You can use the stty command to set such parameters. This will show all settings on the first serial port (replace ttyS0 with ttyUSB0 if using an USB serial port): Free predator call downloads. This will set the baud rate to 9600, 8 bits, 1 stop bit, no parity.

Login screen for Digital Distortion BBS as seen in Telemate under DOSBox.

A few months ago I wrote about my experiences trying to telnet in to Atari BBSes using an emulated Atari on my Mac.

• Mar 19, 2010 So to set/map the com4 in Windows XP to com1 inside of dosbox while it is running do the following. Z: serial1=directserial realport:com4. This will make com1 inside dosbox map to com4 in Windows XP directly. Next you have to ‘mount’ your path to your programming software.
• This program is a tool for every developer and programmer. With this program you will be able to change serial port settings without the need to close and re-open the serial port, adjust baudrate, databits, parity, stop bits, flow control parameters; save all received bytes into a file for later analysis and lots more.
• This is a program (trialware) that monitors Windows serial ports. You can use this to capture any data sent and received through any Windows COM port. If DosBOX is sending something to serial ports.

Basically the solution boiled down to this: Use tcpser4j to change a telnet connection to a serial connection, use socat to pipe that serial connection to a file, and set the Hatari emulator to use that file as a virtual RS232 device. After those steps, I could run my favorite old Atari ST terminal programs like ANSIterm and Freeze Dried Terminal.

Recently I decided I wanted to do the same thing with a DOS emulator like DOSBox — but for different reasons.

What I wanted to try this time were DOS front-end programs for BBS door games like Global War, Land of Devastation, and TradeWars. These front-ends work only in DOS, and each one is unique. They offer special features like EGA or SVGA graphics or sound effects. I’ll write more about these front-ends in the near future.

Setting up DOSBox

Before I could do try using front-ends, first I had to learn how to telnet from a regular terminal program on an emulated PC.

Turns out that it’s really easy. And the folks at StarBase 21 BBS have already written a great tutorial on how to do it.

Basically, you don’t need anything except DOSBox! No socat. No tcpser. DOSBox has its own built-in routines for piping a telnet connection through its virtual serial port.

I’ll condense the SB21 instructions (and clarify one detail for Macs), in case you’d like to try this yourself:

1. Download a copy of Telemate or Telix or whatever DOS terminal program you want

2. Download a copy of the latest version of DOSBox for your platform (for me, Mac OS X)

3. Install DOSBox on your machine. This is fairly easy, but if you get stuck you can find help on the DOSBox wiki

4. Edit the config files in a text editor like Notepad, Sublime Text, Text Edit, etc. As the SB21 tutorial explains, the location of the file varies by platform:

Windows XP: %USERPROFILE%Local SettingsApplication DataDOSBoxdosbox-#.##.conf
Windows Vista / 7: {system drive}:Users{username}AppDataLocalDOSBoxdosbox-#.##.conf
Mac OS X: {username}/Library/Preferences/DOSBox #.## Preferences

(Please note that the SB21 tutorial is slightly mistaken about OS X. On the Mac it is not a .conf file)

4a. Go to the “serial” section beginning on line 199 and change these two lines:

to

4b. Go to the “autoexec” section beginning on line 239 and add a mount instruction. This will tell DOSBox to use a folder on your computer as a hard drive for the emulated DOS PC.

If you’re on Windows, you might put this:

On a Mac, you might put this:

Save and close the config file after making this change.

5. On your computer, create that “dos” folder at the location you specified in step 4b.

6. Unzip the terminal program you downloaded in step 1 into the dos folder you created in step 5.

7. Run DOSBox. You should now be able to launch your terminal program! Be sure to change the baud rate to the highest available speed.

8. To telnet to a BBS, just type old Hayes “AT” modem commands into the terminal — but with a telnet address instead of a phone number. For example:

You should be golden!

I doubt that CPU speed is relevant.

That's a fundamental error right there. The numbering or naming of virtual COM ports inside the VM has nothing to do with which how the host names them: you can map any host port you like in the VM settings.

Parallel Port

So, how is

Dosbox Com Port Configuration

the serial port configured in your VMs settings? A screenshot would be useful.

Dosbox Parallel Port

Also I would like to see a screenshot of the [Ports] branch of your host's Device Manager, showing me which physical serial ports are available. If the serial port is external then obviously you need to plug it in for this step.