------------------------------------------------------------------ NOV-WIN.DOC -- 19980117 -- Email thread on Windows 3.x and NetWare ------------------------------------------------------------------ Feel free to add or edit this document and then email it back to faq@jelyon.com The information for this document is gathered from the Microsoft Windows Technical Workshop Student Notes, MS-DOS electronic HELP, Novell's LAN WorkPlace for DOS ODI for DOS User's Guide, the WINTIPS file (dated July 8, 1994) that Brett Warthen placed at: ftp://netlab2.usu.edu/sys/anonftp/netwire/novuser/01 and from experience. For optimum performance it is recommended that the following programs are run frequently: - A surface scanning program should be run quarterly to detect and prevent errors from occurring on the surface media. The recommended programs are Gibson Research's Spinrite or MSDOS 6.22's SCANDISK with the following parameters /AUTOFIX /NOSUMMARY /SURFACE. i.e. SCANDISK C: /AUTOFIX /NOSUMMARY /NOSUMMARY /SURFACE. - A file defragmenter should also be run to keep files in contiguous order, it should be run monthly. Norton's Speedisk and MSDOS 6.x DEFRAG with the following parameters is recommended /SN /F /B. i.e. DEFRAG C: /SN /F /B. I have created a batch file that runs these programs together. The file is - SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\SCANFRAG.BAT and executes: SCANDISK C: /AUTOFIX /NOSAVE /NOSUMMARY /SURFACE DEFRAG C: /SN /F /B Temporary files and backup files should be deleted prior to running the defragmenter programs. The following files are usually temporary files: .BAK, .TMP, ~WOA, ~GRB and .SWP For optimization of network drivers Novell recommends that the new ODI (Open DataLink Interface) drivers are used to replace the old IPX board drivers. ODI adds functionality to network computing environments by supporting multiple protocols and multiple LAN NIC adapters in a single workstation. Novell also recommends that the client network driver (NETX) be replaced with VLM (Virtual Layer Module) drivers. These are the Novell Dos Netware Requester. Novell is no longer upgrading the IPX drivers or the NETX drivers and are highly recommending that all NETWARE networks use the ODI and VLM drivers. MSDOS's SHARE.EXE device driver should be replaced with the virtual device driver VSHARE.386. When implemented, Windows automatically loads the VSHARE driver whenever it is needed. This save valuable lower memory for other application needs. Occasionally Novell releases updates to drivers that Netware Clients for DOS/MS Windows use when accessing NETWARE networks. The file VLMUP3.EXE contains the updated DOS client files that run with ODI drivers. The file WINUP2.EXE contains updated Windows Driver files for workstations using either VLMs or NETX. The file NWDLL2.EXE contains updated Windows DLL (Dynamic Link Libraries) for workstations using either NETX or the VLMs. These updates should be installed on each client PC that is running Windows 3.x and is accessing the NETWARE networks. -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\WINDOWS ;Updates from WINTIPS ;XCOPY this dir to C:\WINDOWS with /S to include the subdirs -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\NWCLIENT ;The MLIDs and NET.CFG files are in these subdirs: 3C501, 3C5X9, EEXP16, EPROODI, HP 1. md C:\NWCLIENT 2. check autoexec.bat to see which network card it has 3. xcopy -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\NWCLIENT dir and appropriate subdirs 4. xcopy -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\WINDOWS c:\windows /s (if have windows) 5. edit CONFIG.SYS 6. edit AUTOEXEC.BAT 7. check the DOS version number if it is 5.00 update it with -SysVolName- /SYS:UPDATES\MSDOS622.500\setup.EXE. If it is 3.3 xcopy entire hard drive (C: D: E:) up to the network, FDISK the Drive and Make 1 partition, format it with DOS v6.22, login to the network, copy harddrive files that are on the network to the c: (don't copy of autoexec.bat, or DOS files) 8. reboot to make sure system is ok 9. logout of network and run memmaker, if you stay logged in a c:\v6.22 directory will be created and the config.sys will point to this directory for dos himem.sys and emm386.exe files. 10 run Windows 11 edit virtual memory to what is requested below 12 exit from Windows 13 edit system.ini 14 edit win.ini 15 make sure windows is ok 16 run g:\temp\updates\scanfrag 17 write post-it note! to faculty member and send Email message to them with cc: to helpline stating that you updated their Windows files. Following is the optimized configuration for the CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT file on a MSDOS 6.22 computer on a Novell NETWARE LAN with an explanation for each item. When Editing or updating CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and NET.CFG use CAPITAL letters for commands and parameter with lower case letters for documentation. CONFIG.SYS DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS BUFFERS=30,0 FILES=99 DOS=UMB LASTDRIVE=E FCBS=4,0 DOS=HIGH SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /E:1024 /P STACKS=9,256 CONFIG.SYS file with explanations for each item. DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS ;this should be the first line, HIMEM.SYS is the extended-memory manager that coordinates the computers extended memory. DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS ;EMM386.EXE provides access to the upper memory area. When using the RAM or EMS parameter use /X=MMMM-NNNN (CC00-CFFF RAM area that the network card uses). This prevents EMM386 from using a particular range of segment addresses for an EMS page or for UMBs. NOEMS Provides access to the upper memory area but prevents access to expanded memory. DEVICE=C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /DOUBLE_BUFFER ;Is a disk cache in extended memory, the device driver part of SMARTDRV.EXE should be placed in the CONFIG.SYS only when certain hard-disk controllers (SCSI, ESDI or MCA Devices) cannot work with the memory provided by EMM386 or Windows running in 386 enhanced mode, otherwise SMARTDRV.EXE should be loaded from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If the hard disk requires double buffering, SMARTDrive may run faster if its cache is located in conventional memory in AUTOEXEC.BAT have LOADHIGH SMARTDRV /L. To force double buffering use /DOUBLE_BUFFER+ Note: To determine if buffering in needed do the following run MEMMAKER, then MEM /C /P to confirm that upper memory is in use. Then run SMARTDRV.EXE and look at the column labeled "BUFFERING". If any line in this column reads "yes," you need to run the double buffering component of SMARTDrive. BUFFERS=30,0 ;Allocates memory for a specified number of disk buffers when your system starts. [Buffers=n,m] ;n specifies the number of disk buffers (valid range 1-99), word processor recommend 10-20 disk buffers, if used with SMARTDRV set BUFFERS to a maximum of 10. m specifies the number of buffers in the secondary buffers cache. (valid range 0-8) FILES=99 ;Specifies the number of files that MSDOS can access at one time (valid range 8-255), Novell recommends 99 for use with NETWARE. QUESTION: Is this the same as the FILE HANDLES=99 line in the NET.CFG? DOS=UMB ;Specifies that MS-DOS should maintain a link and manage the upper memory blocks, if they exist LASTDRIVE=E ;Specifies the maximum number of drives you can access. "E" is used on Novell NETWARE network since the default login drive is F: FCBS=4,0 ;Specifies the number of file control blocks (FCBS) that MS-DOS can have open at the same time DOS=HIGH ;Specifies that MS-DOS should attempt to load itself into the HMA. SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /E:1024 /P ;Specifies the name and location of the command interpreter that you want MS-DOS to used. /E:nnnn specifies the environment size. /P make the new copy of the command interpreter permanent. STACKS=9,256 ;Supports the dynamic use of data stacks to handle hardware interrupts. Stacks are temporary data structures that MS-DOS and applications use for processing hardware events. STACK=N,S - N Specifies the number of stacks (valid range 8-64), S Specifies the size (in bytes) of each stack (valid range 32-512) AUTOEXEC.BAT Following is the order I prefer to have the different parameters and programs loaded in the AUTOEXEC.BAT. @ECHO OFF, PROMPT, SMARTDRV (IF LOADED), SET COMMANDS (For ease of editing keep in alphabetical order), PATH STATEMENT, Non-network programs (i.e. mouse, video drivers), Network Client Drivers, clearing of screen prior to LOGIN prompt, then LOGIN prompt will come up. AUTOEXEC.BAT @ECHO OFF PROMPT $P$G LH /L:0;1,45488 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP SET WPC=/D-C:\WORK/NT-1/PS-C:\WPO\TMP/U-FAS PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WORK; ; LOAD MOUSE DRIVER HERE IF NEEDED FOR NON-WINDOWED PROGRAMS CD \NWCLIENT LH /L:1,28285 LSL LH /L:1,27728 EXP16ODI ;Use appropriate MLID driver here. LH /L:1,30640 IPXODI LH /L:1,70400 NETX CD \ CLS F:LOGIN -SysVolName-/FSWICK ;END of AUTOEXEC.BAT AUTOEXEC.BAT file with explanations for each item. @ECHO OFF ;Displays or hides the text in batch programs when the program is running. PROMPT $P$G ;Prompt changes the appearance of the command prompt (default is current drive followed by the greater-than sign i.e. c>) $P is the current drive and path, $G > (greater-than sign). LH /L:0;1,45488 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE ;LOADHIGH (abbreviated LH) loads a program into the upper memory area. Use