------------------------------------------------------------------------ NOV-MSC2.DOC -- 19980108 -- Email thread on miscellaneous NetWare topics ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Feel free to add or edit this document and then email it back to faq@jelyon.com Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 11:02:00 +1300 From: "Baird, John" Subject: Re: Sync Passwords NW312 >>Users here are having trouble sync'ing passwords across >>NW312 servers. We login to a specific server w/login.exe v3.76, and >>attach via the login script. If Account Restrictions are not >>sync'ed w/r to password expiration, it seems that some users don't >>get the prompt to sync passwords when using SETPASS to change >>passwords. >> >Are you sure they're actually using SETPASS to change their >passwords when they are attached to ALL servers? > >If the password for the primary server (1st one you log into) has >expired, then LOGIN.EXE asks if you want to change it - if you say >"y" - then you won't be asked to sync because you haven't attached >to the other servers yet (becuase the login script hasn't run). The prompt from LOGIN.EXE to change the password does not occur until after the login script has been executed - at least in most versions of LOGIN. Given my previous message about ncopy, we shouldn't assume that all versions behave the same, although they probably do. When a grace login is used, the server returns 0x89DF indicating the login was successful but a grace login was used. LOGIN.EXE remembers this and after execution of the login script, it asks if you want to change the password without actually checking if the password was changed during execution of the login script. I discovered this when someone asked me to add a feature to my pwdexp program forcing a password change when the password had expired (pwdexp is intended for use in a login script to warn of impending password expiration, and was written before the PASSWORD_EXPIRES variable became available). Pwdexp successfully changed the password but LOGIN.EXE still reported an expired password and asked if the user wanted to change it. As I recall this 'bug' existed in the versions of LOGIN.EXE shipped with 3.12 and 4.10. >I think you must have the same username on all servers in order to >sync. - also they must already have the same password before you >run setpass. That's my understanding too. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 11:30:49 +1300 From: "Baird, John" Subject: Re: Drives GT 26 >What are the characters that can extend the number of mapped drives >beyond 26? The characters are [, \, ], ^ and _ which are the next five in the ASCII sequence after 'Z'. They were available using NETX, they are not with VLMs and I don't know about Client32. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 17:51:44 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: Binary Arithmetic >>>>Why are folks working on 64 bit CPUs and operating systems? > >What operating system is 64 bit? Perhaps a flavor of UNIX? -------- Yes, Unix, and VMS for Alphas, and NT. For more than a year now Novell has been working hard on isolating its code from the underlying machine hardware details, by providing small machine-specific handlers. We see this with the .HAM disk stuff, lan drivers, with recent PCI testing, multiple cpu support. It seems that the wave of the future is to float above machine details, now that enough cpu cycles are available compared to 10Mbps wiring. Wider data paths means higher throughput while accomodating current motherboard layout and memory chip constraints. Ditto for UltraWide SCSI and so on. When 100Mbps wiring becomes the norm technology will take another turn, but by then Pentium Pro's will be doorstops. So we have software being created for "virtual" machines and the nitty gritty hardware details are isolated through small adapter modules. Even TCP/IP is going into the big numbers game with IP V6 (and Novell is digging into that too). Portable NW came about too early. Like money, computers seems to keep adding zeros on the right of everything and yet we humans work along at the same pace as previously. Joe D. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 14:49:15 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: Binary Arithmetic I see that a background review is in order. It's simple. a) place-value notation. It's what we use versus what the Romans used. 10 is smaller than 100, so the place of the 1 counts for a lot. The Romans were stuck with V being 5 and L being 50 etc no matter what. For binary numbers, each position/place is twice the value of the preceeding position/place, and for decimal it is ten times rather than two times. b) by symmetry, half the bit combinations are assigned to positive numbers, half to negative numbers, and in the current vogue one value is assigned to zero. If one counts carefully negatives have one more slot than positives, to come out even. c) for sanity the positive numbers are 000..001 000..010 000..011 and so on up to the largest of (half the space) 011..111 d) then the negative numbers occupy the other half space, meaning they have the high bit set to 1 rather than to 0. e) a positve plus a negative of the same size must add to zero. Thus 1 - 1 = 0, or 0 - (+1) = -1. 0 0000000000000000000 1 0000000000000000001 subtract ------------------- 1 from 0 is 1 and borrow 1 from the left, etc result (-1) 1111111111111111111 Let's check. 1 + (-1) = 0, we hope. 1 0000000000000000001 -1 1111111111111111111 add ------------------- 1 plus 1 is 0 and carry 1 to the left result (0) 0000000000000000000 If -1 is binary 11111111111, then -2 is 11111111110 and so on, til the most negative binary number is 10000000000000. Notice that the most negative plus the most positive number adds to -1: 01111111111111111111 10000000000000000000 add -------------------- result (-1) 11111111111111111111 which says the negatives out weight the benefits, something we feel happens to us daily. It's a circle, with 0 at the north pole, positives to the right, negatives to the left, and the south pole is assigned to the negatives. I assure you that such an assignment is proper and very well deserved: it is a horrid place (speaking from personal experience). Smalls are lightly on top, bigs are weightly below. See, it really was simple. Folks who pass this part in their sleep may move on to binary division followed by modulus operations. The rest can go back to managing their networks (hint: modulus is the fancy word for the remainder after division, but don't let on about it). Quod erat demonstratum, and all that jazz. Joe D. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 09:21:00 -0400 From: "BURTT, PETER (AEL)" Subject: Re: Skills test for new hires >Does anyone have a test or questionnaire that >you have used to guage the knowledge of >someone you are looking to hire for a Novell >network engineer position? Obviously, the >CNE status is meant to provide this, but I >find it astounding how many guys have a >CNE but no real-world experience working >on a network. [snip] At one job interview I had, the interviewer gave me an erasable marker, pointed me at the whiteboard, and told me to draw in detail the last network that I worked on, or the one that I knew the most about. There's very little room for bluffing with that kind of question. I've used that question for hiring co-op students for a help desk situation, and it certainly weeds out the poseurs. We can't ask questions like that where I am now, we've got to prepare a list of questions AND sample answers to give to HR to eliminate the possibility that we're trying to pull one over on them. Grrrrrr... I can't resist telling you the strangest question I ever got - "Give me two good reasons why manhole covers are round." It's a surprisingly good question, really, tests your ability to think on your feet under stress. I really don't think we need a followup thread speculating on why manhole covers are round, so here are some valid answers - - a round cover will never fall down the hole - they're heavy, but you can roll a round object - the manhole is round because a round tube is much stronger structurally then any other shape - it uses the least amount (weight) of steel for a given diameter of opening. --------- Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 09:08:25 -0800 From: "John J. Tulko, Jr." Subject: Re: Skills test for new hires Here is a little test I give everyone I interview as soon as they walk through the door. It contains both easy and difficult questions, and can you think questions. I find this type of test very useful, because I know right off the bat what the person knows and doesn't know and then I can follow up on the questions from the test. 1. What is the maximum length of a 10Base2 segment? 2. How can you tell a high-density 3.5" floppy from a double density 3.5" floppy? 3. How many pins does a standard VGA monitor use? 4. A parallel printer port on a PC is what gender? 5. Another name for 10Base2 is? 6. There are four programs you need to run in order to establish a connection to a Novell server. What are they? What order do they get loaded? 7. How many bits wide is the internal data bus on an 80386? 8. If there are 3 PCs and you take away 2, How many do you have? 9. Typically, the first network drive for a Novell network is? 10. Base in 10BaseT stands for what? 11. What does CSMA/CD stand for? 12. What are the seven layers of the OSI model? 13. Bridges work on what layer of the OSI? 14. IEEE 802.5 is the standard for? 15. A common utility to create a user account in Novell Netware is? 16. What does EISA stand for? 17. What does FTP stand for and what is it used for? 18. Divide 30 by a half and add 10, What is the answer? 