Interlnk or FileLink is a networking utility on DOS for sharing disks and files between two interconnected computers using the serial port or parallel port.
On DR-DOS
This utility first appeared on
Digital Research's
DR-DOS 5.0 in 1990 as FileLink. The file transfer is only possible through the serial port and using a
null modem serial cable.
The computer that the commands are typed on is the
slave while the other computer it is connected to is the
master. The transfer speed can be chosen to be between 110 and 115,200
baud. In addition, it allows the computer to view the files stored on the other computer.
filelink dir tra rec
On PC DOS and MS-DOS
A similar utility named Interlnk appeared on
IBM's
PC DOS 5.02 released in 1992 and then
Microsoft's
MS-DOS 6.0. It consists of two components: the client device driver and the server program.
When connected, the drives on the server computer (including hard disks and floppy disk drives) are redirected and appear as additional drives on the client computer. For example, drive letters A, B and C on the server would equal to assigned letters E, F and G on the client. The letters are assigned after the last assigned drive letter on the client, which in this example would be D.
In addition, the Interlnk program allows a client computer to run programs from the server computer.
Interlnk is used using a null modem serial cable, 3-wire serial cable, or bidirectional parallel cable, as well as cables provided by LapLink, FastLynx and Brooklyn Bridge commercial software.
Compatibility with other platforms
On PC DOS 7, intersvr command is used for a serial connection while intersvr /lp1 is inputted for parallel connection. Interlnk can also be used through a Virtual DOS machine on OS/2 2.1 or greater as a client only to a DOS server when using a PC DOS image.
Interlnk also works on a Windows 95 computer in real mode MS-DOS. However Interlnk does not communicate with the Windows 95 direct cable connection (DCC) utility.
See also
-
List of DOS commands
-
Direct Cable Connection
-
LapLink
