Subject:  DGROUP Router Information Under 2.0a and 
2.1 Date:     8-Jun-88 
 
The following explains how the routing is performed under 2.0a and
2.1 operating systems: 
 
Under Advanced NetWare 2.0a the memory used to track the internet
server and routing information came from the DGROUP dynamic
memory pool.  This is the server's main dynamic memory pool and
under 2.0a it was used for servicing file server requests, tracking
server and router information, and tracking who was logged in at
each station.  This means that the number of servers that could be
tracked was heavily dependent on how many users were logged in
and how many drives they had mapped to the file server.  When the
DGROUP dynamic memory pool ran out of memory, the server would
begin to function improperly in a number of different ways.  If you
login 100 users and map a lot of drives then 2.0a servers will run
out of memory with only 1 file server on the internet. 
 
Under 2.1 the server and router tracking was moved to a memory
pool in another segment.  This allows us to expand this pool to a
size of up to 64K.  You can see the size of this pool by using
Fconsole and looking at the dynamic memory 3 maximum on the
statistics summary screen.  (Note that this conversation only applies
to 8086 and 80286 operating systems; the 68000 does not have a 64K
limit on memory segments and hence does not suffer from these
problems).  In addition the memory used to track who was logged in
at each connection was moved to another memory segment.  This
means that the number of users logged in to the file server does
not have as large an impact on the amount of memory left in the
DGROUP dynamic memory pool (the number of drives mapped to the
file server still are tracked with DGROUP dynamic memory).  The
first released version of SFT NetWare 2.1 had a memory pool of
about 17K to track server and router information.  This is the
release that supported about 64 servers.  The new releases have
about 37K in the memory pool to track server and router
information.  This should track about twice as many servers.
  
If needed we can expand this memory pool to a full 64K.  The
reason that we have not expanded it more is because on small
internetworks the extra memory in this dynamic memory pool is just
wasted.  We would prefer to leave the extra memory for cache
buffers if it is not needed.  You will all be happy to know that
when the 386 operating system is done it will not suffer from any
of these problems.  This 386 chip does not have 64K memory
segment limits, and the operating system will also have a mechanism
to expand its dynamic memory pools from the cache buffer memory
if a dynamic memory pool does run out of memory. 
 
The internet configuration affects the amount of memory needed to
track server and routing information.  Each router (in a file server
or a bridge) tracks all other routers that it can reach directly on
any of its connected LANs.  This means that the more routers that
are one hop away, the more memory that is needed to track each of
these routers.  The information tracked for each router is each
network that it routes to and how many hops to that network.  In
our network here in Provo there are a very large number of file
servers on the backbone.  In addition many of these file servers
route to the same sub-networks.  This makes the list of networks
routed to from each router very large.  File servers on the
backbone must track the most information.  File servers on a branch
of the network off the backbone that have only one router to the
backbone track much less information. 
 
In addition to routers one hop away and networks they route to,
routers also track all file servers that are currently up on the
network.  The amount of memory needed to track the file servers
currently up in not affected by the network topology.  
Subject:  68b v2.1 Fixes 
Date: 31-May-88 
  
The fixes have been made to 68 V2.1 and are available on Netwire
as 68UP21.ARC.  The Net$os.sys fixes a problem with the accounting 
causing the server to get a vector #03.  This will happen if the
accounting feature about disk space (second option from the bottom 
in the accounting menu) is set.  Also included is the leapyear fix
for the day of the week. 
 
The install.i program is also different. The problem will only exhibit
itself if you are adding a drive to an existing controller after an
upgrade from 2.02 or lower. 
Subject:  PCMOS 386 Shell
Date: 16-Jun-88  
 
We have recently received information indicating that Novell has 
changed its position toward development of a PCMOS shell. 
Several users have made inquiries in the past and we thought you 
might be interested to know the status: 
 
Novell's PCMOS386 shell is currently in testing and should be 
released within the next few weeks.  Orders for the shell can be 
placed via normal ordering channels.  They will be filled when 
the product begins shipping. 
 
Part number for 5 1/4" format is:  P/N 883-000592-001 
Part number for 3 1/2" format is:  P/N 883-000593-001 
Subject:  Shell Error Levels 
Date: 20-Jun-88 
 
Here is a list of the error levels that can occur when a shell is 
loaded. 
 
