Old-Hard communication, or “file transfer via COM and LPT ports”

For a long time did not throw data on old computers through floppy disks, COM or LPT ports? But I recently had to do this, and the details of this experience - under the cut. There are also several graphs, a comparison plate and a couple of dozen photos under the second cat.

So, the task: to transfer data to a laptop, which has only COM and LPT ports, a PCMCIA expansion slot, a floppy, a modem. Laptop - IBM ThinkPad 760EL in excellent condition, donated by the wonderful green_hippo habrayuzer . About him (laptop!) Will soon be made a separate article.

Slot dropped immediately. The card could not be found in a short time, but with COM and LPT-laces it turned out better. COM-string was donated to the worst 'LPTshny - found on the city forum.

File: WOLF3D.zip .
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Content: Wolfenstein 3D by id Software. And do not even try to ask what it is.
Volume: 1101563 bytes (1.04 mb.)

• To begin with, we will try to throw the data with diskettes. Copying time - 43.5 seconds, then in 5-7 seconds we shove it into the laptop, another 43.2 seconds to copy ... Amount - 1 minute 33.7 seconds. The average speed is 11.4 kilobytes per second . Well, ok, and if we need to transfer a large file? Well, let's say, the quake 1 archive will weigh 21.7 MB.
  Imagine breaking it into a half dozen diskettes, poking these diskettes ... Mdaaa. The process of dubious joy.
  
  
• Let's try to copy data on the COM port from a computer under Windows XP (core 2 duo, etc. is a relatively modern piece of hardware). Various utilities have been tried, here are the results:
  Norton Commander 4 - the connection failed. Application error, direct access to hardware, all cases. Okaei.
  Norton Commander 3 - connection established! The transfer speed is about 5 kb. per second . Not thick, but nonetheless.
  FileMaven 3.5a - the connection is established, but the transfer rate is absolutely deadly, less than 1 kilobyte per second.
  Fastwire 2.0 - similar to NC4. Fail .
  DOS InterLink - similar to NC4. Fail .
  LapLink Pro 4 is similar to NC4. Fail .
  
  Check how the same hardware works from under DOS was prevented by my laziness, or rather the time limit - all computer disks are formatted with NTFS, i.e. for the test it was necessary to prepare a bootable CD or floppy disk, and with the drivers for reading from NTFS, and the reliability of that driver ... I will check later.
  
  
• The same PC, the same OS - contact by LPT.
  NC3 does not know how to communicate via LPT, so we immediately take NC4 - and lo and behold, there is a connection! 12 kopecks a kilobyte per second . On the one hand, more than 2 times faster, on the other - from LPT, I expected a noticeably better result.
  With other utilities - the same story as with COM ports.
  
  
• We take the second computer, Pentium-MMX on 233 MHz. True, with him the same is not the glory of Cthulhu - COM ports have burnt out, even the mouse can not be connected. But LPT is quite working. Go:
  NC4 - exchange rate - 76.3 kilobytes / s . Sveyaazy! Here it is, the speed of my dreams! Transfer wolf takes less than a half dozen seconds. More than acceptable result.
  File Maven - could not be contacted - the connection is established, but the contents of the disk is not displayed. That is, there is a connection, but the utility claims that there are no files on the disk. Lepota.
  Fastwire - speed 87 with kopecks kilobytes per second . This is victory! Record!
  INTERLNK - similar to File Maven. Sadness without cookies.
  LapLink Pro - speed of about 80 kilobytes per second . Faster than Norton, slower than Maven.
  
  

Yes, the difference between the LPT transmission options seems small, but let's move one more file.

File 2: Quake.zip
Volume: 22809007 (21.7 mb.)

And so as not to waste time - we will collect the results in a tablet and simpatyshnye graphics.

	Port	OS	Wolf's copy time	Speed, kilobyte per second	Quake's copy time
Floppy	Floppy disk drive	Any	Copy to disk: 43.5 sec. Copy from disk: 43.2 seconds. Flipping a diskette: 7 sec. The amount: 1 minute 33.7 seconds.	11.4	32 minutes 36 seconds
Norton Commander 3.0	Com	Winxp	3 min. 15 seconds - normal mode	5.51	1 hour 7 minutes 27 seconds
			3 min. 11 seconds - turbo mode	5.63	1 hour 5 minutes 27 seconds
Norton Commander 4.0	LPT	Winxp	1 minute. 25 sec	12.65	29 minutes 23 seconds
	LPT	Dos	14.1 seconds	76.29	4 minutes 51 seconds
	Com	Winxp	Connection failed.
File maven	LPT port	Dos	The connection is established, but the contents of the disk is not displayed.
Fastwire	LPT port	Dos	12.3 s.	87.45	4 minutes 15 seconds
INTERLNK	LPT port	Dos	The connection is established, but the contents of the disk is not displayed.
LapLink Pro	LPT port	Dos	13.4 s.	80.27	4 minutes 38 seconds

The graphs show the transmission time. The smaller it is, the better the situation is.

Wolf3D transmission


Quake Transmission 1


Wolf3D transfer, exclusively LPT transfer under DOS


Quake transfer 1, exclusively LPT transfer under DOS




Findings:

• If you need to send something over the COM port - just do it! But be patient.
• Flopp is faster than the COM port if you throw files from under WinXP (in pure DOS, the transfer rate can be higher ...).
• If you transmit data on LPT - I highly recommend Fastwire, the time saving is worth it.
• If you have a choice of these two options - do choose LPT (here was the cap).
• In Windows XP, the dos mode is not perfectly emulated, so the speeds will be sad even with LPT. Perhaps you need to tweak something - you need to figure it out.
• Burnt ports are sad :(

PS It was found out after the preparation of the article.

• The problem with File Maven and INTERLNK is in a laptop. I encountered another utility that, when running under DOS, does not see the disk, but when running under Windows, the disk is available. It will be necessary to repeat the testing of these utilities.
• A suitable network card was found, but it has not yet been configured. Under Windows, it lacks interrupts (asks IRQ 29 o_O), plus if you don’t manually choose the driver, it reports that the site drivers do not match the hardware, under DOS I cannot find the settings, although the driver determines the presence of the card. The card name is Trendnet TE100-PCBUSR . There are almost no settings in the BIOS of the laptop, the IBM setup utility under windows / dos also does not allow changing anything critical. Analysis of the problem continues.
• The idea was voiced - to connect a modem-to-modem, without a telephone line, sticking a piece of telephone noodles directly - until I thought through and checked how it would work, how software and hardware behave, how to tune, and what the decision is about.

I downloaded utilities (except Norton Commander) from here - not ads, just if they are already assembled in one place - why not take advantage of this? There is also a pinout of cables and loopbacks for testing ports.