SMARTDRV.EXE /L if double-buffer is required) * - Ensure that the InitCacheSize and WinCacheSize parameters are properly set in accordance with the amount of memory installed on the system. (NEED TO FIND CORRECT PARAMETERS) ; Recommended Cache Sized Available XMS [size] [winsize] <512 K All XMS 0 <1 MB 512 K 256 K <2 MB 1 MB 512 K <4 MB 2 MB 1 MB 4+ MB 2 MB 2 MB SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP ;Set Displays, sets, or removed MS-DOS environment variables. TEMP is the temporary directory that programs need for swapping files to. SET WPC=/D-C:\WORK/NT-1/PS-C:\WPO\TMP/U-FAS ;Sets WordPerfect Software parameters. /D-C:\WORK sets the directory for the default overflow files and buffers. /NT-1 sets the network default to 1 (NETWARE) /PS-C:\WPO\TMP sets the path to settings for Word Perfect Office. /U-FAS sets the default user initials (unique to each person). PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS Indicates which directories MS-DOS should search for executable files. For ease of editing please keep in alphabetical order. CD \NWCLIENT ;Changes the directory to where the NETWARE board drivers and client shells are located. LH /L:1,22880 LSL ;This is part of the Client NETWARE board drivers for ODI (Open DataLink Interface) network interface. LSL is the Link Support layer file that enables the workstation to communicate using several protocols. NetWare Link Support Layer v2.16 (950417) Copyright 1990-1995 Novell, Inc. All Rights Reserved. File name: LSL.COM Size: 18,285 bytes LH /L:1,27728 EXP16ODI ;This is the Intel EtherExpress 16 MLID (Multi Link Interface Driver) driver. The MLID driver communicates directly with the LAN boards. This driver is Network Interface Card (NIC) dependent. The following cards are used on the -SysVolName- LANs. Intel EtherExpress(tm) 16 Ethernet MLID v2.33 (931006) (C) 1993 Intel Corporation File name: EXP16ODI.COM Size: 27,214 bytes 3Com 3C501 EtherLink MLID v1.10 (901129) (C) 1990 Novell, Inc. File name: 3C501.COM Size: 11,838 bytes 3Com EtherLink III MLID w/ DME v1.31 (940131) (C) 1993 3Com Corp. File name: 3C5X9.COM Size: 33,835 bytes Hewlett-Packard PC Adapter/8,16,16+ Ethernet MLID v2.03 (931113) (C) 1993 Hewlett-Packard, Inc. HP EtherTwist 27247A File name: HPISAODI.COM Size: 22,863 bytes SMC8000 (NEED INFO HERE) LH /L:1,30640 IPXODI ;This is the Internal Packet eXchange Open Datalink Interface (IPXODI) driver. IPXODI is a protocol stack for the IPX protocol, it manages communications among network station. IPXODI is similar to the Novell TCPIP.EXE protocol stack which works with IP. This driver is NIC independent. NetWare IPX/SPX Protocol v3.01 (941031) (C) 1994 Novell, Inc. File name: IPXODI.COM Size: 33,353 bytes LH /L:1,70912 NETX ;This is the network client shell for NETWARE environments. NetWare Workstation Shell v3.32 (940524) PTF (C) 1994 Novell, Inc. Patent Pending. File name: NETX.EXE Size: 78,749 Bytes CD \ ;Change default directory back to ROOT. CLS ;Clears Screen. F:LOGIN -SysVolName-/FSWICK ;Logs FSWICK into the network, prompts for password. NET.CFG NET.CFG is a configuration file that contains section headings and options that deviate from the established defaults of the ODI software. Comments should be preceded with a (;). Located in \NWCLIENT or where network drivers are located, -SysVolName- is standardizing on \NWCLIENT for NETWARE Client files, this will make it easier to move to the VLM client software in the Spring. There are three sections to the NET.CFG. Following is a chart listing the options defined by DOS ODI software. Link Driver drivername DMA [#1|#2] channel_number INT [#1|#2] interupt_request_number MEM [#1|#2] hex_starting_address [hex_length] PORT [#1|#2] hex_starting_address [hex_number_of_ports] NODE ADDRESS hex_address SLOT number FRAME frame_type PROTOCOL name hex_protocol_ID frame_type SAPS number LINK STATIONS number ALTERNATE MAX FRAME SIZE number CONNECTOR DIX Link Support BUFFERS communication_number [size] MEMPOOL number[k] PROTOCOL protocol_name BIND #board_number Following is the NET.CFG that we use on the -SysVolName- network PCs. ; NET.CFG parameters for Intel EtherExpress 16 PC LAN Adapters. FILE HANDLES=99 PREFERRED SERVER = -SysVolName- SHOW DOTS ON Link Driver EXP16ODI INT 10 PORT 300 FRAME ETHERNET_802.3 FRAME ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IPX 0 ETHERNET_802.3 PROTOCOL IPX 8137 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IP 0800 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL ARP 0806 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL RARP 8035 ETHERNET_II Link Support BUFFERS 8 1586 MEMPOOL 4096 Protocol IPX BIND 1 ; ;END of NET.CFG file ; NET.CFG file with explanations for each item. ; ; NET.CFG parameters for Intel EtherExpress 16 PC LAN Adapters. ; ;Documentation of NET.CFG file for future reference FILE HANDLES=99 ;recommended minimum for allocating plenty of file handles 99 is number for WordPerfect for Windows 6.x PREFERRED SERVER = -SysVolName- ;Option for -SysVolName- PCs are -SysVolName-, -SysVolName-, etc. SHOW DOTS ON ;Shows current and parent directory dots (. and ..) at the DOS prompt Link Driver EXP16ODI ;Specifies hardware driver for each network board, must have a separate "Link Driver drivername" heading for each network board. INT 10 ;This option specifies which interrupt the network board uses. - SysVolName- is standardizing all NICs to use IRQ10 PORT 300 ;This option specifies the starting point and number of ports in the range. -SysVolName- is standardizing all NICs to use PORT 300. MEM ;This option specifies a memory rand to be used by the network board. MEM XXXXX. Use the hexadecimal physical (absolute) address of the memory used by the board. The network cards we use do not require the MEM parameter in the NET.CFG. FRAME ETHERNET_802.3 ;This option enables the frame types used by the network board. IPX is running on FRAME type 802.3, -SysVolName- is moving to ETHERNET II in the summer of 1995. Novell recommends all NETWARE sites to run IPX and IP on ETHERNET II FRAME ETHERNET_II ;IP runs on Ethernet II FRAME type. PROTOCOL IPX 0 ETHERNET_802.3 ;The PROTOCOL option allow new network protocols to be handled by existing LAN drivers. name is IPX, hex id# is 0, frame_type is ETHERNET_802.3 PROTOCOL IPX 8137 ETHERNET_II ;will only be used when we move to 802.2 frame for IPX on NETWARE servers. PROTOCOL IP 0800 ETHERNET_II ;needed for IP access, IP is Internet Protocol PROTOCOL ARP 0806 ETHERNET_II ;needed for IP access, ARP is Address Resolution Protocol PROTOCOL RARP 8035 ETHERNET_II ;needed for IP access, RARP is Reverse Address Resolution Protocol Link Support ;Haven't found a definition for this Section. BUFFERS 8 1586 ;This option configures the number and size of receive buffers that will be maintained by the LSL. BUFFERS communication_number [size]. Default is BUFFERS 0 1130. The number of communications buffers must be large enough to hold all media headers and the maximum data size. Buffer size is optional. The minimum size is 618. The total buffer space must fit into approximately 59 KB (number time size). MEMPOOL 4096 ;Some protocols use this option to configure the size of the memory pool buffers that the LSL will maintain. MEMPOOL number[k], The k notation means multiply by 1024. Protocol IPX ;Lets ODI know that IPX will be supported BIND 1 ;Binds IPX to first logical network board on NIC. The protocols normally bind to the first network board it finds. ; ;End of NET.CFG file ; Following is the NET.CFG file used on -SysVolName- network PCs. ; ; NET.CFG parameters for 3Com 3C501 LAN Adapters. ; FILE HANDLES = 99 PREFERRED SERVER = -SysVolName- SHOW DOTS ON Link Driver 3c501 INT 3 PORT 300 FRAME ETHERNET_802.3 FRAME ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IPX 0 ETHERNET_802.3 PROTOCOL IPX 8137 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IP 0800 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL ARP 0806 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL RARP 8035 ETHERNET_II Link Support BUFFERS 8 1586 MEMPOOL 4096 Protocol IPX BIND 1 ; ;END of NET.CFG file ; ; ; NET.CFG parameters for 3Com EtherLink III 3C509 Adapters. ; FILE HANDLES=99 PREFERRED SERVER = -SysVolName- SHOW DOTS ON Link Driver 3c5x9 INT 10 PORT 300 FRAME ETHERNET_802.3 FRAME ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IPX 0 ETHERNET_802.3 PROTOCOL IPX 8137 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IP 0800 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL ARP 0806 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL RARP 8035 ETHERNET_II Link Support BUFFERS 8 1586 MEMPOOL 4096 Protocol IPX BIND 1 ; ;END of NET.CFG file ; ; ; NET.CFG parameters for Intel EtherExpress 16 PC LAN Adapters. ; PREFERRED SERVER = -SysVolName- SHOW DOTS = ON FILE BUFFERS = 99 Link Driver EXP16ODI INT 10 PORT 300 FRAME ETHERNET_802.3 FRAME ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IPX 0 ETHERNET_802.3 PROTOCOL IPX 8137 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IP 0800 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL ARP 0806 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL RARP 8035 ETHERNET_II Link Support BUFFERS 8 1586 MEMPOOL 4096 Protocol IPX BIND 1 ; ;END of NET.CFG file ; ; ; NET.CFG parameters for Intel EtherExpress Pro 10 PC LAN Adapters. ; PREFERRED SERVER = -SysVolName- SHOW DOTS = ON FILE BUFFERS = 99 Link Driver EPROODI INT 10 PORT 300 FRAME ETHERNET_802.3 FRAME ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IPX 0 ETHERNET_802.3 PROTOCOL IPX 8137 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IP 0800 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL ARP 0806 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL RARP 8035 ETHERNET_II Link Support BUFFERS 8 1586 MEMPOOL 4096 Protocol IPX BIND 1 ; ;END of NET.CFG file ; ; ; NET.CFG parameters for HP 27247B/HP 27252A PC LAN Adapters. ; FILE HANDLES = 99 PREFERRED SERVER = -SysVolName- SHOW DOTS ON Link Driver HPISAODI INT 10 PORT 300 FRAME ETHERNET_802.3 FRAME ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IPX 0 ETHERNET_802.3 PROTOCOL IPX 8137 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL IP 0800 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL ARP 0806 ETHERNET_II PROTOCOL RARP 8035 ETHERNET_II Link Support BUFFERS 8 1586 MEMPOOL 4096 Protocol IPX BIND 1 ; ;END of NET.CFG file ; WINDOWS 3.1 Configurations for Optimum performance. Defragment hard disk DEFRAG C: /SN /F /B Set permanent swapfile if in 386 Enhanced mode. Create a permanent swap file for virtual memory, to set the permanent swap file choose the 386 Enhanced icon in Control Panel and fill in the options in the Virtual Memory dialog box. 8192 if system has 4mb RAM 4096 if system has 8mb RAM 0 if system has 12mb or more RAM If 16mb or more RAM create a 2mb RAMDRIVE and have set temp=RAMDRIVE files go to there. * Note: SPSS 6.1.x requires a minimum of a 10mb Virtual Swap file be located on the C: Drive. 