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The 3Com EtherLink III 3C509B is a 16-bit ISA network card, but 3Com deliberately gave it support for 8-bit ISA slots. There was just one catch: the official software still expected at least a 286. In this video, I install one in an original IBM PC XT and see what it takes to get Ethernet working on an 8088-based machine. We look at the modified Crynwr packet driver, the community-patched 3Com configuration utility, IRQ and I/O settings, and an AUI transceiver for connecting the card to my 10Base2 network. After getting DHCP and a successful ping, I go a little further: disassembling the original 3Com utility in Sourcer and Ghidra, then starting a new CLI configuration tool that can already detect 3C509B cards and read their configuration. EEPROM write support is next. In this episode: 00:00 Intro 00:34 Running the 3Com Etherlink III 3C509B in 8-Bit Mode 03:52 A New 3CCFG Utility 🔔 Subscribe for more retro hardware adventures! Want to join THE PHINTAGE SUPPORTERS or THE PHINTAGE ENTHUSIASTS community and get a mention in an upcoming video? Learn more here: https://www.youtube.com/@THEPHINTAGECOLLECTOR/join This video was made possible with support by: THE PHINTAGE ENTHUSIASTS: Alisha Manuela Stutz Christian Zerrahn David Schell Ernesto Leonardo Bertola Waseem al sammane ZyeByteVT THE PHINTAGE SUPPORTERS: Aaron Aluatis Balint Szikszay Brian Repinski CaffeinePizza Cecil Cinemint Clank CompuDroid Diego Valle GayManSam GrayT! Ian Cobb ihartmacz Jack Beckman Jack Rosenthal Lord Pingvin Luke Granger-Brown Matthew Veety Mia Farkas Mlok Karel MS-DOS Manfred nadrazhul PPCEmulator Roy Edmund Antaw SoftMASCII Steven Glogger Thomas Ganter Wobinu Films xcalibur839 Z098 Visit also THE PHINTAGE COLLECTOR website at https://www.thephintagecollector.ch for insights into my retro computer collection. This presentation, Copyright @ 2026 THE PHINTAGE COLLECTOR, Gianpaolo Del Matto. All rights reserved. Individual Copyrights apply for referenced material (see sources). Music composed by 🎶 Abdallah El-Ghannam https://ag.blahblah.studio | https://ag.blahblah.studio/ 🎶 rootkitty | https://soundcloud.com/rootkitty ℹ️ Sources: 8-BIT ISA AND NETWORK CARD BACKGROUND https://th99.infania.net/n/neti8_1.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_Standard_Architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrupt_request PRIMARY 3COM DOCUMENTATION https://www.ardent-tool.com/NIC/3c5x9b_Technical_Reference.pdf https://files.mpoli.fi/unpacked/hardware/net/3com/3c509.zip/_3c509x1.exe/readme.txt https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1353627/3com-Etherlink-Iii-3c509b-Tpo.html 3C509B / 8088 DRIVER AND CONFIGURATION WORK https://github.com/hackerb9/3C509B-nestor https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hackerb9/3C509B-nestor/master/3c509.asm https://files.mpoli.fi/unpacked/hardware/net/crynwr/3c509a.zip/3c509.asm https://files.mpoli.fi/unpacked/hardware/net/crynwr/3c509a.zip/read.me TPC's New 3C509B CONFIGURATION UTILITY https://github.com/gpdm/TPC-3CCFGCLI CPU DOCUMENTATION https://www.bitsavers.org/components/intel/80186/210973-001_AP-186_Introduction_to_the_80186_Microprocessor_Mar83.pdf https://www.bitsavers.org/components/intel/8086/1981_iAPX_86_88_Users_Manual.pdf DOS NETWORKING AND PRACTICAL REFERENCES https://www.brutman.com/mTCP/download/mTCP_2025-01-10.pdf https://dosdays.co.uk/topics/networking_in_dos.php https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=107726 https://retrocmp.de/transfer/3c509b.htm https://voidstar.blog/5150-setting-up-nic-network-interface-card-and-mtcp/ https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/feeling-lucky-is-the-3c509b-compatible-with-8088-using-ne1000-drivers.31091/