Error Level 
 
- 01 No network message. Usually indicates a connection problem.
Generates "file server could not be found" or "too many devices
being loaded in DOS." 
 
- 02 Wrong DOS version.  Usually occurs if the shell does 
not support that version of DOS.  Such as attempting to load a 3.x 
version of the shell on a 2.x version of DOS. 
 
- 03 Already active.  Occurs if operator attempts to load 
the shell a second time. 
 Subject:  SHELL HISTORY 
Date: 23-Jun-88  
 
The following is a shell history.  This is for version 2.0a through
2.01-4. 
 
 
Version               Comments 
 
 
2.0b      Also known as 2.0a+.  Fixes problems with: 
 
          Microsoft "C" Compiler hanging from spawning a process. 
          Under DOS 2.x printing always going to printer 0        
          regardless of the printer that was selected. 
 
          ARCNET workstations intermittently hanging when large  
          packets were being received. 
 
2.0a++    Also known as 2.0C.  Has support for function A000h -    
          "Get Installed State of SHARE".  NetWare does not need  
          SHARE to share network files. 
 
          This shell can perform local caching of non-sharable files.
          This improves performance for applications that do       
          interspersed sequential reads (such as compilers and sort  
          routines).  This shell will be included as version 2.0a with 
          Advanced NetWare ND286, SFT NetWare 286 Level II and 
          SFT NetWare 68 Level I. 
          Note:  by default the caching buffers are not enabled. 
 
2.01-1    This shell adds support for IBM PC-DOS v3.3. There is    
          also a new driver to support the IBM PC Network II and 
          II/A cards (the existing NetWare Token-Ring drivers work 
          with the new IBM Token-Ring Adapter/A). 
 
2.01-2    Also known as the 33Shell adds additional support for DOS
          3.3.  This shell is available from NetWire (SHL33.ARC) or 
          a Novell Office.  It is also included in the PS/2 version  
          of NetWare.  The following new DOS calls are supported  
          with the 2.01-2 shell. 
 
          Handle Generic IOCTL (Code page switching) - 44 (0Dh) 
               Get Extended Country Information - 65h 
               Get/Set Global Code Page - 66h 
               Set Handle Count - 67h 
 
          The calls above are all local calls and are directly passed 
          by the Shell to DOS for processing.  The other new DOS 
          3.3 call is Commit File - 68h 
 
          Commit File flushes any local buffering of data.  It has   
          the same effect as closing a file and then reopening it. As 
          such, the data is flushed from the local workstation to   
          the file server.  Once flushed to the server, the data is  
          not automatically flushed to the file server's disks.       
          Instead, it is queued for flushing according to NetWare's  
          caching and elevator seeking schemes.  Note that in      
          general, data written from the workstation to the file    
          server is in the server's memory for no longer than three 
          seconds before written to disk. 
 
          IPX communication is now accomplished via a FAR CALL 
          when using the 2.01-2 shell and NetWare v2.1.  Previously 
          IPX used interrupt 7 Ah and this conflicted with some    
          applications such as the IBM 3270 emulation program.  To 
          determine the call address to IPX perform an interrupt   
          2Fh with AX=7 A 00h.  The address is returned in ES:DI. 
 
          In order to support current IPX applications, interrupt 7  
          Ah is still supported by IPX.  IPX applications using INT 
          7 Ah instead of the FAR CALL will cease to function only 
          when other applications that take over interrupt 7 Ah are 
          running in the same workstation.  Refer to the           
          Application Problem Hot List for listing of applications   
          known to use interrupt 7 Ah. 
 
2.01-4    Also called MW2014.  This shell supports Window/386, and 
          adds a search mode feature.  Microsoft and Compaq      
          worked very closely with our engineers on making sure   
          that Windows/386 would be compatible with NetWare.     
          Windows/386 is very tightly integrated with DOS--to the  
          point that it touches and manipulates some of DOS's      
          internal data structures. 
 
          Since the NetWare Workstation Shell does much of the    
          same work that DOS does, emulating it in many areas, it 
          was critical that Windows/386 be able to find and        
          manipulate the shell's internal data structures as well.    
          