32-Bit Disk Access This is a device driver that talks to the hard drive controller and it bypasses the computers BIOS. Turn 32-Bit Disk Access ON Set TEMP variable in AUTOEXEC.BAT to fastest hard disk or RAM drive. Maintained updated drivers as they become available. These are available from Microsoft's FTP site (ftp.microsoft.com), Compu$erve (GO WDL), and the MSDL bulletin board (206-936-6735). SYSTEM.INI Edit this file with a DOS ASCII edit (EDLIN, EDIT, ED, E) Check each section of the file to make sure they have the following. Changes and explanations for each line in the SYSTEM.INI. [boot] network.drv=netware.drv (Should already be in file) [386Enh] MaxBPs=768 ;Max BreakPoints - Make MaxBPs the first or second line in this section (depending on whether EMMExclude is used) network=vnetware.386,vipx.386 ;NOTE:*vnetbios can cause problems if you are not using a netbios network, if present remove *vnetbios, from this line device=vshare.386 ;Replaces share when running windows put in [386Enh] section immediately above device=*vtd or device=vtda.386. Share is only used on the -SysVolName- network for Windows programs. device=*vtd ;REMOVE and replace with the following line: device=vtda.386 ;Remove device=*vtd (vtda.386 replaces the built-in *VTD driver) Microsoft VTDA.386 should be in \windows\system. Must be activated in the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI, [IRQ] ;Add this section if it is not present, it locks down the IRQ and I/O for Windows COM1 = IRQ 4, I/O 3F8h COM2 = IRQ 3, I/O 2F8h COM3 = IRQ 4, I/O 2E8h COM4 = IRQ 3, I/O 2E0h [FLOYD: Rich Ballard pointed out that the COM3 and COM 4 entries above are non-standard...COM3 I/O should be 3E8 and COM4 I/O should be 2E8] [NETWARE] ;Add this section if it is not present NWShareHandles=True WIN.INI Edit this file with a DOS ASCII edit (EDLIN, EDIT, ED, E) Check each section of the file to make sure they have the following. [WINDOWS] load=NWPOPUP.EXE ;This enables PC to receive broadcast messages while in Windows run=g:\dosapps\fprot\wvirstop.exe ;Part of the FPROT virus protection package. Latest Versions of NETWARE-Related drivers MSDOS/WINDOWS These files are on the Novell FTP site and it's mirrors (check Novell ListServe FAQ for locations). I use NETLAB2.USU.EDU which is an official mirror of the Novell FTP site (ftp.novell.com). If you use a WWW browser to access the files go to http://www.novell.com or http://netlab1.usu.edu netlab2.usu.edu: /sys/anonftp/netwire/novfiles Current as of 31Jul95: NWDLL2.EXE Contains updated Windows DLL (Dynamic Link Libraries) for workstations using either NETX or the VLMs. VLMUP2.EXE Contains updates for the DOS ODI drivers, NETX (v3.32 PTF), and the VLMs (v1.2x) WINDR2.EXE Contains updates for the Windows-Specific drivers. /sys/anonftp/netwire/novlib/05 NETX33X.EXE Contains updated NETX file VLMUP3.EXE Contains latest IPXODI.COM file v2.20, and LSL.COM file v2.16 WN2DLL.EXE Contain BSD fix if running in standard or real mode, ignored if in Enhanced mode (386 mode) ftp.microsoft.com: / (Directory is unknown) WW0863.EXE Includes VTDA.386 WW0981.EXE Upgrade files for upgrading Windows 3.1 to Windows 3.11 (we do NOT want to do this) WW1000.EXE Includes VSHARE.386 (a windows replacement for SHARE.EXE), do not use share in AUTOEXEC.BAT if using vshare.386 FILES In the Summer fo 1995 we will install the VLM drivers to replace NETX. This will require a different NETWARE.DRV file. v2.x versions on NETWARE.DRV is for NETX only. v3.x versions of NETWARE.DRV are for the VLM client only. Filename Date Size Version Where ------------------------------------------------------ LSL.COM 950417 18,285 v2.16 VLMUP3.EXE LSL.MSG 950417 3,551 n/a VLMUP3 IPXODI.COM 941031 39,353 v3.01 VLMUP3 IPXODI.MSG 940915 4,089 n/a VLMUP3 NETWARE.DRV 931027 125,144 v2.02 WINDR2.EXE NETWARE.HLP 940829 419,701 n/a WINDR2 NETX.EXE 940915 78,749 v3.32 PTF VLMUP3 NWCALLS.DLL 941020 147,616 v4.10 NWDLL2.EXE NWGDI.DLL 940517 82,064 v1.01 NWDLL2 NWIPXSPX.DLL 941018 41,456 v4.10 NWDLL2 NWLOCALE DLL 940920 43,088 v4.10 NWDLL2 NWNET.DLL 941018 225,264 v4.10 NWDLL2 NWPOPUP.EXE 931028 4,592 v3.01 WINDR2 NWPSRV DLL 941006 277,532 v4.10 NWDLL2 PNW.DLL 931208 106,752 v0.01 NWDLL2 TASKID.COM 930603 7,648 v1.10 WINDR2 TASKID.MSG 930503 1,603 n/a WINDR2 TBMI2.COM 940804 24,973 v3.15 WINDR2 TBMI2.MSG 931110 3,315 n/a WINDR2 VIPX.386 940523 23,855 v1.19 WINDR2 VNETWARE.386 940817 11,063 v2.04 WINDR2 VPICDA.386 910130 11,063 n/a WINDR2 VSHARE.386 940302 14,933 n/a WW1000.EXE VTDA.386 931001 6,816 n/a WW0863.EXE VTDAPI.386 940317 5,245 n/a WW0863 UPDATES These files are on the network -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\NWCLIENT directories. They should be copied into the C:\NWCLIENT directory. -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\NWCLIENT LSL.COM 950417 18,285 10:30a LSL.MSG 950417 3,551 10:29a IPXODI.COM 941031 39,353 4:35p IPXODI.MSG 940915 4,089 4:02p NETX.EXE 940524 78,749 8:53a -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\NWCLIENT\3C501 3C501.COM 11,838 11-29-90 NET.CFG -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\NWCLIENT\3C5X9 3C5X9.COM 33,835 01-31-94 NET.CFG -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\NWCLIENT\EPROODI -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\NWCLIENT\EEXP16 EXP16ODI.COM 27,214 10-06-93 5:40p NET.CFG -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\NWCLIENT\HP HPISAODI.COM 22,863 11-13-93 NET.CFG The following files should be copied into the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory for each PC. -SysVolName-/SYS:UPDATES\NWCLIENT\WINDOWS\SYSTEM NETWARE.DRV 126,144 10-27-92 7:38a NETWARE.HLP 419,701 08-29-94 1:15p NWCALLS.DLL 147,616 10-20-94 11:56a NWGDI.DLL 82,064 05-17-94 10:25a NWIPXSPX.DLL 41,456 10-18-94 2:55p NWLOCALE.DLL 43,088 09-20-94 12:16p NWNET.DLL 225,264 10-18-94 4:35p NWPOPUP.EXE 4,592 09-30-94 10:58a NWPSRV.DLL 277,532 10-06-94 1:35p PNW.DLL 106,752 12-08-93 10:43a TASKID.COM 7,648 06-03-93 4:37p TASKID.MSG 1,603 06-03-93 4:37p TBMI2.COM 24,973 08-04-94 8:02a TBMI2.MSG 3,315 11-10-93 8:42a VIPX.386 23,855 05-23-94 9:51a VNETWARE.386 15,645 08-17-94 3:38p VPICDA.386 11,063 01-30-91 10:58a VSHARE.386 14,933 03-02-94 12:00a VTDA.386 6,816 12-31-93 3:11a VTDAPI.386 5,245 03-17-94 5:27p ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 14:32:00 PST From: "Houseman, Carl W." Subject: Re: GPF caused in Netware.drv >I am also posting this article here since I am not sure whether I >posted it in the correct windows newsgroup. > >I get the error "Winword caused a General Protection Fault in module >Netware.drv" when I want to print to a local printer. > >I already upgraded to the new VLMs (Rev.1.21) but the problem >persists. Is this a windows configuration problem or a netware driver >problem? Upgrade to WinWord 6.0A to cure this problem. --------- Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 12:29:00 PST From: David Porco Subject: Re: GPF caused in Netware.drv It's a problem with Word. There is a Microsoft Document on their Web Server that describes the problem (Article ID Q114970). Basically they recommend that you NOT use print manager and NOT load NWPOPUP in WIN.INI. That fixed it for me. They recommend some other stuff if that doesn't fix it. I'd recommend getting the document. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Oct 1995 09:09:39 +0100 From: Steve_Rooke@mh.blyth.com (Steve Rooke) To: netw4-l@bgu.edu Subject: Re: vlmup3 & client problems with wfw311 >I've had a problem with vlmup3.exe on approximately 3 machines: > >I was trying to load VTDA.386 in my SYSTEM.INI, and according to it's readme >file, I was supposed to load at later versions of the lsl and ipxodi, >specifically the ones that came with VLMUP2. Given that we are now at >VLMUP3, silly me, I figured that would be fine. On *most* machines, it is >fine, but I have three machines, all different (but they are all the same as >at least one other machine that *does* work, seemingly the same config) and >I can't figure out for the life of me why they aren't working...If I revert >back to very old versions of the lsl and ipxodi, I'm back in business. If it >helps, the versions that do work are LSL.COM 2.01 and IPXODI.COM 2.10. I have an installed base of about 30 PCs running Windows for WorkGroups (WfWG), some with Lan Work Place 4.2, and all connected to NW 4.1 & 3.1x. I also have had problems with trying to match pieces of client kit and get them all to work together. I found that there was a lot of dependency between them and found the only reliable (and simple) way round this is to install the complete client kit. NW 4.1 came with a good version that incorporated the vlmup3 kit (I believe) and all the supporting stuff. Otherwise, if you have NW 3.12 or 4.x, you can legitimately download the very latest client kit 1.2a (later than the one supplied with 4.1) from: ftp://ftp.novell.com/pub/netwire/novfiles/client.kit/doswin/ This is six disks worth with the last one containing the TCP/IP stack as supplied with the 'Netware Client for DOS and Windows' package or with LWP (accept you only get the PING utility). This is fully WINSOCK compliant and will work with a whole lot of free, or cheap, TCP/IP software out there. I found that I can just re-install this new client kit on top of the old installation, including LWP, and thereby upgrade the the whole client PC in one go. Just make sure that the installation directory points to the location of your current NWCLIENT directory. It will use your current NET.CFG file during the install and so you shouldn't loose any settings. You might want to backup this, the INI files, and your autoexec/config files first but I've had no problems here. Regarding WfWG and NW Client Kits with VLMs. There are two versions of WfWG, version 3.1 can only use an NDIS transport layer and causes a few problems here. I had a user with this on his PC and wanted to install LWP 4.2. The way to do this is to install the NW client and setup the ODINSUP shim layer. Make sure you remove the calls to startup all the Microsoft MLID/IPX support layers too. The biggest drawback of this is that it will NOT work with VLMs only NETX. It works but you don't get NDS and I wouldn't recommend it. WfWG 3.11 is a completely different kettle of fish and will work well with the the ODI & VLM stuff. To setup you have a number of options. Assuming you are upgrading a straight Windows 3.1 installation, just install the NW client kit first and then upgrade to WfWG 3.11. Half way through it will ask you if you want the networking to be attached to the Novell ODI layer and you want to say yes. This should all then work fine and is the easiest way to do it. If you are setting up a completely fresh WfWG 3.11, and have no previous versions of Windows on the machine, perform the WfWG install first and say NO to the question about installing a network in the setup program. When finished, install the NW client kit with Windows support. Run Windows and go to the Network Setup utility in the Network group. Hit the Install Microsoft Windows Network and set it to add additional network, Novell NetWare [Workstation Shell 4.0 and above], click OK. Setup the Sharing section as needed and then select the Drivers section. Click Add Adapter and select IPXODI Support Driver [whatever you need] [ODI/NDIS3]. This should automatically add the Microsoft NetBEUI and the IPX/SPX Compatible Transport with NetBIOS protocols, if this is not the case you will have to add them via the Add Protocol button. Just an aside here, I don't know what this IPX/SPX Compatible Transport is for here as NetWare works fine without it (having it's own driver) and the WorkGroup sharing should use the NetBEUI for it's transport. Unfortunately, if you delete this driver, your WorkGroup functions fail. This is no big deal to leave it there accept if you want to run NASI COM port redirection (ie from NW Connect), where it needs to be disabled to get this to work. If anyone has a fix, or explanation for this, I'm all ears. Accept these changes and select OK from the Main Network Setup screen. It will ask you if you want to install new drivers for the Netware side but just say NO. You will be asked to provide disks 7 & 8 from the WfWG distribution (or the CDROM). It should all work together now. If you have an existing WfWG 3.11 setup and want to change over to the NW client kit with VLMs, first you need to go to the Network Setup utility and select No Windows support for networks. Make sure there are no Network drivers either and then save all these changes away before eventually rebooting the machine. You should now have a 'straight' Windows installation and should install the NW client kit as above and then follow the steps in the previous setup. One problem you may encounter is an error when starting windows that gives error 506 (if I remember correctly). This is caused but the Microsoft Network Setup program. It should just attach itself to the ODI layer and not need to worry at all about what is underneath, including the MLID. If you look in the NET.CFG file you will see a new Link Driver XXXX section, just delete all that and note the name of your real Link Driver section (NE2000, 3C503, etc.). You also only need one Max Boards 4 in the Link Support section, Microsoft's setup program seems to add one with each incantation. Now edit the /WINDOWS/PROTOCOL.INI file and change all the 'XXXX's to the name of your real driver. There should be one [Link Driver whatever] section, a data=Link Driver whatever, and a couple of BINDINGS=whatever entries. Restart the shooting match and you should be away. Check the following: Your CONFIG.SYS files for WfWG 3.11 should include: LASTDRIVE=Z DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS AUTOEXEC.BAT should include a call to STARTNET.BAT. The latest client kit installer also adds: C:\WINDOWS\ODIHLP.EXE to the STARTNET.BAT file just after loading the VLM.EXE. Just make sure that the Microsoft Network Setup has not also added one in the AUTOEXEC.BAT. You should also find a call to: C:\WINDOWS\NET START somewhere AFTER the CALL STARTNET.BAT in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. I think they have tried to move the ODIHLP call so that it is not started if you want to run as a remote node using the NW Connect stuff and the different startup branches are taken in the STARTNET.BAT file. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 14:50:51 EST From: Rob Tisot Subject: Wizards The ACCESS users must have WRITE privliges to the WORKDIR directory for the WIZARDS to load. On my installation I give all MS Office Users (RWMF) to SYS:APPS\MSOFFICE\WORKDIR. It is buried in the Access Manual somewhere. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 07:04:55 -1000 From: Normand Dionne UHH Subject: Re: Windows For Workgroups Network This one hasn't been easy. I believe the FAQ available at several web sites may help but I found most of what I needed at www.microsoft.com. Just to get WFW and Novell to work together was a challenge. The answers you need are available but are a bit complex to explain in a simple e-mail message. The path I took was to download the various upgrades from MS and Novell, read through them about a dozen times, then finally install them several more times on a test machine. I could have avoided much of the retries if I had VERY CAREFULLY read the directions. The TCP/IP part according to a friend in Burcharest is also possible , the only difference being the WFW TCP/IP (NDIS) drivers loaded in the autoexec.bat file must come AFTER the novell stuff rather than before them as the MS load program puts them. The real problem we had was that TCP/IP based programs like Netscape fail if the odihlp was loaded at all. So we have a DougMenu choice for all users to run either the MS WFW net stuff -or- the TCP/IP stuff. The only difference between the two is that for the TCP/IP to work you DO NOT run the odihlp.exe in your autoexec.bat file. That however will NOT allow the MS Mail to work. After all this works though you will find you have a HUGE protocol stack loaded into RAM especially with the MS TCP/IP drivers loaded. (protman.exe, etc) This could impact DOS levels programs severely. We (UHH) think the real answer is WIn95 but we don't have the $100,000.00 or so needed to buy all the new platforms needed to fit and effectively run this OS. (BTW, we do have an NT lab and are quite impressed with it. NT is a power user's dream!) One of our CS professors put it well when he said "The problem is that things are getting to #%^$ complex!" Norm D. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 16:56:52 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: Grant trustee assignments from a batch file? >Does someone know if it is posible to grant trustee file assignments >from a batch file? >I need it because some programs like PowerPoint4.0 or Word6.0 needs >to have rights in the powerpnt.ini and win.ini respectively; without >that rights they do not work fine. The trouble is that in a public >laboratory, everyone may do with those files whatever they want (only >having r w f rights). ---------- A person can't grant him/herself rights not already in hand. No bootstrapping on NetWare. So far as I can make out running those two programs here there is no need to grant rights beyond Read and Search. That's all my people have and the programs work fine on a read-only file server to clients with no hard disks (public lab). There is a trick of marking files SRW yet the clients have only RF access, and it fools some of the MS programs into cooperation. Don't forget NW shell option Read Only Compatibility Mode=on/off in the NetWare DOS Requestor section of net.cfg. Joe D. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 08:04:02 -0800 From: John Conrow Subject: Re: Drive mapping utility for Windows 3.1 >Does anyone know of a utility that will enable us to map in a drive on >the fly in Windows 3.1 ? We have been using CDMapper for some time with great success. It's from U. Florida Health Sciences Library. Here's what their readme file says: --- CDMapper version 1.5 What does it do: It will read a DOS batch file or any other text file with Novell Netware MAP commands, attach to specified servers, map the drives, start SilverPlatter's Winspirs program or another application if specified, wait until the application exits, and delete the drive mappings it created. --- You can get it at ftp.library.health.ufl.edu/cdm/cdmap50.zip ------------------------------ From: "Forrest H. Swick" Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 11:47:38 -700 GMT Subject: NOVELL FAQ - Additition Over the past few months we've be trying to solve multiple problems with MS Access and our Netware 3.1x servers. Over this time we have figured out several problems with how to get it setup and running correctly and to stop it from Crashing our system. Here is our solution: --- Getting Microsoft Access to work correctly on a Netware LAN or MS Access is Crashing with GPPE's! >I have installed Windows for Workgroups and Access 2.0 in a Novell >3.1x Network. It is a server-based installation. I can't get the >wizards. To work problems and occasionally it will crash the >netware server. Can anybody help? There are several things that need to be done. 1.) Read the MS Office installation guide in regards to MSAccess 2.0 and make sure you installed to the network with the setup -a (/a ?) command. In the MS Installation guide it will tell you to open up the msoffice/workdir and give it full rights to the user that has MSAccess 2.0 installed on their PC's. i.e. SYS:WINAPPS/MSOFFICE/WORKDIR [RWCEMFA] 2.) The second thing you want to do is load TTSFIX.NLM onto your server, this will stop the Abend:"General protection Processor Exception" that occurs if you have a large database that MS Access is doing multiple record deletes or other multi-record operations in shared-access mode. This is covered in a TID on Novell's WWW server (do a search on TTSFIX). The TTSFIX.NLM file is part of the "Patch Kit for NetWare 3.11 OS" in file 311PTD.EXE. Following is some info on the TTSFIX.NLM 1227 05-20-92 8:41a TTSFIX.NLM fixes a bug encountered when certain applications execute explicit TTS, and file locking is also used. This results in an application hang at the workstation, and a GPPE ABEND at the file server. The remedy to fix this is to do the following at the server console and then add these lines in your AUTOEXEC.NCF LOAD TTSFIX SET MAXIMUM RECORD LOCKS PER CONNECTION=10000 Following is an excerpt from Novell Technical Database on the TTSFIX solution: "SYMPTOM Microsoft Access can potentially use many, many record locks, quickly exceeding the default of 500 record locks per connection. This will eventually cause a GPPE at the file server, which is fixed with TTSFIX.NLM. However, with the fix applied, Access continues to request record locks even though no additional record locks are available. Hence, Access just sits there with the hour glass and the machine locked until the machine is rebooted. CAUSE Novell has duplicated this problem with both the shells and the VLMs. It appears that the shell or VLM isn't properly passing the failed record lock to Access, or Access isn't correctly interpreting the failed record lock. In the mean time, you can use the set maximum record locks per connection higher (range 10 to 10000, default 500). This should prevent Access from hanging." 3.) The third thing you will want to do is split the users into workgroups and assign them to workgroups of no larger than 25. MSAccess uses the system.mda file in the SYS:WINAPPS/MSOFFICE/WORKDIR to track what is happening with its database. We created a workgroup (i.e. 0075.mda, 0090.mda, 0096.mda) for each lab (<25 PCs) or (ACCT.mda, CIS.mda, FIN.mda, MGMT.mda, MRKT.mda, STAFF.MDA) and this fixed many SYSTEM.MDA corrupted messages. When we had groups that were larger then 25 users the workgroups .MDA file would crash. ------------------------------ To: novell@listserv.syr.edu From: floyd@direct.ca (Floyd Maxwell) Subject: Re: Low % of resources >I've experienced problems with WFW3.11 working with PN (i.e. low % of >resources,..I can't open winhelp!) on a server DEC XL_PC pentium 60 (8M). >If anyone could help me or tell me some usefull address where I can get >help from Novell or DEC...I'd apreciate it :). WfWg is notorious for (ab)using low DOS memory. PC Magazine wrote a utility called 1MBFort to deal with this problem. Here is the DOC file for it: --------- 1MBFort (VERSION 1.0) (c) 1995, John McSorley First Published in PC Magazine March 29, 1995 (Utilities) Windows sometimes displays a warning message telling you that there isn't enough memory to run another program when you have plenty of memory. This is caused by a lack of low memory, memory below 1MB. 1MBFort solves this problem by preventing programs from using large blocks of it. The companion utility View1MB lets you analyze low memory by providing information about free and allocated blocks. To install 1MBFort, just copy 1MBFORT.EXE into a directory on your hard disk. 1MBFort then can be launched in one of two ways. You can use Program Manager to create an icon in your Windows Startup group, or add 1MBFORT.EXE to the Load = line of WIN.INI. The second method is preferable, since it ensures that 1MBFort is the first application started. 1MBFort operates invisibly, but you can tell it is running by checking the Windows Task Manager list. Next to the 1MBFort program name in Task Manager is the number and size of the fragments created. By default, the fragment size is 10,240 bytes. This usually works fine, but you can change the fragment size if you have problems launching programs. To change the fragment size, use Windows NotePad or another plain text editor to edit the file called 1MBFORT.INI in your Windows directory. The block size 1MBFort uses to create the fragments is set using this format: [1MBFORT] BlockSize = nnnnn where nnnnn is in the range 5000 to 20000 and indicates the block size in bytes. If you enter a value below 5000, 1MBFort changes it to 5000. Likewise, values above 20000 are converted to 20000. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 22:38:43 -0500 From: "Philip R. Reznek" Subject: Re: Station Record Locks >I have a problem with a User who has some large MS ACCESS databases >which are maintained on a NetWare v3.12 Server. > >I'm not an ACCESS user myself and I know little about his databases >but every time he does a Database Import from a Flat File to his >Database Table, it sends STATION RECORD LOCKS through the roof. The >message "1.1.69 Station 11 record lock threshold exceeded" gets >displayed on the Server. > >I checked on NSEPRO and it advised to use the console command to >increase the number of record locks: SET MAXIMUM RECORD LOCKS PER >CONNECTION=nnnn" > >I increased the "maximum record locks per connection" to 1000 and, >when that failed, 5000 and, when that failed, the v3.12 maximum of >10000. What concerns me is what might happen if 10000 record locks >per connection still fails - this is a major corporate database and >we can't afford to have problems. We're very lucky that Access does page locks instead of record/row locks. :-) We have a user with a 300K row table that causes the same problem when a query is run against it. Our solution was to get the user to open the particular Access DB in exclusive mode (=single user mode); Access doesn't use locking in this case. These things may work in general: Altering session properties to not use locks. Run within transaction boundaries. This has the effect of changing the locking strategy on the table(s). Opening the DB in exclusive mode. The Database Import is run off the Access menu (or by code invoking the menu). Putting the DB Import reference in code between transaction boundaries will *not* work. Last resort is to have the developer write code to do the import, e.g., read the flat file and write to the table. It's much slower than the built-in import but the developer would be able to control the locking. BTW, Access 7.0 (Windows 95) does *not* fix this 'problem'. >The file server is quite healthy - 89% cache buffers, only 3 service >processes, 16 connections etc. > >Can anyone offer any information which can be used to optimise the >File Server or which I can pass onto the ACCESS database developer >to enable him to put less pressure on the server? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 15:03:50 GMT From: Jeffrey Mays Subject: Re: Multiple login >I know it is possible to login to two Novell server by entering your >username and pasword only once. The problem is I don't know exactly >how to do this. I don't run login.exe from DOS. [Instead, I run Windows and] when windows comes up and tried to restore saved settings from NWUSER, it asks me to log in ONCE, and restores my connections to all servers. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1996 10:35:30 +0100 From: "David W. Hanson" Subject: Re: Broadcast Message Problems >We have experienced a number of strange problems recently with broadcast >messages. The setup of our network is Netware 4.10 with VLM 1.20b on all >workstations. The problems are as follows : > >1. One particular machine (a Dell Optiplex 466/Le) locks up sometimes > when it recieves a broadcast message in Windows 3.11. > >2. Two other machines (both Dell Optiplex GXL/575's) do not recieve the > broadcast messages within Windows 3.11 but recieve the DOS broadcast > message the second you return to DOS. In case 1., you need to make sure that you have the right version of the Windows NetWare stuff (ie. VNETWARE.386, NETWARE.DRV) in WINDOWS\SYSTEM and no place else. If you installed the client by hand instead of using the install program, you are almost certain to have this problem. In case 2., you need to make sure that NWPOPUP is on your load line in WIN.INI. In either case, removing any NetWare material from your WINDOWS and WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory and running the client setup program is recommended. If you want to preserve your current NET.CFG, rename it before you do the install, then copy it back. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 18:21:26 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: Setting up Netscape with Shared Network >I have setup Netscape to run from a Shared directory using a >shared copy of Windows on my Fileserver from a Workstations with >no hard drive. I had run into one problem with Netscape. > >I created a Netscape.ini for each machine, and it everything was >redirected to that machines working directory on the server. Everything >but the netscape.hst file. The History File line in the Netscape.ini >would make no change in the file name or location. It was always accessing >the netscape.hst file in the directory of netscape. ---------- No problem here. I first discarded advice from MS as not to the point. Each user has a server directory map rooted as D: to them (different dir for each station, all users are GUEST however). To run Netscape they type "netscape" which really runs file netscape.bat to activate several things. It loads the LWP/DOS TCP/IP stack, the 16 bit item, changes to the Netscape directory on the server, and then runs win.com from there. In the netscape directory is a "private copy" of Windows, and by that I mean just *.ini, *.grp, win.com files, not the main body of Windows files. A search drive is created to the Windows main body directory. Upon exiting of Windows 3.1 it unloads tcpip.exe and removes the search drive. Win95 can't unload in my diskless booting environment. This means the "shared" Windows stuff is nothing more than a skeleton set of files, and netscape.ini refers to D: for writable space. Each user has their own D: on the server and there is no interference. A few weeks ago I outlined how to create pristinely clean D: drives (on the server) upon each NW login. Every user sees the one and only netscape.ini file on the server. Windows (both 3.1 and 95) were installed on the server as single user items, and once installed they became read-only directories. Ditto for WordPerfect and all the other goodies of a student open lab. There are no client hard drives, and none is needed. Joe D. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 09:47:07 -0700 From: Shawn Stebleton Subject: Re: TCP/IP and Win 3.11 Here's how I ran Win 3.11 w/ TCP/IP without MS Networking: Download TCPN02.EXE and extract it into your \NWCLIENT dir. It's at http://support.novell.com/search/patlst.htm Look for Server Protocol Updates section, TCP/IP heading. Make your NET.CFG file look something like the following: Link Support Buffers 8 1500 MemPool 4096 Protocol TCPIP bind PCNTNW <--insert your driver name here ip_address 10.20.1.37 <--your IP address ip_router 10.20.1.1 ip_netmask 255.255.255.0 tcp_sockets 15 udp_sockets 15 raw_sockets 1 nb_sessions 4 nb_commands 8 nb_adapter 0 nb_domain Link Driver PCNTNW <--your driver should already be here Frame Ethernet_802.3 <--add all four frame types Frame Ethernet_II <--+ Frame Ethernet_802.2 <--+ Frame Ethernet_SNAP <--+ Protocol IPX 0 Ethernet_802.3 NetWare DOS Requester . . . This works fine for me. I installed Netscape and configured it to point to our proxy server and everything loads great. Our fractional T1 line runs about 10 - 20 times faster than a 28.8 modem. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Oct 96 13:50:11 -0800 From: Randy Grein To: "NetWare 4 list" Subject: Re: ODI and NDIS >I have a question regarding the correct configuration of WFWG pc's to >a nw 4.1 and a HP unix host. We currently use a terminal emulation >program called ICETCP, wich expects to run on top of microsoft's >winsock. The problem is configuring each workstation for ODI and >NDIS. Is there an easier way? I've done this before - a bit of a mess with Win 3.1, actually. I had to solve it for the HP personell who were great believers in NDIS but couldn't make rprinter work with it. With WG it's pretty easy. 1. From DOS load the latest version of the VLMs, install window support. 2. Reboot and run windows. In the network config application you'll see a driver for ODI. Select this and it installs an ODI to NDIS shim that takes care of the issue. 3. Watch out - some cards like 3com require manual editing of the protocol.ini file - 3com and MS never quite got together on what to call the drivers; 3com says 3c5x9 and MS says 3c509. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 15:35:41 -0600 From: "Mike Avery" To: netw4-l@bgu.edu Subject: Re: Too Many GPFs >>Start subscribing to the Mastering Computers Windows bulletins - >>lots of good information in there. > >This is one I haven't run across before. Details, please? The Mastering Computers, Inc. people give seminars in Windows use all over the country. Very good ones. And they also sell a newsletter. They are at: Mastering Computers 11000 North Scottsdale Road, Suite 260 Scottsdale, AZ 85254 (602)- 998-7500 http://www.masteringcomputers.com Their Windows newsletter is "Windows Tips and Secrets". The price is fairly high, but they give you enough "free" software that the effective price is pretty low. Their current renewal offer is two years for $89, and they give you a copy of Ghost which sells for $245. I suspect that they'd send a sample issue if asked. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 15:59:50 -0600 From: "Mike Avery" To: netw4-l@bgu.edu Subject: Re: Too Many GPFs - Reply This is off topic in a NetWare discusion list, but all of us DO have to support Windows, even if we think it's a dog, and there have been a number of questions on the matter. I've been stabalizing Windows for a while, and here are a list of things I look at when there is trouble. Every tip in this list has been researched, and could probably warrant a note the size of this one to fully explain it. So, this will be the abbreviated version of the tips. If you want more information, please ask for it, either in or out of the discussion list. 1. As mentioned before, I try to upgrade to 3.11 or WFW, the memory requirements are smaller, the product is faster, tighter, and more reliable. But don't despair, 3.1 can be reasonably reliable. 2. Memory management must be impeccable. In general, I don't trust Microsoft's ability to identify and include or exclude the memory in the 640k to 1mb range. So, I use includes and excludes to handle the matter. Usually I find that including the B000 page memory is more trouble than it's worth. Still, I often do it. Also, a number of PC's have surprises in their memory maps, expecially 386SX's. Make sure you are using the same HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE. If they are different versions, "funny" things will happen. (Hint - if you are using c:\dos\himem and c:\windows\emm386, they are almost certainly different versions.) Also, use the matching Smartdrv. My usual emm386 statement looks something like this: device=c:\dos\emm386.exe ram on noems x=a000-afff i=b000-b7ff x=b800-c7ff i=c800-efff x=f000-feff Sometimes, depending on the video card, you have to exclide the b000-b7ff range and may include the b800-bfff range. Some versions of emm386 get upset if you exclude memory all the way out to ffff. So, use the smaller number. 3. Some other config.sys options. Set FCBS=1,0. FCBS are not used by contemporary programs, so setting them to 1,0 saves memory. Set buffers=9. On all the PC's I've used, higher numbers actually hurt performance. Also, buffers does duplicate the effects of a cache, so both a large cache and buffers as a cache is wasteful. Make sure you have files set to a reasonable number. 65 is usually a good number to start with. Each file entry will us some memory, so not using it here will save some memory. 4. Make sure all your network and video drivers are up to date. The micrsoft home page has a log of information, as do the vendors home pages. If you have problems you can't resolve, try using the Windows VGA or SVGA drivers and see if that resolves the problem. If it does, call your video card vendor. Video card problems crop up all over the place as a wide variety of problems. 5. Some preventative medicine. When Windows, and WIndows applications, terminate normally they are supposed to remove their temp files. Sometimes that doesn't happen. It pays to make sure that the Windows temp directory is clean at boot time. Too many files in this directory, or a pre-existing file with the same name that windows wants to use can cause GPF's. I add some lines to my autoexec.bat file to deal with the matter. Here they are: set temp=c:\temp set tmp=%temp% if not exist %temp%\nul md %temp% if exist %temp%\~*.tmp del %temp%\~*.tmp I like my temp file off the root, rather than under the windows directory. Your choice. However, since many appplications require the temp (and tmp) variables, I prefer to use them in the last two lines which insure the directory exists, and that the purgeable temp files are gone. This step has GREATLY reduced the number of gpf's and other oddities my users suffer. 