Here's the short of it,
Create a typical system disk with just command.com on it. Now create a folder called "NET" and place your NIC card's DOS driver in it. Usually this file ends in a .DOS extension. You will also need some additional files including and the ones in the autoexec.bat, config.sys files:
net.exe
netbind.com
protman.exe
protocol.ini
setup.inf
tcptsr.exe
and a few more. In this net folder create a system.ini file containing:
[network]
filesharing=no
printsharing=no
autologon=yes
computername=<<name something that is not on your network>>
lanroot=A:\NET
username=<<insert user name>>
workgroup=<workgroup or domain name>>
reconnect=no
dospophotkey=N
lmlogon=0
logondomain=<<domain name>>
preferredredir=full
autostart=full
maxconnections=8
[network drivers]
netcard=el90x.dos
transport=tcpdrv.dos,nemm.dos
devdir=A:\NET
LoadRMDrivers=yes
[Password Lists]
Next create a protocol.ini in the NET Folder:
[network.setup]
version=0x3110
netcard=ms$elnk,1,MS$ELNK,1
transport=tcpip,TCPIP
lana0=ms$elnk,1,tcpip
[ms$elnk]
drivername=EL90X$
; INTERRUPT=3
; IOADDRESS=0x300
; DMACHANNEL=none
; DMAMODE=burst
; MAXTRANSMITS=12
; MAXREQUESTS=8
[protman]
drivername=PROTMAN$
PRIORITY=MS$NDISHLP
[tcpip]
NBSessions=6
DefaultGateway0=
SubNetMask0=
IPAddress0=
DisableDHCP=0
DriverName=TCPIP$
BINDINGS=ms$elnk
LANABASE=0
Make sure you add all parts of your NIC DOS driver to this folder. Next create your autoexec.bat, config.sys files in the root of floppy.
autoexec.bat
path=a:\net
a:\net\net initialize
a:\net\netbind.com
a:\net\umb.com
a:\net\tcptsr.exe
a:\net\tinyrfc.exe
a:\net\nmtsr.exe
a:\net\emsbfr.exe
a:\net\net start
call map.bat
config.sys
files=30
device=a:\net\ifshlp.sys
lastdrive=z
DEVICE=A:\NET\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=A:\NET\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
Of course this might have to be modified for your purposes, I have given you the network boot disk we use for most of our Dell laptops, which have a 3Com NIC's in them.
Ryan