19. How many files are needed in order to boot up a PC and what are they? 20. What file sets up your DOS operating characteristics and loads device drivers? --------- Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1997 10:30:46 -0500 From: Dan Schwartz Subject: New Hire Skills Test; Manholes As a first interview question, ask the candidate what kind of computer(s) do they have at home; and what is their home LAN topology. This will tell you if they are a "tinkerer" or whatnot. Also ask them about their Internet connection: If they have multiple computers is the IP connection available to both? [This will be a tipoff if they know how to set up a router & DHCP server, etc...] Another idea is to have them bring in their (electronics!) toolbox: Look it over to see what's in there. Is there a VOM? Cable crimping tools from OTHER than Radio Shack? Perhaps a cable tester -- Even a basic DC continuity tester such as a $139 Weidmuller/Paladin? Is there a soldering iron? Are there any basic spare parts such as floppy ribbon cables or NE2000-style NIC's? Do any of the tools appear to be proprietary, that were "borrowed" from a previous employer? Just as you judge a person by the friends he keeps, you can also quickly judge a technician or engineer by the tools he keeps. As for a good skills test for a second, longer interview, to separate the "paper" from the practical, hand the candidate boxes with peripheral boards, a logic board, a disk drive, and a case & power supply. Have him/her physically assemble from scratch a PC-compatible and then install NetWare on it. [You may want to install the logic board in the case beforehand if it is tricky.] Have them describe what they are doing while they are doing it. Watch them for the following trouble spots: 1) ***Proper ESD procedures***: Do they keep an elbow on the power supply or chassis at all times; or ask for a wrist strap?; 2) Do they plan out their IRQ's, COM ports and base address' before starting?; 3) When they look at the hardware doc sheets do they seem to study them, or just visually "cut to the chase?" 4) Does the machine start up right away?; 5) When they install NetWare, do they perform an easy install; or do they perform a custom install to tailor it to the use?; 6) If you sandbag them with a 4 MB SIMM or an IDE HDD do they question it?; 7) Finally, when they hitch it up to the LAN does it work? As an alternative, you could have the candidate assemble a PC-compatible client workstation, substituting DOS/Win/95/NT as appropriate to your facility. What I like about this methodology is that you can quickly separate out those who have little practical skills from those who have hands-on experience. And, that experience could very well have come from assembling a computer as a high schooler just to play Doom... It ain't brain surgery, ya know. It's also a good test to see their motor skills: Are they "fumblers" who'll drop a box of paper clips into a desktop box? Do they have the "shakes" -- From drug abuse? Even if the candidate fails the software portion of the tests you still just may end up with a crackerjack technician... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 12:21:20 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: LINUX + IPX, a warning First the warning, then my comments on the thread below. Linux Red Hat distribution (and perhaps others) are now issued with IPX support turned on by default. Such badly configured machines emit IPX SAPs (type 4) proclaiming themselves to be NetWare file servers, but they are extremely far from being that. Get those things off your network a.s.a.p.; they are black holes. The same applies to Win95. What you should tell your sites is: a) no one transmits blindly on the wires b) always get clearance for new systems c) always configure systems in detail before attaching to the net d) learn about how to turn off the many stupid features vendors insist upon exposing. Included are spray, snmp with public access, r* commands, active RIP, and so on. Learn about security from the site managers and help defend the site from the bad guys. Please don't come to me with questions on how to revise a Linux distribution because I am unable to answer (I don't use it). Now to the thread in progress. There is a simpler way involving no work at all. Get my Win95 for diskless workstation paper and configure the system to serve DOS, Win 3.1, and Win95 from read-only file servers. Clients can be diskless or have local hard drives (which will be trashed very often, so why do this to people?). Keep in mind that Win 3.1 runs happily from DOS 7. Please visit either netlab2.usu.edu (directory misc) or netlab1.usu.edu (directory pub/mirror/misc, best for web browser folks) and obtain files w95inst7.zip, w95insps.zip, msoff95.txt, drived.txt. Joe D. >MS-BACKUP works, but it was too time consuming for our campus labs. In >order to restore a machine we had to install Win95 in order to get to >the MS-BACKUP program. > >The method that we use here, which seems to be working okay so far, is to >boot off a linux (free unix) boot disk, and then use some linux utilities >to log into our Netware 4.1 server. Then we tar and gzip the entire C: >drive of the local workstation onto a server volume. Linux has the >benefit of saving the long file name and it seems to copy all the >important system/registry files. Much faster than MS-BACKUP. It's almost >as easy as running xcopy w/Win3.11. > >To re-image a machine, we boot off the linux disk, then untar and gunzip >the copy off our netware server. Reboot the workstation, up comes Win95, >just have to change the machine name (we have MS-Networking installed for >a SQL server), and we're set. > >Of course, the machine hardware needs to be exactly the same for this >work. But in a lab setting this is usually the case. ---------- Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 14:34:00 -0200 From: Bennie Venter Subject: Re: LINUX + IPX, a warning On 28 Jan 1997 Joe Doupnik wrote: [Floyd: Above message snipped] There is a RedHat mailing list, get the subscription details from http://www.redhat.com They do carry patches on their ftp site for the 3 distributions they do: sparc, i386 and DEC Alpha. I do run Red-hat Linux on a SPARCStation LX and the only thing to actually do is to physically not start mars_nwe - A freeware Netware Emulator daemon. To get more info on it, there is a mailing list for it and the other NetWare emulator named linware. The subscription is listserv@sh.cvut.cz and the list address is linware@sh.cvut.cz The list is also the primary meeting place for Linux IPX protocol developers as well as ncpfs, the NCP filesystem (Linux NCP client). The author of mars_nwe is Martin Stover and can be contacted at mstover@stover.f.eunet.de The emulator is in actual fact a NCP file and print server and the sources are freely available and compile on commercial Unix systems as well. It became quite a topic on the linware list if this list should be contacted on inputs about bad effects of running Linux IPX based software on NetWare networks. Since this is now brought up on this list I will start it now and would like to hear from all persons on this list about potential and current problems with mars_nwe. I will condense it and clean it a bit as well as add relavant info and send it back to this list, the linware list, Martin Stover as well as the FAQ maintainers of both lists. There are some other IPX systems for Linux coming along: 1. NLM executable support in Linux 2. NLSP Router - Router specs. released by Novell for RIP, SAP & NLSP 3. NetWare IP - Docs available as well as UDP & TCP packet structures 4. IW2 - in actual fact part of the NLSP router but will be part of the kernel later on. 5. NCP SDK for Linux 6. SPX Protocol Currently running: 1. IPX 2. Routing 3. IPX packet type 20 forwarding 4. Various utilities like sending/receiving messages, listing objects in the bindery, listing and changing trustees if the server allows you to, etc. 5. A Print Sever running on Linux, Servicing NetWare print-queues and printing to UNIX based print queues Most of the software are developed along with freely available Novell Documentation as well as from other sources like the famous Dr Dobbs article on NCP in the Nov 93 issue. Protocol analysers is the final source like Lanalyser & the documentation that comes with it. Commercially available with no restrictions. --------- Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 09:47:38 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: LINUX + IPX, a warning >>>d) learn about how to turn off the many stupid features vendors >>> insist upon exposing. Included are spray, snmp with public access, >>> r* commands, active RIP, and so on. Learn about security from the >>> site managers and help defend the site from the bad guys. > >Please pardon my ignorance (as opposed to stupidity), but what is spray? >Never heard of it. ----------- Spray sends as many packets per second as it can, as the name says. It is a severe network strain. It is something never to be used on production wiring. And yet most Unix vendors shipping NFS have spray available and ready to go. Insanity. Joe D. --------- Here is the top of man spray: spray(1M) NAME spray - spray packets SYNOPSIS /usr/sbin/spray [-c count] [-d delay] [-l length] [-t nettype host] DESCRIPTION The spray command sends a one-way stream of packets to host using RPC, and reports how many were received, as well as the transfer rate. USAGE The host argument can be either a name or an Internet address. Options Spray takes the following options: -c count Specify how many packets to send. The default value of count is the number of packets required to make the total stream size 100000 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 11:47:14 -0200 From: Bennie Venter Subject: Re: LINUX + IPX, a warning >Spray sends as many packets per second as it can, as the name >says. It is a severe network strain. It is something never to be used on >production wiring. And yet most Unix vendors shipping NFS have spray >available and ready to go. Insanity. During the installation, or even during problem solving on nfs it is one of the tools actually for use by sysadmins. the same can be said about the following unix commands as well: ping -f - flood ping (you have to be root for this one) rcp - remote copy (this will flood a network as well since rcp has no inherent flow-control - I use it to stress-test any router - this will affect any netware server running as a router very badly) There might be many more that I do not know about. The best is to view the network as a resource and then with a combined knowledge in more than one person look at potential problem areas. The CERT advisories should be checked if UNIX or IP are used. There are even advisories about the infamous TCP SYN Attacks - I personnally have not looked if NetWare is effected at all or what the effects are. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 16:41:15 +1300 From: "Baird, John" Subject: Re: NET$ACCT.DAT structure >Could anyone point me to information on the NET$ACCT.DAT file >structure, as I'd like to make a program to write the output in a >different format than paudit does. Have you tried Wolfgang Schreiber's Paudit2 which is much more flexible than Paudit. Paudit2 in somewhere in the novuser directories of your nearest mirror of FTP.NOVELL.COM. PS When using paudit2, copy net$acct.dat to a local drive first and paudit2 will run in a fraction of the time. When accessing the file across the network, it reads data either 2 bytes at a time or 30 bytes at a time, resulting in huge numbers of packets to process a multi-megabyte file. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 22:35:00 +0100 From: "Arthur B." Subject: Re: Advice on NW4.1 support contract >>We are looking to take out a support contract for our various NW4.1 (and >>soon NW4.11) servers. All our server hardware has been purchased from >>Dell. In the past we have had very good support from Salford University >>Network Support (SUNS) on an unofficial basis but support from Dell >>itself is an unknown quantity. Is there anyone out there who has used >>Dell for network support and is there anyone who has any strong >>recommendations for support services within the UK (preferably who could >>if required travel to Edinburgh). >I'm unable to recommend anybody as my experience has shown that most >support companies are little more than useless. > >If you do find any potential companies make sure you contact some of their >existing customers for references. > >I think you'll probably find that support from Dell is sub-contracted to >local firms. > >My advice is that if you can possibly support yourself then do! > >Adam Boocock I happen to work for a company that gives support. For me it involves helping customers when they are jammed up. Give advice (also when not requested). Tuning up. Etc. Everything that helps the customer to become a better working company. Supporting the users, managers and admins and teaching them to know more and do more. This may sound like cutting your own fingers but it isn't. Teaching the companies admin(s) and users helps me to do more in less time. Also I'm not called that often which gives me more time to help others. What I've heard from the customers is that they like to have something that they can 'fall back to' and let someone else worry about the problems. Also we prevent other companies from making a fast buck at the expense of our customers. Our contracts are very simple. You pay a fixed fee which gives you the right to call us. For that fee we will inventory your entire site and give suggestions *after* interviewing users and determining what benefits the customer as a whole. It is up to the customer what they use from our suggestions. When we are called we solve the problem (whatever it is) and charge you for the actual time we spend to solve your problem (calling others to help solve the problem is our problem) or when you say to us we should stop solving your problem. Our hours are reported back in absolute detail. Which means you shouldn't have any questions left and that you have the possibility to check us out by presenting our reports to other companies and letting them shoot at us. I'm not telling you this because I want a contract with you (we don't work in the UK). But more to give you the opinion of someone who works for 'the other side'. In short. Any support contract that restricts you or doesn't give you (the customer) absolute control isn't a support contract. You as a customer may say what you want, when you want it and how much you want. At any given time you may break up the contract for whatever reason. Moral of the story. Customers should be happy they can call their support and still have absolute control. A satisfied customer is what the supporting company wants 'cause a satisfied customer is the best PR any company can get. For me it boils down to that as long as I deliver good work and make a difference I don't need to worry. At the end customers don't need us anymore 'cause they become self supporting. OTOH by doing a good job we are returned a couple of new customers (just by PR alone). We don't have a need to advertise. See? It works both ways. Find a supporting company that thinks with you. Not for you. If their contract restricts you it's not the company you want. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1997 11:07:45 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: NT 4.0 client >It is getting a little confusing trying to figure out which client best >works with which OS version. We have standard (old) NetX, VLM's, the 32bit >client for DOS/WIN, the 32bit for W95, and now the 32bit for NT (still in >beta, right?), we have many to choose from. Additionally with 3.11, 3.12, >4.1 and now 4.11, we also have many potential combinations of NOS/clients. >To confound the matter, it appears from the Novell site that the 32bit >client currently shipping with 4.11 will not work properly with 4.1. As I >have not received 4.11 yet, I cannot test this. Is this correct? Perhaps >a little grid of the suggested NOS/client combinations is in order. I >think that such a grid would make a nice addition the already outstanding >FAQ. I would be quite willing to assemble one from suggestions--provided >they are supported with lots of experience--and to supply results to the >list. The root question in all of this rambling is: Given a desktop OS >of NT4.0, which [Novell] client is best for *4.1* as well as 4.11? ---------- Netx is dead, has been for some years. It cannot work with NDS. VLMs work fine with DOS, Win 3.1, Win95. Client32 works generally fine with DOS, Win 3.1, and the separate Win95 edition. MS clients are between you and MS; I prefer not to hear about them. NT clients from Novell are undergoing rapid improvments so try what works at your place. I have no advice concerning NT because I've removed it from my equipment. NetWare directory services (NDS) requires VLMs or Client32, period. This is independent of NW version number. There is no such concept as a client for only NW 4.11. It so happens I am running VLMs and logged into NW 3.12, 4.10, 4.11 as I write this msg. Joe D. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1997 13:46:44 -0600 From: "Mike Avery" To: netw4-l@ecnet.net Subject: Re: RCONSOLE & Win95 >When using Remote Console (either RCONSOLE or through NWADMIN) with >Windows 95, I get the following warning (_not_ error) when I launch >it: Warning: MS WINDOWS may cause RCONSOLE to behave erratically. If >you experience problems you should exit MS WINDOWS before running >RCONSOLE. Press to exit, or to continue. > >I hit ENTER and all works well. However, my question is: is there a >way to disable the warning message so I don't have to see it every >time I launch RCONSOLE? Thanks in advance! That message is coming from RConsole. Novell had complaints from some people that RConsole cratered windows. And on some machines, it did. Hence the warning. Like you, I've had no trouble with the new version under windows. Here's how to kill the message. Add a shortcut to launch the program if you haven't already done so. Then look at the properties of the shortcut. Look under the "Program" tab, click on advanced, then click on "Prevent MS-DOS based programs from detecting Windows". That fools the program so it won't know Windows is running. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 11:45:20 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: NT Client doesn't like _ >In the Department's OU, I have a login script which maps this directory. > >Dos/Win machines come up just fine and obtain the drive map, but my NT (4.0) >machines running Novell's IntranetWare client for NT won't map that drive!! > >Renamed the directory to ENGTRAN and they all work happily ever after. > >Apparently the Novell client for NT doesn't like the use of an underscore. ------------ Not really. Please remember this tip: NW 4 and beyond uses underscore as an equivalent of space, and it will use space whenever it wishes. Never NEVER use underscores or spaces in object names. This has been true for many years (see the Utah Standard for an example). Also never use periods (dots, full stops) nor other creative punctation in names. Joe D. --------- Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 12:25:58 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: Underscores with objects >> NW 4 and beyond uses underscore as an equivalent of space, and >>it will use space whenever it wishes. Never NEVER use underscores or >>spaces in object names. > >Would that also include things like: >HP4_Q [print queue] >HP4_PS [print server] >HP4_P [printer] >COMPANY_TREE [tree name] ---------- Space <-> underscore is a computer industry commonality, and NDS has had this as a feature ever since it was designed. The Utah Standard IPX naming and numbering convention accomodated it in early drafts in 1991. Use ASCII characters A..Z, hyphen (minus sign), digits 0..9 and nothing else. These are known as alphanumerics and the hyphen. Something else to avoid: do not depend upon case insensitivity. NW clients might be moving to case sensitivity in strings. Beware. Joe D. --------- Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 15:24:47 EST From: Sam Martin Subject: Underscores with objects >> NW 4 and beyond uses underscore as an equivalent of space, and >>it will use space whenever it wishes. Never NEVER use underscores or >>spaces in object names. > >Would that also include things like: >HP4_Q [print queue] >HP4_PS [print server] >HP4_P [printer] >COMPANY_TREE [tree name] H'mmm Novell pub Quickpath to NW41 Networks lists period, plus, equal, backslash and forwardslash as reserved or invalid names. The same pub suggests use of underscore or dash to enhance descriptivity. --------- Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 10:59:50 +0800 From: BLooney@comtech.com.au To: netw4-l@ecnet.net Subject: Re: Use of Underscore w/NetWare >On another NetWare list that I read, there has been some discussion >about using the underscore to name objects in NetWare. One >individual advised that this is very bad, and will cause problems. If you are doing a 3.x -> 4.x upgrade and you have a (say) print queue with an underscoare in the name, the upgrade process will change the underscore to a space. No problems so far - until you go to run up the print server, which still thinks the queue has an underscore in it's name. Bummer. --------- Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 06:47:40 -0500 (EST) From: Gnalley@aol.com To: netw4-l@ecnet.net Subject: Re: Use of Underscore w/NetWare The new verions of TCP/IP DNS and Bind do not like underscores, but they will accept dashes. