Another freeware option is USERPORT
http://www.embeddedtronics.com/design&ideas.html
I use this quite a lot with W2k and XP to get low level
access to my parallel ports, and it works well
( havent tried a dos app in a dos box though )
You can open up yr selected ports fully ( ie all progs have access )
or,
if you write yr own program,
it can selectively open the ports for itself
whilst still blocking other apps. Very Flexible.
I note the download page also lists a thing called DirectIO ( for free )
Dunno if its the same thing
Andrew