          We added a new function call specifically to allow        
          Windows/386 to locate some internal structures.          
          Windows/386 actually makes this call when installed on   
          top of our shell.  It can therefore present a             
          consistent environment, whether the user is in a         
          standalone DOS environment or a networked environment 
          with the shell loaded.  (NOTE:  The above - mentioned   
          call will only have meaning to Windows - like applications. 
          It will not offer any benefit to other types of            
          applications.) 
 
          The 2.01-4 shell also provides the search path modes. 
          Originally, these search path modes were intended for 
          introduction in v2.1.  But since Novell is bringing a new  
          shell to market for Windows/386, and because the search 
          modes solve some problems such as overlays with         
          Microsoft C (see the May - Aug '87 issue of Developer's  
          Update, page 7), we decided to include them in this      
          shell. 
 
          NetWare v2.1 will offer two methods for setting search   
          modes.  The first method is implemented in the shell; the 
          second method is implemented in the file system (the     
          server OS). 
 
          The first method (in the shell) involves setting a default 
          workstation search mode that affects all open requests    
          made by that station.  The second method (in the server  
          OS/file system) involves flagging individual programs      
          (files) with their own search mode that affects each open 
          request made, but does not affect other programs' open   
          requests.  This per - program search modes takes         
          precedence over the workstation search mode and allows a 
          great deal of flexibility. 
 
          Since the per - program search mode is implemented in   
          the file system, it is not possible to offer it without     
          changing the server OS.  Therefore, since the 2.01-4 shell 
          is a shell - only release, it will only offer the workstation 
          search mode. 
 
          The 2.1 shell will read the workstation search mode out of 
          a configuration file (SHELL.CFG) as it is loaded.  This    
          will allow end users to easily indicate their workstation   
          search mode preference.  Not as elegant, the 2.01-4 shell 
          will require a DEBUG patch in order to change           
          workstation search modes. 
 
          The linked 2.01-4 Shell (in COM form) can be patched at 
          location CS:16A.  This byte in the shell initially contains 
          a 1, the default mode.  Possible modes are: 
 
 
 
 
          Mode      Description 
 
          1         Search IF request presents naked FILENAME   
                    (NO PATH).  This is the default mode.  It also 
                    happens to be the mode that has always existed 
                    in previous versions. 
 
          2         Turn searching off. 
 
          3         Search IF request presents naked FILENAME   
                    (NO PATH) with READONLY access (in other   
                    words, DON'T search if a WRITE could occur). 
      
          5         ALWAYS search. 
 
          7         ALWAYS search IF request prescribes READ - 
                    ONLY access. not exist. 
Subject:  Login Problems
Date: 30-Jun-88  
 
 
There have been several users that have reported a situation 
where a function in a login script will not work on the initial 
login, but will work perfectly when they re-execute the login 
program. 
 
The reason for this could be that the version of the login 
program in the "SYS:LOGIN" directory is not the correct version. 
On the initial login, the login program is pulled from 
"SYS:LOGIN" and all successive logins use the login program from 
"SYS:PUBLIC." The solution is to copy the login program from 
"SYS:PUBLIC" to "SYS:LOGIN." If the system is 2.1 or greater, 
make sure that the old 2.0a "LOGIN.COM" is deleted. Otherwise, it 
will be executed instead of the "LOGIN.EXE" that is shipped with 
2.1. 
Subject:  VAX/MAC Interconnection
Date: 1-Aug-88 
 
1) We utilize the Job Queue management services within VMS to
start the NetWare for VMS process.  As far as printing queues, we
conform to the VMS queue management interface which is controlled
from VMS. 
2) The main thing about printing is that we simply map our printer
definitions to logically map into the existing VMS print queue
names.  All control and services are then maintained by the VMS
environment.  Right now, we cannot support the ability to have VMS
print jobs within the Print queue forwarded to a NetWare queue
located on a PC file server.  
 
3) PostScript is usually handled within the Application delivering the
PostScript image. By this I mean all control characters, etc., are
contained within the document.  Each printer supporting PostScript
must have a driver which interprets the PostScript characters for
translation to the actual printer.  VMS supports Post-Script printing
as well as NetWare.  As for the NetWare for VMS, once the image
is in the VMS Print Queue, it's up to VMS to drive the printer. 

