Current view from my recliner that sits behind the main desk. I think I need to get more PCs out 😂

So, what's my opinion of this device? Weeeell, I think it could have used some more engineering work. Only usable in DOS. Nuanced. Not a true multiplexor. But hey, we had our fun with it, and now we know. Thanks for following along! @threadreaderapp unroll

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So, just for fun, I decided to swap the printer and the Pocket Ethernet device to see what would happen. I think we are now printing network traffic 😂. I even switched the printer off and on again and it continued!

How about if we "cache" the directory listing first? Yep, that works! Have a watch.

I booted up with LAN Manager to test this, and look, it detects the PPX . Great! Network is accessible. So, I loaded the setppx program and tried to do a directory listing from the network share and print it on the printer at the same time. Fail 😂. So much for "multiplexing."

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Let's check out the readme on the disk. Oh, cool, you can use this for two printers as well! We won't test that. Another thing, it does say this works in DOS environments only. And, sadly, yes, that is the case: not even Windows for Workgroups 3.11 is happy with it.

Reading the instructions, we do need a file or two from the drivers disk, but let's scan that disk for viruses first. Okay, good to go!

Here we are all connected up. What a mess of cords! But hey, it is what it is 😂

Here's a close up of the device itself, as well as some of the items that were inside the box. Very nice!

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As you might have seen from the intro pic, I'm going to use my AST Premium Exec 386SX/25 to test this out. This machine doesn't have any PCMCIA slots, so I do use a Xircom Pocket Ethernet III to get it online! https://t.co/eM1Xg7Ploj

Sometimes curiosity gets the best of us, and that happened when I saw this Xircom Parallel Port Multiplexor III for sale. What does it do? It lets you use a printer and Xircom parallel port Ethernet adapter at the same time. Does it do it "well"? Let's find out! 🧵 time!

From there, I wanted to configure Program Manager to look like the other laptop. I really need to plug a mouse in to set it up, the trackball is not very precise! Anyway, I am going to leave it here for now, thx for following along! @threadreaderapp unroll

I installed Netscape Navigator, and just like that, we are on the Internet!

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So, before we launch Windows, we have to do two things: patch the keyboard driver, and patch the network configuration. Done and done. The Compaq keyboard driver was from Compaq SoftPaq SP0738

With Windows installed, I cleaned up config files a bit (including removing SMARTDRV since I am not a fan) and ran MemMaker, because, why not 😂

Okay, files copied, time to install Windows for Workgroups 3.11. But first, going to delete LAN Manager, we don't need it anymore. On install, I selected my video drivers, and also set up my network card!

Let's see, what all do I want to bring over? I couldn't exactly remember, so I went over to the other LTE Elite 4/75 to take a peek 😂

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I did just enough hacking to get LAN Manager up and going, and before long, we are mapped to a network drive and copying files!

To copy files, I am going to use LAN Manager. I copied over an install from a 3COM 3C509 card I had, and will tweak it. I also installed PCMCIA card drivers (and made a config.sys and autoexec.bat ahead of time since it gets confused). I then cleaned up config.sys a bit!

Next, I booted up with a FDD, did a "SYS C:" to make the DOS partition bootable, and copied over my Cisco Aironet 350 network card drivers. I'm going to use the network to copy the rest of the installer files over to the computer!