Now the problem is that DOS 3.3 (at least IBM’s) only supports 32MB partitions, and DOS 4.0 is a memory hog. It supports DOS 3.3 or 4.0 servers and workstations. The catch with PCLP 1.3 is that came out in 1988, very shortly after DOS 4.0.
At $225 (or $90 upgrade), PCLP 1.3 was not even all that expensive.
PCLP 1.3 is also significantly different from the earlier PCLP releases in that it can still be used as a more or less unstructured peer-to-peer network, but also supports “Extended Services” with domains, dedicated servers, user logons, and remote booting (RPL/RIPL) of diskless workstations. In fact either the DOS LAN Requester shipped with LAN Server or PCLP 1.3 could be used as a LAN Server client. PC LAN Program 1.3 is notable for being sold by IBM until 1997 and overlapping with the OS/2 LAN Server in the market. Rather unusually, it is easy to find a copy of the original PC Network Program and PC LAN Program 1.1 online, but not version 1.2 or the last one, 1.3.
Pclp software#
Because of its reliance on the NETBIOS software interface, PCLP survived the transition from the original IBM PC Network hardware to Token Ring and later to Ethernet (“later” because IBM supported Token Ring first, not because Token Ring is older than Ethernet).
The IBM PC Network Program (1985), later renamed to the IBM LAN Program, was IBM’s first PC LAN networking software, notable for using NETBIOS and the SMB protocol. Not long ago the OS/2 Museum acquired a boxed copy of the IBM PC LAN Program (PCLP) version 1.3 (1988) on 3.5″ floppies.