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 12:34:18 +1000 From: Michael Bednarek Subject: NW 3.1x: FILER.EXE only runs in \PUBLIC [solved] I wrote: >[Summary:] FILER.EXE, if not executed from \PUBLIC, fails with: >The system message library file "SYS$MSG.DAT" could not be opened. >Program Initialization Failure -Execution Terminated. Nothing wrong with rights to \PUBLIC; this happens to me when I'm logged in as SUPERVISOR. Also, no other NW utility complains. I was just about to post this when I realised I had never tried to run FILER from another workstation. Sure enough, it worked. What made the difference? NET.CFG: Search Mode=2 I vaguely remember that I set this years ago to avoid some strange behaviour by a program which I can't remember. Anyway, I removed "Search Mode=2" and FILER now works as expected. This still leaves the question: why is only FILER affected? By the way, "Search Mode=2" doesn't have to be in NET.CFG, NETX will also read SHELL.CFG. --------- Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 13:43:55 +0000 From: Jon Hall Subject: Re: NW 3.1x: FILER.EXE only runs in \PUBLIC [solved] >I vaguely remember that I set this years ago to avoid some strange >behaviour by a program which I can't remember. Anyway, I removed >"Search Mode=2" and FILER now works as expected. > >By the way, "Search Mode=2" doesn't have to be in NET.CFG, NETX will also >read SHELL.CFG (no follow-ups re NETX v VLM, please). I think I can explain this, at least partially. The default search mode for NETX (and I presume VLM) is 1, which causes the PATH to be searched when a file is opened with no explicit path and the file is not in the current directory. This is not necessarily desirable behaviour in the general case and I have been long in the habit of disabling this with a SEARCH MODE in NET.CFG. However, it seems that FILER doesn't search the PATH explicitly to find its supporting files such as SYS$MSG.DAT, resulting in the error message. My fix for this has been to set the search mode for the executable explicitly by changing to SYS:PUBLIC and executing SMODE FILER.EXE 1 By the way, the Win95 shortcut works because by default the working directory gets set to \PUBLIC - if you change it (and haven't applied the SMODE fix) the error will come back again. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 08:27:53 -0600 From: "Lindsay R. Johnson" Subject: Re: Using 3.12 LOGIN.EXE to logon to 4 We've seen a couple of anomalies with 4.10 servers in a 3.1x environment involving LOGINs. There are 3 rules here regarding LOGINs. 1) ALWAYS use LOGIN with the /B parameter if you're looking for a bindery emulated account on a 4.1x server. 2) ALWAYS use all FORWARD slashes (/) in your LOGIN statement. 3) ALWAYS list the entire command on the line. example: LOGIN SERVER41/USERNAME /B This has removed our general headaches. Sorry, I'll also have to work in some administration advice here. We do NOT, in general, support bindery emulated accounts. If someone needs data on a 3.1x server they LOGIN to 4.1x and ATTACH (with a MAP or LOGIN /NS) to 3.1x servers. We are actively, aggressively analyzing our departments and shared data areas in order to migrate "workgroups" to the 4.1x environment. One more gotcha out there for folks migrating in this fashion. The %LOGIN_NAME variable used in 4.1x only retains the first 8 characters. This was an issue here due to the naming rolled out by prior network administration. Oh, and a reminder: change _is_ constant! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Feb 1997 20:28:02 -0600 From: "Kevin McIntosh" To: Subject: Re: NW 4.1 licenses To add: Any time you map a drive or connect to a printer you take a licensed connection. With some 16-bit and all "Designed for Windows 95" apps., you can avoid this and use a UNC (Universal Naming Convention). I've put 400 hundred CC:Mail users on a 'Post Office' NW 4.10 server with a 5 user license. The user interface runs from their application servers. Works great and reduces administration. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 11:48:38 -0700 From: Shawn Subject: Re: Housekeeping >With regards to what housekeeping, when and how to do it on a Netware >server Gary Scobie has some excellent documents on the subject on his >web server: > http://mft.ucs.ed.ac.uk/ > >Specifically: > http://mft.ucs.ed.ac.uk/novell/techsup/servman.htm > >Though if you do hit his site have a look at: > http://mft.ucs.ed.ac.uk/novell/techsup/mftweb.htm >as there are some interresting messages there that were emailed to > >David Hayling Also check out the article called "Pruning the Data Tree" in the February issue of NetWare Solutions at http://www.nwsolutions.com/feb/node.htm . It's not too in-depth, but it gives some good advice. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 18:47:54 -0500 From: "Brien K. Meehan" Subject: Re: NT40 With NW3.12 = client lockups >I have noticed that windows 3.1 stations logged into my novell 3.12 server >have begun to lock up intermittently. The only change has been the addition >of two NT 4.0 servers - One running lotus notes; and a second just setup to >load a new accounting system. This has been isolated, so far, to the net >leg that has these NT boxes. > >Is it possible, that NT is 'blasting' my net somehow and causing IPX/SPX >crashs? If so, How do I remedy this? I've had a situation a little bit like this. My Netware servers were crashing when I put an NT server on the same FDDI loop. It turns out that the NT server was spewing relatively "huge" packets, and the LAN drivers couldn't handle them. The solution was to change the Maximum Physical Receive Packet Size to 8192 on the Netware servers. You might try adding "MAX FRAME SIZE 8192" to the "Link Driver" section in your NET.CFG files on the workstations, and see what happens. You might also try getting updated drivers from the NIC manufacturers. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 09:51:01 +1000 From: Mark Cramer Subject: Can the SYS vol be split? >I've got a 750Mb SYS and a 1Gigish! volume on a 3.12 server. I need to >split this so that I have a 300Mb SYS volume and a 450Mb volume (the 1Gig >is not changed) >Can this be done easily or is it a case of backup, delete all the volumes, >recreate, install the software and then restore? I've done this kind of things several times, without even taking the server down, but it relies on some spare disk space, either in the server or on another box. Using John Bairds utilities, trstlist will create a batch file to reinstate all user and group trustee's, BindClos, NCopy Sys:System\Net$*.Sys, BindOpen will get the bindery (a lot quicker than using bindrest) BindClos, Dismount Sys, Mount Sys, Ncopy Sys:System\QueueDirectories, BindOpen will get the print queue set up. So if you have enough space, move all non-essential things off sys, ncopy system and mail to the other volume, make sure you get the queues, bindery, batch files to recreate trustee's, the system login script (Sys:Public\Net$log.dat) on the other volume. Make sure your logged in, dismount sys, disable login, destroy and recreate it, copy all the stuff back from the other volume, including the queues and bindery, enable login. About the only things you lose this way are file ownerships and flags, and if you use Netcopy from John's utilities (and you have enough disk space), you don't need to lose these. I've resized/changed the block size and recreated volumes quite a few times using this technique. It's a lot faster than reinstalling netware. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 20:30:38 -0500 From: Debbie Becker Subject: Re: Compression Screen - what does it mean? >Is there any documentation on the Compression Screen? You know, that >screen that you get when you SET COMPRESS SCREEN = ON. Last info I had showed the following fields (left to right): 1) Filename 2) Percent Compression 3) Compression Speed (bytes/sec) 4) Decompression Speed (bytes/sec) 5) Compressed Size 6) Uncompressed Size 7) Error checking codes (about 5 single-digit numbers) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 11:57:05 -0300 From: Marcus Senna Barros - CI To: netw4-l@ecnet.net Subject: Re: Server config. >Config.nlm and Confgnut.nlm worked great. You can use the Config Reader, available at the Novell site, to analyze the output. Although the CONFIG.TXT is an ASCII file, the Config Reader has some interesting features: - It tells you which patches are applied in a Windows Format. - You can compare a serverïs configuration with another one. - It gives you suggestions like removing devices from autoexec.bat and config.sys, adding more memory, applying the latest patches (you can configure it to download a control file from Novell site, on a regular basis). The name of the file is CFGRD3.EXE (according to Novell, it works only with Windows 95), and you can get it at http://support.novell.com/Ftp/Updates/nwos/nw410/Date0.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 23:02:42 +1200 From: "Baird, John" Subject: Don't Sub-allocate Flag? >Ok I was looking in the log that Vrepair generated for the errors on the >drive and I saw that it was an "invalid attribute bits are set" error. I >looked it up on Novell's site and they explained that it had to do with >setting the don't sub-allocate flag on a file. The thing is neither I nor >anyone here at the company has done that, especially not on 2700 files. >How can I revert this? Vrepair is not changing the Flag, and it keeps >having these errors. This really sucks! flag * -ds /s If I remember correctly, the "Dont suballocate" bit in the attribute dword is the same as the NW 2.x "Index" bit, which is probably why Vrepair is reporting an error - the "Index" bit was obsoleted in 3.x and then recycled as "Dont suballocate" in 4.x. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Apr 1997 13:54:46 +1200 From: David Harris Subject: Re: NOVELL Digest - 3 Apr 1997 >The last three Novell Digest I have received (since I implemented the >anti-spam feature in WinPMail) have been coming with an attachment, >unlike previous digests. The effect of this is that the digest is >truncated where the "attachment" is located, and that attachment is >presumably winmail.dat. If I download the Digest and read it with a text >editor, I have no problems, but I do find the winmail.dat file >(gobbledygook) in the middle of the mailer. You can read the digest in "Show all headers" mode in the message reader. BUT... There's a much better and more elegant solution. You're still receiving the digest in the traditional (i.e, horrible, unstandard) form - try sending a message to listserv@listserv.syr.edu containing the following line: SET NOVELL MIME This tells ListServ that you would sooner receive MIME digests instead of the clunky, horrid old format. Any mail reader worth its salt can do some pretty neat things with a MIME digest (since you're using Pegasus Mail, you'll get the full benefits of the format). The fact that ListServ now supports MIME digests has allowed me to resubsribe both to this list and to the PMAIL list again - prior to now, the lists have been too unmanageable. As for the "attachment" - I'll bet you'll find it's one of those stupid MS-TNEF formatting blocks that MS-Mail seems to feel it has to attach to outgoing messages. Cheers! -- David -- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Apr 1997 13:22:06 -0700 From: Shawn Rappaport To: netw4-l@ecnet.net Subject: Re: WAN Technologies >Where can I find technical data on WAN link speeds such as T1, T3, ATM? Check my web page under "Online Resources"[Upgrading and Repairing Networks], "Internetworking" and "Miscellaneous". http://www.futureone.com/~opeth/networking.html Another good resource is HP's "Fundamentals of Internetworking". You can download the 6.1 MB (ouch!) PDF file at: http://www.hp.com/rnd/technol/internet/fundintr/fundintr.