6. Swap file musings. As per a fair amount of information in the press, if you do not have a swap file, or you limit its size to less than 1mb, you alter Windows memory management code, and you will have performance troubles. Also, the code that handles swapping is rather crude, according to some sources. If you have too much space in the swap file, Windows will swap just for the heck of it, just because it can. As a result, the optimum size for a swap file is 4 megs for PC's with 4 megs of ram, and 1 meg (1024k) for PC's with 8 or more megs of RAM. If you allocate too little the worst thing that will happen is that you will get an "out of memory" error. If that happens, increase the swap file size. If that helps, put more memory in the PC, and reduce the swap file size again. Keep it small. 7. In the [386enh] section of the windows SYSTEM.INI file you should add a line that reads "MaxBPs=768". MaxBPS is the maximum number of breakpoints per second that Windows will support. The default is 128 or so. When 386SX20's were considered to be power machines, that was adequate. With higher speed machines, the 768 value is more appropriate. 8. "Out of memory"... There are a number of reasons why you can run out of memory. You can run out of graphics memory if you are using too many fonts, or if you have too many icons on your desktop. The higher the resolution you are using, the sooner you will run out. You can run out of real memory - loading a large spreadsheet could do that for you. Or... All programs have to allocate at least 800 or so bytes of memory in the lower 640k. If you load a single program that allocates all of the available 640k of lower memory, you will not be able to start another program. Even if you have 64megs of ram in your PC. This frustrates users. "I have 128 megs of ram, and all I can run is a single copy of WORD!!!" The answer is a free program from PC-Magazine (http://www.pcmag.com) called 1mbfort or 1 megabyte fortress. It keeps programs from allocating all the memory space available below the 640k barrier. With it, users have been able to run 15 programs, where before they were stopped at 4. 9. Another way you can run out of memory is in the system resources. There are three areas of system resources. The graphics memory which has been briefly discussed. There are also the system memory area and the user memory areas. If these get too low, your system will become unstable. The easiest way to monitor them is to use the SYSMETER package bundled with the Windows Resource Kit, which is available at no cost from the Microsoft ftp site. Look at ftp.microsoft.com in the peropsys\windows\public\reskit directory and read the readme's and take it from there. I usually run the SYSMETER minimized on people's PC's who are having trouble. [Floyd: Plug-In for Program Manager has an excellent way of showing Free Sys Resources.] There's another interesting thing to be aware of with regards to system resources. Some programs "leak" resources. That is, they allocate the resources when they are invoked, but do not restore them to the system when they terminate. After you load and unload a leaky program a few times, your resources can be at critical levels even though nothing but Windows is running. Once of the worst offenders has been Microsoft Word for Windows. Some early versions of David Harris' Pegasus for Windows were leaky, but that has been fixed for quite some time. My advice to people who have to use Word is load it as late as possible, and then keep it loaded. Instead of terminating, just save your document and then open another. 10. GPF's. Once the above is taken care of, you may still have problems, so here's some suggestions. Log the errors. Keep a notepad handy and write down the error messages. Also write down the names of all the program you have running at the time and what you were trying to do. "I had 20 programs running and then tried to save an Excel file to the network drive on the fatchance 4.1 NetWare file server" would be OK, if you wrote down what the other programs were. Also write down the contents of the gpf error window. The usual error is something like "Application error. WAD.EXE caused a General Protection Fault in module WAD2.DLL at 00A2:0A34." Write down the program name and the module name. If it happens once, it's usually not worth hunting down. If it happens several times, then it's time to track it down. Use the /s option on your dir command to find all your copies of WAD2.DLL. You want to make sure that you have only one version of that file and that it is in the Windows\System directory. If you have mutliple copies, you'll need to find out if they really are the same routine. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's not. The only place you should have .dll files is in the Windows\System directory unless you are VERY sure about what you are doing. Having them elsewhere, or having duplicates, can cause problems. Once that's taken care of, check with the vendor for updates to the offending DLL and application. Quite often there are free updates to your applications that will resolve problems. This may not resolve all your problems, but it should get you closer to having a liveable system. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 09:48:09 GMT-1DFT From: Olger Diekstra Subject: Re: To diskless or not to diskless > I have > - A small university, about 500 student pc's for 5000 students Looks like ours. > - A Novell network with 10 servers > - Diskless workstations (remote boot) We have workstations with harddisk and diskdrive (students tend to save their stuff on a diskette so they can take it home) > I experience > > - A LOT of network traffic , especially when running Windows software Correct, we did too. The solution we use to keep the network traffic to an acceptable level with Windows is to copy all the *.ini, *.grp, win.com to a local drive (this could be a ramdrive too, if you keep the amount of applications limited then a ramdrive of just a few hundreds kilobytes can be enough). Of course, if you use a swapfile it's best to have a local harddisk (a swapfile on the server isn't really going to speed things up). > - Due to the above slow performance on my servers > > My options are (I think...) > > - More Servers faster network more memory in the workstations More servers are only of any use if you put every classroom to its own NIC in the server. We have two application servers for about 300 PC's in classrooms, and about a hundred or so for teachers on the educational net. If you don't want harddisks in the workstations then additional memory is an option to speed up Windows. 16 to 20 MB should be enough, you can then make a 500 kB-1 MB ramdrive to store the *.ini and *.grp files (and some more, but these are the most important) Performance is good enough, but during startup of Windows (especially when everybody starts Windows at the same time) it does get kinda slow. But that's in rather extreem situations. > - local harddisks > > Other input > > - Part of our student population is of the experimenting type and will > trye to get control over an eventually installed harddisk. > - The contents of the harddisk must be consistent an manageble Now that has allways been a problem. Managing a remote harddisk in a PC. The best way to do something like that is to quickformat every time the PC boots and logs in again. Since you don't use harddisks there wouldn't be any data on it that you would want to keep. It also deletes games that students installed on the harddisk. However, there is a drawback though. > > Questions. > - How does your site work (diskless not diskless) We also use remote bootroms. It's ideal for a educational situation. But with diskdrive and harddisk. > - What is your experience with the performance We have an ATM network, both application servers have 100MB NIC's, all the stations 10MB. When performance is low it's usually not the hardware that's faulty. Mostly it's software that's not working correctly. > - How do you manage the pc's Because there's no need for software on the harddisk we usually leave it the way it is. If there is a problem (not a hardware problem) then we first format the harddisk and see if it solves the problem. Very often it does. > - Do you experience problems from experimenting students Only once every blue moon. The security is good enough to keep students within boundery's. We try to maintain a read-only network, and that's proven a succesful approach. It does provide a problem with some software though, not all apllications can work on a read-only network. But there are ways to get around problems like that. > and what can be done about that Like I said above a read-only network works fine for us. --------- Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 10:48:10 -0400 From: "George Raetzke, Northern Ill. Univ." Subject: Diskless >>I have >>- A small university, about 500 student pc's for 5000 students >>- A Novell network with 10 servers >>- Diskless workstations (remote boot) >> >>I experience >> >>- A LOT of network traffic , especially when running Windows software >>- Due to the above slow performance on my servers >> >>My options are (I think...) >> >>- More Servers faster network more memory