4) We will always conform to the RMS file attributes in writing files
to the VMS disk.  Whether these files come from a PC DOS machine
or a MAC located on a NetWare LAN, the file translation will
always present it in RMS fashion. 
 
5) Backup can only be accomplished on the VAX host and not
external PC file servers.  Logically speaking though, those files in
the G: drive of the PC Server could really be those located on the
physical VAX disk.  In this sense, PC based files can be backed up
via the normal VMS backup utilities. 
Subject:  Old KayPRO and ELS 
Date: 1-Aug-88  
 
We were working with a person using one of the later Kaypro
machines with ELS.  Sorry for not getting the model, etc., but I 
referred  him back to Kaypro.  He called me back and said he had
to get a new rom BIOS called "NET A".  This allowed him to get
around mounting the drive problems. 
 Subject:  NetWare/2 Wrong Diskette
Date: 1-Aug-88  
 
We have verified with Software Duplication and QA that the current
production run of Advanced NetWare/2 v2.0a for the PS/2 machines
has been shipped with an incorrect GENOS-2 diskette.  The bad
diskette is labeled PS2-UPDATE and is missing three or
four files.  If anyone calls in with this software saying that GENOS
keeps asking for the GENOS-2 diskette they probably have the bad
diskette.  They can RMA it and receive a new one.  
Subject:  BTU and Watt Specs for Novell Disk Subsystems Date:
28-Jul-88 
 
Many people ask for the BTU and Watt Specs for Novell disk
subsystems.  This information can be found on pages 2-3 and 2-4 of 
the 2.1 286 installation manual. 
 Subject:  Part Numbers for NAS Gateway that Novell no Longer
Offers
Date: 28-Jul-88 
 
Here is a list of  part number for the NAS Gateway that Novell no 
longer offers. 
 
SBS PROMS 
 
PART NO.                   DESCRIPTION                  ASSY. # 
 
245-0059-01                8 LU 3270 IPX                 980 
245-0060-01                8 LU 3270 IPX                 980 
 
245-0062-01                16 LU 3270 IPX                980 
245-0063-01                16 LU 3270 IPX                980 
 
245-0065-01                32 LU 3270 IPX                980 
245-0066-01                32 LU 3270 IPX                980 
 
245-0191-01                8 LU 3270 IPX                 980 
245-0192-01                8 LU 3270 IPX                 980 
 
245-0277-01                16 LU 3270 IPX                980 
245-0278-01                16 LU 3270 IPX                980 
 
245-0279-01                32 LU 3270 IPX                980 
245-0280-01                32 LU 3270 IPX                980 
 
245-0455-01                8 LU 3270 IPX                 950 
245-0456-01                8 LU 3270 IPX                 950 
 
245-0457-01                16 LU 3270 IPX                950 
245-0458-01                16 LU 3270 IPX                950 
 
245-0459-01                32 LU 3270 IPX                950 
245-0460-01                32 LU 3270 IPX                950 
 
245-0499-01                8 LU 3270 IPX                 950 
245-0500-01                8 LU 3270 IPX                 950 
 
245-0536-01                16 LU 3270 IPX                950 
245-0537-01                16 LU 3270 IPX                950 
 
245-0538-01                32 LU 3270 IPX                950 
245-0539-01                32 LU 3270 IPX                950 
 
EARLY UNITS 
 
463A085-1                  8 LU 3270 IPX                 980 
463A085-2                  8 LU 3270 IPX                 980 
 
463A086-1                  16 LU 3270 IPX                980 
463A086-2                  16 LU 3270 IPX                980 
 
463A087-1                  32 LU 3270 IPX                980 
463A087-2                  32 LU 3270 IPX                980 
 
463A042-1                  8 LU 3270 IPX                 980 
463A042-2                  8 LU 3270 IPX                 980 
 Subject:  NETGEN Using .LAN Drivers
Date: 28-Jul-88 
 
There have been a lot of questions about what drivers go where on
2.1 & 2.11 lan_drv_??? diskettes.  It is actually pretty simple.  All
of the .lan files go on the auxgen diskette or the shgen-1 diskette
depending on whether it is for a shell or OS driver.  By typing the
.lan file you can tell which diskette the .obj file should go on. 
When you type the file you will see a lot of garbage but at the
beginning of the first line you will see the diskette that netgen or
shgen will look for the .obj file on. 
 Subject:  WYSE 286 and Non-Dedicated 286 
Date: 28-Jul-88 
 
