped the POTS line. I'm in NYC, and Verizon no longer installs copper. Existing copper that works is maintained. Copper that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy is *not* being replaced. If you had that, your options are cellular or fiber. I have a USR 56K modem in a parts drawer. I've been tempted to plug it into a port on the router through which I attach a phone, save that the current desktop doesn't have the port a modem plugs into, and nothing I access does dial-up. > David E. McMackins II ______ Dennis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