in the workstations >>- local harddisks > > With the rules of the game having changed in the last 6 months >with RAM prices tumbling, I would recommend an experiment: Add 16 MB, and >then another 16 MB of RAM to a few diskless stations and see what >happens... Especially if you create a RAM disk. The advantages of this >are that (if it works well): Here at NIU we use all diskless workstations in all of our student labs. I would agree that windows can create a lot of traffic. If some time is invested into doing some optimization, the setup can work very well. Unfortunately most of us don't have the time to optimize every aspect. So I would recommend that you pay attention to the usage pattern of your users and then "fix" the problems that occur most often. Here, the biggest hit seems to be just a few minutes after the beginning of the hour. When the students came in for class, and all launched window. So for us the most important thing was to cut down on the traffic and work being done in this step. Like using ncopy instead of copy or xcopy when setting up. Almost every windows application places fonts in the "work directory" (When I refer to the "work directory", I am talking about the directory that is copied before windows can startup). Font aren't ever modified, so moving them into the regular windows directory helps a lot. Font aren't the only thing that can be pulled from the work directory, most things can (and should) be pulled out. Some applications will not run unless they have write access to their ini files, so they have to be in there... etc.. I also ran across that Netscape seem to have some "misfeatures" when using diskless workstations. It appears to constantly open and close the win.ini file under certain conditions... up to 60 times a second. This was confirmed by Joe D. a long time ago. I contacted Netscape, and they were unable to duplicate it. Workaround on this one was to create a ramdisk and copy the win.ini down. Netscape also had the habit of looking for certain files in our lanworkplace bin directory, which wasn't in our path at the time. It would search the entire path each time you click on a link if it didn't find it.... (WinXpose found this one for me) I personally never messed around with setting up ram disks for the machine (32 meg machines) because some of the applications that are used here require 24-28 meg to even start. I do suspect that if you have the available memory, that you would get some performance increase with it tho. Also, I have been told that if you setup a swap file (even if it is tiny), then windows access all memory with a fast method. We have one large lab that was really slow for a while. This one was fixed by increasing the bandwidth to the server (and eventually installing a switch). While messing around with muliple nics, I did run across that if you have ipxrtr loaded the lanwork bootroms tend to boot faster as well. Lanworks also has a utility on their bbs that will speed up bootup times by creating a temp ramdisk during the boot process and copy the entire boot image to the ram disk and then boot (it removes the ram disk after you login). This is faster on a busy network. --------- Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 10:34:17 -0600 From: Joe Doupnik Subject: Re: Diskless > I also ran across that Netscape seem to have some "misfeatures" when >using diskless workstations. It appears to constantly open and close the >win.ini file under certain conditions... up to 60 times a second. This >was confirmed by Joe D. a long time ago. I contacted Netscape, and they >were unable to duplicate it. Workaround on this one was to create a >ramdisk and copy the win.ini down. Netscape also had the habit of looking >for certain files in our lanworkplace bin directory, which wasn't in our >path at the time. It would search the entire path each time you click on >a link if it didn't find it.... (WinXpose found this one for me) It turns out to be a Windows problem. Apparently when a task asks for an entry listed in win.ini and that entry can't be accessed for writing then Windows gets into a fast retry loop opening win.ini etc until we kill the request. So I too moved win.ini and netscape.ini to a user-writable area to stop the (very large) network traffic. > I personally never messed around with setting up ram disks for the >machine (32 meg machines) because some of the applications that are used >here require 24-28 meg to even start. I do suspect that if you have the >available memory, that you would get some performance increase with it >tho. Also, I have been told that if you setup a swap file (even if it is >tiny), then windows access all memory with a fast method. Some experience from here. 32MB on clients, taking away 3MB for RAMdrive C:, but giving clients D: space on the server (see paper drived.txt in directory misc on netlab2.usu.edu for details). The normal Window swap file is about 1 byte. This says most applications this year can just fit into 32MB (opening both word processor and spreadsheet, for example) without swapping. When more memory is needed Windows preallocates a larger swap file, even though it may not be used. Preallocation does not mean writing each byte, but rather just grabbing a chunk of disk space in one quick request. Surely next year 32MB will be too small for this, but for now there is very little Windows swap file traffic on my wires. As we have indicated this is a balancing act. Cheap hard drives are just that: "cheap", and they can't be guaranteed to be perfectly clean in the blink of an eye. But the server can be made to simulate a drive and it can be cleaned absolutely in the blink of a eye. Paper drived.txt explains this to my customers. It's lots less expensive than cheap drives which fail nor can be made ready promptly. Joe D. ------------------------------ From: RBall84213@aol.com Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 07:42:24 -0500 (EST) To: floyd@direct.ca Subject: Comment on document NOV-WIN.DOC Floyd- An excerpt from the referenced document follows: <> The above is very dated information. The last VLM update file issued by Novell was VLMUP4.EXE, and the last separate Windows drivers file issued by Novell was WINDR3.EXE. NWDLL2.EXE referenced above is the last separate Windows DLL update file issued by Novell. (I think that the WN2DLL.EXE referenced above is a typo.) The instructions included with NWDLL2.EXE directed that Microsoft patch WW0863.EXE also be applied to the VLM client. Applying these patches to the client brought the client to VLM version 1.20b. Personal (repeated) experience has taught me that applying the patches to a client required a level of effort equivalent to applying three typical patches to a NetWare server. Novell's "Minimum OS, NLM, and File Updates" web page (http://support.novell.com/search/patlst.htm) includes links to the current VLM version 1.21 install set: VLM121_1.EXE through VLM121_6.EXE. The TID pages referenced there state that the VLM121_?.EXE install set replaces update patches VLMUP4.EXE, NWDLL2.EXE, and WINDR3.EXE. In my mind, the VLM121_?.EXE install set is preferable. First, you are getting a more recent VLM client version. Also, while VLM121_?.EXE does build six install diskettes, installing those six diskettes is by a "no-brainer" install program as opposed to the manual directory manipulation required by VLMUP4.EXE etc. My 2 cents. Rich Ballard CNA4 KD0AZ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 12:19:58 -0800 From: Anthony Baratta Subject: Re: Windows Station or Server? >The primary disadvantage in loading Win 3.11 from a server (it doesn't >matter what version of Netware it is running) is the time to load it. >The primary advantage in loading it from the server is that you have >complete controle over the configuration, etc. In my opinion the >disadvantage far outways the advantage. > >Bob Brown This issue always seems to spark a raging controversy. :-] For small LANs IMHO running windows 3.x off the server is very advantagous. I ran 100 users off of one 3.12 server for three years and since the admin was cetnralized I had very few problems with Windows. Especially since I could centralize the system files. The up front work was more involved (I setup unique mapped drives for each machine for the ini files, and ran ALL applications from the server), but setting up a new PC only took me 10 minutes. Loaded VLMs from diskette, logged in and my cloning scripts auto created the Windows setup for me from clone files. Made my life very easy considering the turn over we had. Also when a user trashed what part of windows they could manipulate, I could rebuild in minutes. I then could work on more important stuff. The sad thing is that Win95 does not even offer this level of control. I know that Joe D. is running Win95 off a server, but with that bloated peice of work (win95) and the memory sacrifices you make verus real mode and protected memory, its just not worth it any more. :-[ I sat in on an NT seminar given by Digital more than a few years ago and someone there asked the Digital and MS reps about centralizing the installation of windows on NT servers like Novell. Because it was so advantagous. The MS rep basically said that this "advantage" that Novell had versus NT would go away. Looking back now, I see that he meant that they would re-work Windows until you couldn't centrally run the OS. Effectively taking that advantage away from you the comsumer, and drag Novell down to NTs level. Monopolies suck. ------------------------------