A customer called in to let us know about a problem he had on a
Wyse 286 file server.  He was getting an intermittent "internal stack
overflow" error.  The server would come up and run but would go
down with this error several times daily.  A technician here told
him to check his memory (the correct diagnosis) in the file server. 
He checked his memory but couldn't find any problems.  He
contacted Wyse and they told him he needed a BIOS and keyboard
controller upgrade.  He got the newer chips and installed them in 
his file server.  He has been running fine ever since.  
Subject:  Keycards Without UPS Monitor
Date: 25-Jul-88 
 
A decision was made to release a few keycards without the UPS
monitor jack.  We had a devil of a time getting them in sufficient 
quantity to meet the surge in demand for NetWare here at the end 
of the quarter.  As a result, a decision was made to release them 
and take care of any problems through RMA. 
 
I don't know the exact number involved at this point, but all of 
them will be going out with a Date Code prefixed with an asterisk 
(*). 
 
Clearly, any customer receiving one of these keycards who needs 
the UPS monitoring capability will have to get top priority from 
RMA. 
 Subject:  Installing Large Drives 2.1 
Date: 7-Jul-88 
 
This is an update on the problem of installing large drives with 
2.1X NetWare.  There was an FYI earlier which gives a possible
work around.  There is also another work around that has been
suggested. 
 
The problem is caused by NETGEN trying to read all of the 
directory table and fat table from the SYS volume into memory. 
With large drives it runs out of memory.  The work around is to 
define a small SYS volume (maybe 20MB only) and then define the 
rest of the drive for other volumes.  Because NETGEN only reads 
the tables from SYS volume it won't run out of memory. 
 
We have been told that this problem is being fixed in the next 
major release. 
 Subject:  Installing Large Drives
Date: 22-Jul-88 
 
[Note: This is an update of an earlier FYI that I sent concerning
the problem with Netgen installing large drives.] 
 
If a user is getting this error in Netgen: "ABEND: NOT ENOUGH
ROOM FOR FAT TABLE" and they are trying to install a large drive
the problem occurs because INSTOVL.EXE uses parts of the OS's file
system.  As a result, to install sys volume, it has to mount it. 
Since we are installing in REAL mode, we have only 640K of RAM
to work with.  (For every 1 MB it uses about 1k of RAM)
Therefore, we run out of memory when we try to mount large
(greater than around 200 MB) or many drives (more than about 6-8
depending on their sizes). 
 
INSTOVL.EXE is run from NETGEN.EXE.  Therefore, if
INSTOVL.EXE is run from command line without NETGEN.EXE, we
free up the memory that would have been used by NETGEN.EXE so
that the file system can use it.  This has worked for all the cases
tested in-house.  It is not guaranteed to work in all cases; I.E. many
300 MB drives. 
 
The following applies to SFT v2.1 or SFT/ADVANCE v2.11 5.25" 
floppy installation: 
 
1.  Exit NETGEN before you do the NETWORK INSTALLATION step.

2.  Insert the NETGEN diskette and enter: INSTOVL 1 SUPPORT 

3.  Insert the disks prompted for until it returns to the 
    DOS prompt. 

4.  Insert the NETGEN diskette and enter either of the following 
    for SFT Level II with TTS:  NINSTALL -pr -o3 
    for SFT Level II without TTS:  NINSTALL -pr -o2 
    for ADVANCE Dedicated: NINSTALL -pr -o2 
    for ADVANCE  NON-Dedicated: NINSTALL -pr -o1 

5.  Run through the installation procedure as outlined in the 
    INSTALLATION manual, finishing with Installation Complete. 

6.  Insert the NETGEN diskette and enter: 
    DEDICATED with/without SFT or TTS: INSTOVL 2 SUPPORT 
    NON-DEDICATED: INSTOVL 3 SUPPORT 

7.  Insert the disks prompted for until it returns to the 
    DOS prompt. 

8.  The installation process is complete. 
 
For 3.5" diskettes, steps 2 and 6 change to INSTOVL 1 NETGEN and
INSTOVL 2 NETGEN or INSTOVL 3 NETGEN respectively. 
 
