BOCHS, WineX, PC-X, Win95/98 etc and EMS software?

[adolescent]

WineX is optimised for games only.  For apps I'd recommend Wine.  If you're looking for something easier to setup then I'd suggest Crossover Office from CodeWeavers.  It's got a really easy GUI installer program for Windows apps.  All of these products support network connections (if using standard network APIs).  For instance, I have IE and mIRC running with Wine.

[adolescent]

I just noticed you said EMS.  Wine isn't made to run DOS executables, as it's not an emulation package.  

[adolescent]

Oh, okay I was thinking EMS == Expanded Memory Specification that was used in DOS.  Sorry, no experience with your EMS.  

[adolescent]

From Bochs user guide:

The serial port (single 16550A UART emulation) is usable, on GNU/Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and MacOSX as host and guest. On other OSes the emulation is present, but the connection to hard- or software of the host is not implemented yet.