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 20:30:53 -0400 From: Glenn Fund Subject: Re: merge binderies >I would like to combine the binderies of 2 Netware 3.12 Servers in one >Netware 3.12 Server. Users of both NW 3.12 servers should log in in the >new servers. Try DoubleTake from Network Specialists, Inc. Phone: (201) 656-2727. DoubleTake could even keep multiple servers continuously in sync with a another high availability server on a continuous basis. The merging of binderies directories and files will be a piece of cake. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 09:39:22 +1200 From: "Baird, John" Subject: extra objects in the bindery >After running bindfix on our production servers, bindfix informed me >that there were a couple of extra objects in the bindery and would i >like to delete them. Of course I resonded YES and finished the job at >hand. If I recall correctly, there are some hacking utilities that >will create hidden objects in the bindery. Is there any way that I >can "look" at the old bindery files and find the exact objects in >question. I cant think of any other instance other than hacking >novell that would insert "extra" objects in the bindery, if anyone >knows of any other instance please let me know. TIA, from your >freindly high school network admin. Bindfix isn't exactly informative in the messages it produces, but I doubt that it would have asked you about deleting "extra" objects. More likely, it had found some problem with particular objects and gave you the option to delete them. These may have been created via SAPS in which case they will have been recreated within minutes of running bindfix and running bindfix again would produce the same messages. The bindery allows objects of type 1 through 0xFFFE, and the std Netware tools will display only the common object types (users, groups, queues, print servers, file servers). A supervisor equivalent or work group manager can create objects of any type with a utility capable of doing so, and unless they are users, groups etc they are hidden in the sense that Syscon etc wont show them. They can be made even less visible by adjusting the object security. You can obtain a list of all objects in the bindery using listobj from JRButils (jrb300a.zip from netlab2.usu.edu:apps) using 'listobj * /a' from a supervisor equivalent account. You can also identify the temporary objects created via SAPS using /b or /c (cant remember which). ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 13:32:10 +1200 From: "Baird, John" Subject: Novell 3.11 Abend after deleting User IDs >I hope someone out there can help me. I'm having a problem deleting >User login IDs from the bindery of a Netware 3.11 server. I get the >Abend message "DestroyUserDiskRestriction had a trustee list" after >deleting about five. This has happened to me twice now. There was >nothing unusual about the users that were deleted. > >I have used BINDFIX to fix the bindery as well as VREPAIR on the SYS: >volume, but I still have this problem. "DestroyUserDiskRestriction will be the function removing the users' volume restrictions. I'd first try running VREPAIR on the volume(s) on which the users have quotas - I assume they are not on SYS:. Also, if you are not running the latest patches, at least check the latest patch kit to see if there is anything there to fix problems with volume quotas. You could also try removing the users quotas using SYSCON or DSPACE before deleting them, but this could be reasonably expected to produce a similar crash. As a last resort, dismount the volume, delete the users, then try running Vrepair which would hopefully recognise the existence of restrictions for non-existent users and clean up. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 14:43:36 -0700 From: Michael Wallendahl Subject: Re: Problems with Netware 4.1 and Macintosh Apps >Adobe Photoshop will not let a person save over a file they explicitly >have rights to and Quark Xpress will forget or say "Error [-43] cannot >find files" for a given page layout a person may be working on. According to Adobe, in order to save a file to a network directory, the user must have supervisor rights to the root of the volume. It took me a while to figure that one out ("But it always works when I try saving..." :) ). Apparently Adobe doesn't see this as a problem, so the only workaround is to save the file to the local desktop and then copy it over using the finder. I found out about this on the Adobe web site. --------- Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 15:14:22 +0000 From: "Robert S. Sfeir" Subject: Re: Problems with Netware 4.1 and Macintosh Apps >>Adobe Photoshop will not let a person save over a file they explicitly >>have rights to and Quark Xpress will forget or say "Error [-43] cannot >>find files" for a given page layout a person may be working on. > >According to Adobe, in order to save a file to a network directory, the >user must have supervisor rights to the root of the volume. It took me a >while to figure that one out ("But it always works when I try saving..." >:) ). Apparently Adobe doesn't see this as a problem, so the only >workaround is to save the file to the local desktop and then copy it over >using the finder. There is also a patch on Novell site that will fix part of this issue. Look under the Mac Client support side and you will see the patch there. --------- Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 17:55:21 +0000 From: "Robert S. Sfeir" Subject: Re: Problems with Netware 4.1 and Macintosh Apps >Can you fake it out with a map root to the photoshop directory? Uh... Macs don't process login scripts, just directory rights. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Apr 1997 11:15:16 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: mac zones >I am trying to fix a problem that has been here a while. We have three mac >zones "admin", "dept", and "norman". All are visible from atcon and any >mac client station. The problem is that only "admin" sees the file server. >This is what is in the autoexec.ncf >load appletlk net=50350 zone=("admin","dept","norman"} >load exp16 port=300 int=5 fram=ethernet_snap name=macethr >bind appletlk macethr net=10-13 zone={"admin","dept","norman"} >load afp >load atps >I've tried different statements according to what the "books" say but this >is the only way I can get any zone to see the server? If anyone has any >ideas or could just point me in the right direction, thanks. ----------- Don't have the NW server seed Appletalk zones. Make it a listener, not a contributor to the confusion. Do that by using net=0-0 rather than your net=10-13 phrase. Joe D. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 10:22:08 -0600 From: Andrew Hagen Subject: Re: Exclusive File Locks >Does anyone know of a utility for NW3.12 which will report on files with >an exclusive lock and the user(s) who are locking them? We use slock, a freeware utility. ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.12/novell/slock.zip ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 15:47:11 +0200 From: Camaszotisz Gyorgy Subject: TID finder For those of you running into trouble finding a TID by number at Novell, I suggest a quick way: http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/tidfinder.cgi?2927123 The number at the end of the line should be the requested TID's number. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jul 1997 16:48:17 -0400 From: "Brien K. Meehan" Subject: Re: NET$DOS.sys bigger than floppy >I need to make and NET$DOS.SYS that does not fit in a floppy. >Is possible to make a NET$DOS.SYS from a hadr drive directory? I recently started a project with boot ROM's, and had the same need. This is what I found out. I couldn't get DOSGEN to make a boot image from anything but a floppy...but there is a way to do what I wanted. My boot ROM's came from Lanworks, and came with a utility called MAPGEN. This utility makes a virtual floppy disk from a boot image, lets you manipulate it, and then saves it as a boot image again when you're done. Also, from their web site (www.lanworks.com), I downloaded "288_nw.zip," which is a ZIP'd 2.88MB floppy disk boot image. I think their MAPGEN utility is also available there. So, with MAPGEN and 288MEG.SYS, I was able to create a bootable 2.88MB image. I could fit the Netware client AND the SCSI drivers in the boot image - hooray! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 10:20:36 +0100 From: "Erik Bos, AMC afd. PC-LAN" Subject: (Fwd) Rename 4.1 server >I have a 4.1 server which has an underscore in the server name. For >e-mail standards reason, the underscore needs to be removed. I tried >to rename the server according to document 2925689 from the Novell >web site. The steps I followed are: > > 1. Load install and edit the autoexec.ncf file to reflect the name > change. > 2. Down the server and brng it back up. > 3. At the console prompt, set dstrace=*L to initiiate the limber > process. > 4. Change any login script variables which reference the old server. > 5. Select the SYS volume in NWadmin and rename. > >When I got to step five, NWadmin came back with 'Selected server not >found'. Nothing I did changed the server name in NDS even though the >server prompt reflected the new name. These are the right steps, but to solve the problem check the server name at the following places: - NWAdmin / NWdamn95 / Netadmin - Network neighbourhood in Windows 95 - Nlist server /a /b (or somthing like that) - Filer in Windows 3.x - The server console Do all these match? Has the servername changed? If needed change the server name as Novell described. Check all volume names of this server: - NWAdmin / NWdamn95 / Netadmin - Network neighbourhood in Windows 95 - Filer in Windows 3.x Do all these match? Have the volume names changed? If needed change the volume name as Novell described. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 12:53:32 -0700 From: Donovan Bray Subject: Re: Netware Disk Mirroring >Does any one know otherwise or has had experience of losing a >primary drive, as my understanding was that it would re possible to >mirror a new drive from the primary (formerly secondary) drive . If >the secondary drive failed, obviously I could create a new mirror as >the Primary driver is still able to run server.exe. #1 Two drives and one controller equals mirroring, two drives and two controllers equals duplexing, There's no real difference in setting this up in Netware except the lines to load the second controller. Fault-Tolerance, and performance are increased by adding the second controller. #2 Make sure your controller has Large Drive Translation Turned OFF (DOS will only see 1GB, this is ok). Make sure drives have on-board cache turned OFF (most SCSI drives marketed for servers have cache set to off by factory default, but check your documentation). #3 All Controllers are not equal. I use only Adaptec. Some controllers don't have the ability to boot off of different SCSI id's when the primary has failed. (Been there done that, won't do it again!) #4 Take the first drive and install it in the system. Use DOS to create a primary DOS Partition ( I am currently using 50MB) and make it active. Install DOS (Verify that it boots). #5 Disconnect first drive (Remove Power). Install Second Drive. Create primary DOS partition of exactly same size as first. Make it active, reboot and format with the system option so its bootable (Verify that it boots). #6 Install both drives ensuring SCSI ID's and Termination are done properly. #7 Boot the system, You will now have a C:\ and D:\, install CD-ROM Software, Install Netware, Create Partitions, Mirror Them. Complete Server Setup, Reboot. #8 Bypass Autoexec on bouts so that you will be at the dos prompt, xcopy the C: drive to D:. If you have done everything correctly your server will boot off of either drive if one fails. (Verify it) Remember that Netware does NOT mirror the dos partitions. If you make any changes to startup.ncf and/or any other changes to the dos partition such as patch updates, disk drivers and network drivers, you need to manually xcopy the changes to the D: drive. You should make this part of you recurring maintenance even if you believe you haven't made any changes. Do NOT attempt to automate xcopying of the DOS partition at boot: Besides taking valuable time to reboot after a system crashes, you might lock the machine by trying to copy to a non-existent drive. It's extremely important to remove (disconnect the power) the first drive after step 4, FDISK will not allow you to make 2 active partitions, but once set and you are running with both drives it ignores the setting on the second drive. If you fail to remove the first drive after step 4, the secondary drive will continue working after a failure, however after you shutdown to remove the afflicted drive, it will NOT boot. If you are currently in this situation, boot up on a dos floppy, and use FDISK to set the partition active and reboot. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 13:24:49 +1000 From: Michael Mollard Subject: Re: server asks for name >When I start the server, it always asks for the server name and IPX >internal number, even though both are set in the autoexec.ncf. The >autoexec.ncf is executed, which is evident from the surrounding >commands being executed. When you load conlog, the server needs a name. If conlog is loaded before the server name is set, conlog will request one. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 18:46:55 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: HELP: Error "Lost connection or file permission error" >We have three 3.12 fully patcched servers connecting over frame >relay WAN. Two weeks ago our users started getting error messages >when trying to save or print document in MS word. The error is >"Unable to save due to file permission error" or "A network error >has occured. You may have lost your connection." We click on OK and >HAVE NOT lost the connection. Sometimes we can just go and save >again and it works, sometimes we keep getting the same error >messages. We use MS Word 6.0 on Win 3.11. The eror has a MS Word >dialogue box. > >The problem is that these errors also started occuring at our other two sites. >They are inconsistent and occur in other MS software such as excel. >We are checking for viruses, list no packet loss in MONITOR. >The error occurs more frequently daily but there are no Novell >console errors to tell us what is going on. -------- I suspect many of us will tell you what's wrong. In a nut shell, lost packets. Frame Relay is borrowing spare capacity of phone links to sandwitch in your packets, and you are promised only so much capacity. In actuality your data rate may exceed that promised capacity (ho hum) or exceed the instantaneous capacity (that's more like it) and stuff just disappears. You can make this happen more often by turning on Packet Burst, which imposes a large peak demand. Similarly, other traffic on the link uses up capacity and you lose. Inconsistency is a hallmark of competitive loss. There won't be NW server console errors: recall that IPX is datagrams, send and forget thingys. Lost packets are most often not recorded anywhere, thus being fully lost packets. The bottom line (no pun) is Frame Relay is pretty crummy in the best of circumstances and gets worse under load. You can buy more capacity, but often one must also check that it has been delivered (time for the lawyers and measurments people). For better stability lease dedicated lines of known and sufficiently large capacity ("it's only money"), and try not to do LAN-style work across such links ("put a NW server at the remote site and keep data local"). Joe D. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 12:21:53 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: MS Clients & Filesharing >> To refresh the minds of those for whom two years ago in this >>business is prehistoric... >> >> Do NOT use MS file/print sharing over IPX on a NetWare network. > >I am afraid this can cause a confusion. According to the MS >terminology, one should rather say: "Do not use 'File and printer >sharing _for_ Netware Networks'" because 'File and printer sharing >_for_ Microsoft Networks' is harmless even _on_ a NetWare network. > >Or am I missing something ? > >Jiri Polach ---------- The technical part is "over IPX" because that introduces the fake NetWare part. Using MS file/print sharing over NetBEUI or over RFC-NetBIOS (NetBIOS over TCP/IP) do not cause difficulties and are the ways we (USU) recommend folks go about this. NetBEUI, of course, is not routable; RFC-NetBIOS is fully routable because it uses IP. As Jiri says, use "FOR" as appropriate. Joe D. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 17:42:10 GMT From: Ken Wallewein Subject: Re: Ethernet vs. MAC Address On Ethernet, the MAC (Media Access Control) address _is_ the Ethernet address. Period. On ARCnet, it would be the ARCnet addess. On Token Ring, it would be the T/R address. In other words, the MAC address is the lowest-level ("hardware") address of packets on the wire. On a TCP/IP subnet, ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is usually used to determine the MAC address of the host to which an IP address refers. Reading up on ARP is a good way to improve you understanding of the difference between level 2 (MAC) and level 3 (e.g., IP) addresses. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 06:01:35 +0200 From: efi ovadia Subject: Re: NOVELL Digest - 16 Oct 1997 If u want to format a hard drive without a user need to do anything just use the autotest switch (undocumented) on MSDOS only. format c:/u/autotest >nul will format drive c: without any question ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 09:56:52 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: CLIB switches >load clib /L1 tz=EST5DST /pb ------ /Ldigit is for packet signing. /pb is for packet burst (essentially undoc'd) There is no list of clib switches that I know of. The switches just appear in a release or so of clib and we keep note of them at the time. They may not apply in later issues of clib, but Novell does not tell us. Joe D. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 12:24:55 -0700 From: Rodney Hoffman Subject: Just found..."Config Reader" I just found out about a utility called "Config Reader" created by the gurus at Novell. They use it to debug a caller's problems. But, I would assume that this is not the only application of it. So hey!! ... At any rate, when used in conjunction with CONFIG.NLM, this little gem will go through the file produced by the CONFIG.NLM and tell you what files on your server need to be updated, what needs to be changed, what patches are loaded, etc, etc, ad infinitum. It has a special tab for comparison of a baseline server with others at a site. So updating multiple servers is a breeze. It does this via a passive FTP connection to Novell's site. which it uses to get the updated database it uses for comparison. It then describes in great detail what needs to be fixed. Whether you have 1 or 100 servers, this program will help keep you current and may even save your hide, and who knows... you might just get a raise from it! I found it quite useful. Try it out. Hey, it's free! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 15:48:12 +1000 From: Mark Cramer Subject: Re: Script to restart server needed >Does anyone have a script to reboot a server remotely. >It should go something like > >file name = restart.ncf >remove dos >down >wait something >exit I've been trying for a while to get a reliable script for autorestarting a server at night time. I've had problems with versions of Netshield abending the server if unloaded, problems with Delay.Nlm not working with some versions of Clib, and recently problems with the Watchdog timeouts not occuring quick enough, at least not reliably. Here's my current script: REBOOTIT.NCF ;Down the server and reboot ;Ensure all connections are cleared ; Unload Remote Console and NetShield Unload Rspx Unload Remote Unload NetShld BStop ; Unload all network boards and let the server time out all connections ; so all files are closed (one NCF for all servers, I don't have all these ; cards in one box) Unload 3c5x9 Unload CpqNf3 Unload CpqEther Unload Cpq2Eth Unload E100 Unload E100b Unload Ne2000 Unload Ne3200 Unload SmcNw311 Unload SmcPlusSV Unload Smc8000 ; !!! Reducing the watchdog packet delays to those listed below ; !!! DOES NOT reliably reduce minimum wait time to 60 seconds ; !!! Tests show the delay is close to 5.5 minutes ; !!! The delay SHOULD be 20+4x10 secs, it's not. ;Set Delay Before First Watchdog Packet=15.7 sec ;Set Delay Between Watchdog Packets=9.9 sec Set Delay Before First Watchdog Packet=20 sec Set Delay Between Watchdog Packets=10 sec Set Number of Watchdog Packets=5 Set Console Display WatchDog Logouts=On ;Wait for the watchdog to clear all stations ; Delay the use of Remove Dos, Down, Exit for ~7 minutes ; !! Delay.Nlm causes problems on 4.x with some clib versions ; !! Using DelayCmd instead Load DelayCmd 420 "Reboot" REBOOT.NCF ;Reboot the server Remove Dos Down Exit ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 08:32:57 +1000 From: Lester Bennett Subject: Re: Anyway to increase sys size on 312 Server? >On a Novell 3.12 server is there a way to increase the sys volume size >if there is room on the hard disk drive yet? You can have multiple Volumes or segments of volumes within a NetWare Partition on one hard drive but you can only have one NetWare Partition on a drive. If there is unused space in the NetWare partition you can add this to the volume but if the spare space is not within the NetWare partition you can only use it by deleting the NetWare partition (after backing it up) reinstalling Netware and your backup software, creating the NetWare partition in the full available space in the process, then restore the original data. Having a spare drive and mirroring them then breaking the mirror and using the new drive is much simpler than reinstalling and restoring. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 18:56:08 -0600 From: Karl Klemm Subject: Re: Error reading file >I get an Error reading file whatever.dat >offset 0000F000h Data Stream 0 > >Anytime I try to read a particular file on the sys volume. The >workstation hangs trying to copy the file with copy, or gives a >sharing violation, or cannot copy file with filer or ncopy. >What can I do, is the volume bad? > >It scares me to run Vrepair as their previous network guy chained 3 >SCSI disks together into 1 big SYS volume ): >there are no patches as of yet on the 3.12 server. I've run into the problem a few times on 3.1x servers (most of the time it hung the backups). The best way we found was to - rename the file (to keep the bad sectors still marked as in use) - flag it read-only - exclude it from the backup stream - hide it (so no one tries to open it) When we used VREPAIR or Surface Analysis -> Non-Destructive, it would miss the bad block/sector. This worked well until we had to replace the hard drive or upgraded the server (over 6 months in one case). ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 21:44:07 +0200 From: Mike Glassman - Admin Subject: resizing volume There is a utility called RESIZER.NLM that will allow you to change your block size on the fly, and thus you would NOT need to go thru all the stages you describe. Before using this utility tho, be sure to : BACKUP No users online DO NOT TAKE YOUR SERVER DOWN BEFORE IT IS DONE If you follow those rules, you'll be fine. In my case I tried it a few times and played around with various scenarios to see what would happen. The worst case was when it was still making the changes and I shut the server down via a hard power down (I switched the puter off). On rebooting.....no more volumes, data, etc etc etc. It simply erased the lot. This was a testing server so not to worry, but you get the point. If it completes, you're fine, if not, you're in trouble. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 18:53:40 -0800 From: Brandon Fouts Subject: New Lab Why go to Windows 95? Why not NT ? Why not Windows 98 or NT 5 ? You should ask yourself these questions. I'd upgrade my NetWare server to 4.11 and get all that Internet stuff going (free web browsers, web server...). And I'd get GroupWise going to help manage things - assign tasks, schedule lab time and meetings. Start having some fun. Rather than struggling with Windows95. You may have noticed that much of this Novell list deals with Windows95 problems and I for one, still don't know what benefit people find running Windows95 - so make sure you have a good reason to go thru the pain - any major OS upgrade is time consuming and everyone needs to be re-trained and legacy (existing) hardware/software may or may not work. And you really really need to look at IntraNetWare and see all the things you get with a REAL UPGRADE. Not just changes in the GUI - and NetWare 4 is FASTER and more STABLE and EASIER to manage and it will make NT a lot easier to manage. Get your network ready for the 32bit desktop OS and by the time you have done that - Microsoft should have some really good reasons to upgrade to 32bit. I've been waiting for 32bit desktop OS since the 386 and I have learned to use about 6-9 operating systems (20 if you count versions like DOS 1 thru 6 and Windows 1, 2 and 3.x and the ones you never heard of CP/M MP/M Concurrent DOS). But each time I learned a new OS it was for an improvement - usually the end user application was the reason, sometimes for improved "back end" or infrastructure. With all the advantages of being connected to the Internet, that is where I'd want to spend my next year, learning and getting wired to the Net. Which is what I've been doing. And I keep looking for that reason to upgrade the desktop OS, but in the mean time getting my end users to learn Office 4.x is where my biggest improvement in productivity will come from. AND getting my people onto the Internet - which is what IntraNetWare is doing for me (along with GroupWise). And GroupWise is the best groupware I've found (and most of the "press" says the same thing). Novell's Client32 is the best thing to happen to Windows. Oh well, you've probably heard enough if you read this far. So think about those upgrades and check out what your missing out on IntraNetWare! --------- Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 09:51:38 -0600 From: George Taylor Subject: New Lab -Reply >Why go to Windows 95? In an educational setting you supply what your community demands. With the way Windows 95 was marketed it instantly became "the thing" for many people. Obviously this caused a large amount of demand for training, this equals FTE, the life blood of education. >Why not NT ? Nice Try? Well actually I agree with NT in a production environment and yes, it needs to be taught also. However, head down to your local video store and see what that college student working there is using. I would guess not NT. >Why not Windows 98 or NT 5 ? Class is in session, when do you suppose Win98 will be released? I can't remember, was 95 actually released in 95? ;) >You may have noticed that much of this Novell list deals with >Windows95 problems and I for one, still don't know what I have left education and am now a Networker for a corporation of several thousand employees with a WAN spanning 10 or so states. Windows 95 is the desktop standard corporate wide and actually there has not been all that many problems. There have of course been the standard support calls, job security? >benefit people find running Windows95 - so make sure you >have a good reason to go thru the pain - any major OS >upgrade is time consuming and everyone needs to be >re-trained and legacy (existing) hardware/software may or >may not work. Ahhhh, training needed, smells like student FTE to me, but yes faculty and staff must be taken into consideration. You can bet on the fact that many employees will take these wonderfully appealing classes and then expect their office computers to work the same, gotta do homework there ya know. >With all the advantages of being connected to the Internet, >that is where I'd want to spend my next year, learning and >getting wired to the Net. Uhh, this is an institute of higher education, ever heard of the expression "Because it's time"? Ask someone about BITnet, education has been on the "net" for many many years. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 19:28:24 -0500 From: Nathan Durland Subject: Re: Get ECB Request Failed >Our 2 servers, Novell NetWare 4.10 fully patched, on P133, 64MB each, >begin to produce Get ECB Request Failed thingies. > >On our COAX backbone, the No ECB Available count is increasing at both >sides. Two 3-Com Etherlink III Combo cards. > >According to all the tech info I read about it on the internet, this means >something is about to give up. What can I do to prevent major problems?? Generally, the No ECB count means that a packet came in to the server, and Netware hd no place to temporarily store it while it was busy doing somethng else. Check your setting for MINIMUM PACKET RECEIVE BUFFERS and MAXIMUM PACKET RECEIVE BUFFERS. Packet receive buffers (PRB's) are where netware stashes a data packet until it gets a chance to process it. By default, this value is 10. If you have a very busy network, these 10 may become filled, in which case 2 things will happen, a 'No ECB' error will be generated, and Netware will allocate additional PRB's, up to the value specified in MAXIMUM PRB. Once that level is reached, the packets are discarded. I almost always start with the MINIMUM PRB setting at 50, and the maximum at 2000. Play with these settings and see if it helps. --------- Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 08:50:49 +0200 From: Mike Glassman - Admin Subject: Re: Get ECB Request failed -Reply >>Our 2 servers, Novell NetWare 4.10 fully patched, on P133, 64MB >>each, begin to produce Get ECB Request Failed thingies. >> >>On our COAX backbone, the No ECB Available count is increasing at both >>sides. Two 3-Com Etherlink III Combo cards. >> >>According to all the tech info I read about it on the internet, this >>means something is about to give up. What can I do to prevent major >>problems?? > >Check packet receive buffers - they are probably at the maximum. >Increase both minimum and maximum packet receive buffers. I believe >that Novell (used to) recommend 2 buffers for each concurrent users - >I prefer to set my minimum such that it generally doesn't increase much >and then set the max at double that. The minimum can only be changed >in startup.ncf but you can increase the max immediately. AFAIK the >main impact of ECB fails will be on performance as packets may get dropped >and need to be resent. You should find these settings in SERVMAN - >Server parameters - Communications (I think). So far I've noticed everyone refer to this from the PRB side, and this is correct. The thing is, noone has yet said (actually someone did say something about it not being a bad thing) that if you get this message, and the number is continuously rising, ergo, you watch the screen on your LAN card and see the number grow at a steady pace, is that soon enough your server is going to stop. The usuall practice of PRB's is not to simply go REAL high or use a random number, as don't forget that this does use memory, and memory is critical. Allow your system to work with the defaults for about a week, look at your Monitor screen and use the number that you get there as your minimum PRB's. In order to get your maximum, look at the difference between the minimum and maximum by default and increase from the new minimum by the same amount or slightly more. This will put you on level. When you set your minimum PRB, Netware allocates that amount in advance, so your server doesn't end up having to take more meory all the time for it. It does not mean that it will automatically use the new minimum, it will "allocate" them in advance. Also, the no ECB message can also come from an old driver being used, or a disconnection/error on the network cable. All these cause excessive packets on the net which in itself can cause an increase in PRB's. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 16:17:58 +0200 From: "David W. Hanson" Subject: Re: What constitutes a licensed connection? >We have expanded our network with the addition of >3 servers. The user licenses varies on each >server. All clients have the same preferred >server. Resources on the other servers are needed >occasionally. What causes a licensed connection >to be used: MAP, CAPTURE, LOGIN? All three will use a license, but once you are licensed, you can MAP or CAPTURE as much as you want on that server using that one licensed connection. >In most cases, an app on the main server will >open a file on one of the other servers. When the >file is opened, is that a licensed connection? Yes. With some applications, you need an authenticated, unlicensed connection before the application can open the file. At that point the connection becomes licensed. >When the file is closed, is the connection closed? Depends on what client you are using. With VLMs, the connection will usually change to an authenticated, but not licensed connection. #:) With Client32, once you use the licensed connection, you are stuck with a licensed connection until you explicitly log off of the server in question. #:( --------- Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 10:01:20 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: NW not releasing connections? On this continuous stream of messages complaining about using up simultaneous login connections. What can you do about it (if it affects your site)? Below are some possibilities: 1. Increase the number of simultaneous logins. Yes, that involves license counts. But notice something. If you do bump up the limit and a station is observed logged in twice or more then all but one go away after a short time. Why? Because the NW watchdog timer probes say that particular logical connection is invalid. See how long is "a short time" on your system; measure it. We can use this timeout effect in suggestion 2 below. 2. Shorten the watchdog timeout interval. See above for the window of vulnerability. Too short and there are too many watchdog probes per minute. Experimentation should be beneficial. Consider how long it takes to reboot the average workstation in your environment and add a little more. Watchdog parameters are Server console SET command items; Set Fido! 3. Call Novell Tech Support and open an incident. You did have some free calls in the beginning, and this is certainly an incident of merit. Yes, there may be a charge for the matter, but not necessarily. They know about the problem, and your incident merely makes the complaint pile deeper and thus more likely to be dealt with in the near term. 4. Call your local Novell office and explain the case, for them to carry to Provo. Not as good as 3 but this does not cost a fee and engages the political/marketing rather than technical channels. These are good folks to know anyway. 5. Spend money for a larger licence count, hopefully to reuse that license on a new server in the near future. See item 4 on negotiating a price. 6. Cheer on John Baird as he tries to create a temp solution by outwitting NDS. 7. Continue to repeat the problem here on this list, and we all get rather tired of it. Anything missing? Joe D. --------- Date: Sat, 8 Nov 1997 13:33:42 +1300 From: "Baird, John" Subject: Re: Logged in users, again >The last time I sent a message, I had used NLIST user /a. When I add /b, >the list is different. For one thing, Mac users appear on the list. >However I still have questions: > >One user who appears on NLIST USER /a does not appear on the list when I >include the /b parameter. Moreover, according to the information in his >account, that account has not logged in since 8-13-97. > >Why the discrepancy? Why does he even appear on any invoked list of current >users? > >Why does the server itself not appear on the list with /a but twice when /a >and /b are invoked? > >Why does a networked printer appear twice. Does each connection to the >printer count as a login? > >Reason for all these questions: The server has a license for 150 concurrent >users. Are there licenses being wasted on redundancies? The answers are obvious once you understand the difference between 'nlist user /a' and 'nlist user /a/b'. Unfortunately, Novell doesn't explain this so that essential management tool - the lanalyser - comes in handy here to see exactly what nlist is up to. 'nlist user /a' simply scans all objects of class 'user' in your current context for those with a "Network address" attribute. The 'a' in /a stands for active, and this command in theory is listing users in your current context who are logged in on any of the servers in the tree. But, as we know the "Network address" attribute values are not always cleared upon logout, hence the entry for someone last logged in on 8-13-97. 'nlist user /a/b' does the equivalent of the NW 3.x userlist command. It actually scans the server's connection tables and so will list connections for all logged in objects whatever their object class. To summarize nlist user /a/b nlist user /a Object classes Any user Servers logged into current server any Scope independent of context current context only Spurious logins no, shows actual can show spurious ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 09:04:59 +1300 From: "Baird, John" Subject: Re: job server >I am in the process of getting ready to upgrade to NW4.11 from 3.12. I >ran dupbind to get a listing of items with the same name. One thing came >up, a print queue and a job server. How do I find the job server? A job server is a standard (but rarely used) bindery object. The queue and job server are probably remnants from some software you have evaluated e.g. a fax server. If they are not being used, then they should be deleted. Deleting the queue is straight forward, but neither SYSCON nor PCONSOLE will show job servers. To delete this prior to the upgrade, you can use delobj in JRButils (jrb300a.zip from the apps directory on netlab2.usu.edu) - use 'delobj jobserver /o=5'. Otherwise, you can delete it after the upgrade where it will show in netadmin/nwadmin as a bindery object with the type "+5" appended to the name. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 18:48:58 -0800 From: Randy Richardson Subject: Turn off Broadcast in the Client >I hope one of you cn help me. The President of the company does NOT want >to see all those broadcast meesages that appear on his screen when a VOLUME >get low. I am aware of the fact you can turn off the messages from the >server console, but then it will not warn me (Network Administrator) that a >volume is getting low of space. > >Is there anyway where I can turn this off for a group of users, and leave >it on for us network administrator ???? In the System Login Script, add the following line to disable all incomming broadcasts for a group of users: If Member of "GROUPNAME" then #CastOff All For individual users, just include a "#CastOff All" line right in their login script. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 17:59:44 +0000 From: Randy Richardson Subject: Re: Unavailable letters for mapped drives in -Reply >We have a mixed IntraNetWare and Windows 95/NT4 environment >and all users gets drives mapped to the INW Servers. Our problem >is that the drive letter will not be visible from some applications i.e >MS Office, due to the long UNC-name. At the workstation, the "Max Cur Dir Length" setting in Client32 properties may need to be set to "255" (the default is "64"). On the server, the "Maximum Subdirectory Tree Depth" setting may need to be increased (mine is set to the maximum, "100"). Increasing this setting probably won't fix your problem, unless MS-Office is trying to create a subdirectory beyond the 25-depth default limit. Have you tried installing MS-Office on a specific drive letter instead of using the industry-standard UNC pathname? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 00:10:53 -0600 From: Tim Winders Subject: Re: Easy way to replace drive? >>I have an IntraNetware 4.11 server with 2 4GB SCSI drives. They are >>configured as SYS: and VOL1: We are running out of space on the VOL1: >>drive and would like to replace it with a 9GB drive. Because of physical >>limitations, we cannot install an additional drive in the machine and >>can't go external at this point. >> >>I drive to use Ghost and Drive Image to duplicate the 4GB VOL1: -> a new >>9GB SCSI drive, but both of them create a 4GB Netware Volume and when I go >>into the Install Module in INW it shows me the 4GB free but it won't let >>me create an additional volume, extend VOL1 or anything. The extra 4GB is >>just dead. >> >>So, my question, is there any way, other than Backup/Restore to replace >>one functional drive with another, larger one? TIA! > >I've heard that Partition Magic (they have a product that competes >with Ghost) can resize NetWare partitions. > >Does anyone know if this is true? I haven't had a chance to verify it. I purchased PM3.0 hoping this was true, but the manual clearly states that it can view Netware partitions only... it CANNOT modify/extend etc the Netware partitions. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 10:25:15 +0000 From: Randy Richardson Subject: Stopping unsolicited junk mail without filters Since many of us are administering Novell networks with internet email systems (GroupWise, Novonyx, etc.), this is an important issue since the sender usually ignores "please stop" notices. When you reply to the sender, requesting them to stop sending junk email, include the following link: "Spammers are Sued for USD 5 Million" www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?service=view_survey&survey_number=499 Be sure to look up the domain name with the InterNIC WhoIs command, and "CC" all the administrators (also include the original message with all its headers) of the domains and related domains. So far, I've had 100% success with this. I used to receive 25 to 100 junk emails daily, now I get about 1 or 2 each week. ------------------------------