If you are at the point of the ABEND: then power off and on, 
boot under DOS, and begin at 6.  When you login to the network as
supervisor you will have to manually copy the system and public 
files to the network. 
 
For SFT or Advanced v2.11 you can get a new instovl.obj that will
correct the problem.  THIS ONLY FIXES V2.11 AND IS AVAILABLE
FOR LIMITED DISTRIBUTION. 
 Subject:  2.1 Bindery Restore
Date: 22-Jul-88 
 
We have had some reports from users who have not been able to 
restore the binderies after upgrading from 2.0a to 2.1.  We don't 
know if it confines itself to tape restores or LRESTORE or 
whatever.  If a user initializes their NetWare drive in NETGEN 
then after booting 2.1 they try to restore the binderies they 
don't get all the users or groups etc. On the other hand if they 
only install the O.S. and system and public files with NETGEN the 
bindery files will be intact when they boot up. 
 
The bindery is converted as soon as it is opened on booting. After  
being restored with lrestore it should work. Users may wish to try  
re-booting the server or run bindfix. 
Subject:  NETGEN with HP DOS 
Date: 22-Jul-88  
 
While working with a customer running NETGEN they had a problem
trying to do NetWare Installation.  After linking the OS and
Utilities they tried to select NetWare Installation.  When they made
that selection NETGEN proceeded to start the OS link again. 
 
What we finally found was that they were loading a TSR when they
booted the machine they were Netgenning at.  Actually they were
running NETGEN on an HP computer and the TSR that was being
loaded was part of the HP DOS.  They took it out of their
config.sys and NETGEN ran fine. 
 Subject:  2 Async Drivers in Brgen
Date: 21-Jul-88 
 
Working with Brgen for v2.1 NetWare and selecting 2 Async drivers 
to allow 2 remote workstations to call into a network from a remote
site requires a bit of explanation.  If the user has selected a LAN
driver and then configures the driver through Brgen, selecting a
configuration that uses an IRQ that one of the COM uses, he will
only be able to select one Async driver when he reenters LAN
Driver Selection.  If, however, he releases the configuration for the
configured driver and then goes into Select LAN driver, he will then
be able to select 2 Async drivers.  When he configures those 3 LAN
drivers, the Async drivers will automatically be configured for COM1
and COM2, allowing only for configuration of the LAN driver for
the NIC. 
 
A problem that I found while working with Brgen is the selection 
of a 2nd Async driver if a LAN driver and an Async driver have 
already been selected and the Async driver has already been 
configured.  Escaping out of the configuration back to Select Lan 
Drivers to select a 2nd Async driver, the program will allow the 
selection of the 2nd Async driver, but going to the Configuration 
option presents the problem.  If Lan C is selected to configure 
(the 2nd Async driver) the configuration option screen is empty, 
and has no selection for the driver.  One would think the program 
would automatically select the other configuration that was not 
selected for the 1st Async driver, but this is not the case.  The 
user has to release the configuration for the 1st Async driver, 
to redo the driver configuration.  When this is done, the option 
to configure the 2 Async drivers is not there, as the program has 
automatically assigned the Async drivers to COM1 and COM2 for
LAN b and LAN c, and gives configuration options for the LAN card
that do not include IRQ 3 & 4, which are used by the COM ports. 
 
As above, if the LAN driver for the NIC has been configured for 
an option that uses an IRQ of a COM port, then a 2nd Async driver
will not be available. 
 
The best remedy is to release all configurations for drivers 
previously configured to be able to select addition Lan or Async 
drivers. 
Subject:  2.11 8MB Limit Bug
Date: 21-Jul-88 
 
[Here is a dialogue concerning the problem of NetWare only 
recognizing 8MB of memory.] 
 
Q:  Do we have a limit in NetWare of supporting more than 8MB
RAM?  I seem to recall a discussion about this issue several months
ago.  Is it true? 
A:  This was a 2.0a bug.  The problem was tested during the 2.1. 
 
Q:  Has it cropped up again in 2.11? 
A:  I am not aware of any such thing.  I will get in touch with the
right people. 
 
The 8 MB limit does exist in the Non-dedicated version of v2.11 
NetWare only.  It is not there in the dedicated version 
because... 
 
