OS/2 Warp Connect Driver for NE2000 Compatible Network Adapters --------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled by Timothy F. Sipples Inspired by Lee Gordon Revised June 20, 1995 Quick Start ----------- 1. Obtain a blank, formatted diskette and label it "OS/2 Warp Connect Driver for NE2000 Compatibles." 2. Copy the files in this package (NE2000WC.OS2 and NE2000WC.NIF) to the diskette. 3. Install OS/2 Warp Connect. 4. When prompted for the type of network adapter installed, insert the "OS/2 Warp Connect Driver for NE2000 Compatibles" diskette you have created in Drive A and click on the "Other Adapters" button. Proceed to install the driver from the diskette. 5. Scroll through the list of network adapters and select "Novell NE2000 Compatible." 5. Click on the Settings button and verify that the base I/O port address and interrupt (IRQ) settings match those used by your network adapter. If not, make changes as necessary to either your adapter's own configuration or to OS/2 Warp Connect Settings for the network adapter. Press F1 if you need help in setting either value. Detailed Instructions --------------------- Lee Gordon's excellent instructions on how to use a Novell NE2000 compatible network adapter with OS/2 Warp Connect inspired me to pre-configure this driver package according to his instructions. In this package you will find the necessary driver files to use OS/2 Warp Connect with most NE2000 compatible network adapters. (You can also use this driver with just about any OS/2 2.x and OS/2 Warp based networking software, not just OS/2 Warp Connect.) OS/2 Warp Connect includes a driver for the Eagle NE2000plus network adapter, one of the most popular adapters in the NE2000 family (and certified by Novell). Unfortunately many NE2000 adapters are not quite compatible with the Eagle. Lee Gordon's comments follow, with revisions: "There are many different NE2000 clones on the market. When they work, they work well. And they can be bought for as little as $25 each! This package may help you install them (or at least some of them). "1. Get the NE2000 to work in your computer. "a. NE2000s use 32 I/O addresses, usually set to initially occupy 300-31F. These addresses often conflict with other devices in your system. Also, if your NE2000 requires software setup and you have another device that uses memory addresses in that range (300 or 310), your NE2000's setup program may not be able to find the NE2000. Find out which addresses your other devices use and remove conflicting adapters, at least during configuration. Find an address that does not conflict with the other devices or change the addresses your other devices use. "b. In general, addresses 340-35F seem to work well and avoid conflicts, but pay attention to section (a). "c. Pay equally close attention to interrupt (IRQ) conflicts. IRQ 10 or 11 seems to be a good choice generally. "d. If your NE2000 requires software setup (rather than using switches or jumpers on the adapter itself), start plain DOS from a diskette before you run the setup program. "e. When choosing NE2000 compatible adapters, look for one that has a diagnostic test for data transfer with another computer (usually equipped with the same brand adapter). Connect your NE2000 to another computer with a two meter ethernet cable and make sure they can talk to one another. If you removed adapters to set up the NE2000, put them back in the system and retest to make sure the NE2000 still works. Watch out -- some NE2000 adapters come without any software at all! "f. NE2000 diagnostic programs include several different loopback tests. Good adapters have been known to fail the loopback tests. "2. If OS/2 Warp or OS/2 Warp Connect fails to find your NE2000 adapter, halts or crashes can occur. (OS/2 Warp Connect should be able to properly detect most NE2000 compatible adapters, but exceptions remain because of the wide variety of designs.) To explicitly inform OS/2 Warp that your NE2000 is installed, add the following line to CONFIG.SYS: BASEDEV=RESERVE.SYS /IO:340,32 where 340 is the base port I/O address used by your NE2000. If you have configured your NE2000 to use a different base address, change this line accordingly. This line tells OS/2 Warp to reserve 32 port I/O addresses starting at 340 (hex). "3. If OS/2 Warp Connect is already installed with networking, double click on the MPTS icon to install the driver included with this package. Click on 'Other Adapters' to add the driver to your OS/2 Warp Connect installation (to copy it to the \IBMCOM\MACS directory). Scroll through the list of network adapters and select 'Novell NE2000 Compatible.' Be sure to edit the adapter settings (by clicking on the Settings button) to verify the correct interrupt (IRQ) and port I/O address settings." Direct technical support is not available for this driver package, but discussion of OS/2 Warp Connect (and this driver package) takes place in the comp.os.os2.networking.misc newsgroup on the Internet. The NE2000WC.OS2 file included in this package is identical to the freely available NE2000.OS2 driver file, part of the NE2000.ZIP package on the Internet's ftp-os2.nmsu.edu and ftp-os2.cdrom.com anonymous ftp sites. The NE2000WC.NIF is new and original, with lots of help text. Make sure that any future network adapter purchases you make include a driver under one of the following names: "OS/2 2.x NDIS Driver" "IBM LAN Server Driver" "OS/2 Warp Driver" "OS/2 Warp Connect Driver" "Lotus Notes (OS/2 2.x) Driver" You can ask for opinions and recommendations on network adapters in the same comp.os.os2.networking.misc newsgroup.