[clug] Linux equivalent to LAPLINK

[Rasjid Wilcox]

Brendan Henderson at Keogh's wrote:
> Howdy,
> 
> Anybody know of a Linux program that can talk to a DOS/WIN machine that is
> running the old DOS LAPLINK program (software to do file transfers through
> the PC's parallel port) ?.
> 
> Brendan Henderson
> 

Not sure about Laplink, but from memory there was a dos (not windows) 
version of PLIP.

Alternately, you could use Linux PLIP on both machines, by booting the 
Windows machine with a Linux floppy/CD, mounting the Windows partition, 
and using PLIP.

Two points I would make about PLIP.  a) It is very slow, and you can't 
do much else on either machine at the same time.  I think this is due to 
the amount of IRQs that get called.  b) It is best to have the same 
Linux kernel on each machine since sometimes there seem to be subtle 
differences between versions that cause the whole thing to fail.

If there is any chance of putting in network cards temporarily, it is 
likely to be a lot less work.  The last time I did a PLIP transfer was 
on a friends laptop - since network cards for laptops are not quite as 
cheap as for desktops, and it was only a once-off transfer.

Cheers,

Rasjid.