1) They set the limit at 8 MB because the OS had serious problems 
trying to manage more than that while managing the switch to and 
from real mode for the DOS process. 
 
2) Non-dedicated does not lend itself to large systems (which 
would require lots of memory).  If they are loading it that much, 
they should go dedicated. 
Subject:  WREN III Half Height
Date: 20-Jul-88 
 
The Wren III half-height drive was tested with both channel 1 and
channel 2 DCB's.  It worked satisfactorily in all cases.  Items of
interest included, correct orientation of the SCSI cable and the fact
that all the DCB channels that you intend to use must be included
when generating the O/S so COMPSURF will be able to see all the
drives out there. 
 Subject:  2.1 COMPSURF 
Date: 6-Jul-88 
 
There have been some reports that 2.1 COMPSURF will reject a
drive that is not in fact a bad drive.  If it gets several consecutive
bad blocks during the initializing process it will reject the drive.  If
you run COMPSURF over and over again it will eventually pass. 
 
The reason drives get rejected in v2.1 is because the program 
detected 13 consecutive bad blocks.  The blocks detected do not  
apply to those already in the bad block table but only to new blocks
on the disk.  The reason COMPSURF will eventually finish is
because bad blocks are added to the table each time it is run which
eventually puts all the problem blocks in the table.  If the user is
having to run COMPSURF a number of times to prepare a drive,
he/she is finding that the drive has one or more areas on the disk
that have a large number of consecutive bad blocks. 
 Subject:  NetBIOS 2.11 
Date: 20-Jul-88 
 
2.11 NetBIOS is available on NetWire now under the name nb211.arc 
in data library 2.  For people who have been experiencing problems
with the broadcasting function of NetBIOS 2.1 - NetBIOS 2.11 has
been known to be a solution in many cases.  What happens is that
application requiring NetBIOS will hang.  Basically it's waiting to
receive information that we are not sending back.  Another symptom
is when the workstation trying to establish communications with a
host computer through a gateway takes forever. 
 Subject:  IBM RPL Information TRN Remote Reset 
Date: 19-Jul-88 
 
A problem has been found with the IBM token ring remote program 
load.  It uses a file called TOKEN.RPL that is placed in the 
SYS:SYSTEM directory before the server is booted.  During driver 
initialization the driver looks for the TOKEN.RPL and if it 
exists it allocates memory for the file and copies it into the 
allocated memory. There is a possibility for the request for 
memory to fail.  Usually what happens is that the OS will have 
allocated all available RAM before DriverInitialize is called 
leaving no memory for the drivers to allocate.  This can happen 
on any type of NetWare server setup. 
 
If the remote boot will not function and everything seems to be 
setup correctly then the lack of free memory is probably the 
problem.  It usually can be corrected by putting more memory in 
the server. 
Subject:  Remote Bridge Product
Date: 19-Jul-88  
 
There is a remote bridge product available from Communications 
Division, p/n 905-301974-001, that replaces the bridge software for 
V2.0a.  This software includes drivers that allows the use of 2 Wnim
cards in an external bridge that would allow up to 8 remote 
workstations to dial into the lan and to be able to access all 
network resources.  This can be run non-dedicated as an external 
bridge.  The s/w also has drivers for async LAN to LAN bridging 
for V2.1x and V2.0a networks.  The package basically comes with 
V2.11 NetWare, but does not include the drivers for the Wnim 
boards as does the separate Remote Bridge S/w described here. 
Subject:  2.1 Token Ring
Date: 18-Jul-88 
 
If you have a model 30 with hard disk or PC/XT or compatible 
with hard disk, you MUST use the 2.10 Token Ring IPX driver. 
 
If you wish to use NetWare Care and don't care about being able 
to use a Model 30 or PC/XT, then use the 2.11 Token Ring shell 
driver. 
 
The 2.11 Token Ring shell driver is being fixed right now. Once 
the fix is complete, it will be the recommended driver for all 
2.10 and 2.11 systems. 
Subject:  Model 50Z and Model 70 
Date: 18-Jul-88 
 
We have a preliminary report on the PS/2 Model 50Z and Model 70. 
As of July 15, 1988, both of these machines work correctly only as 
workstations with all of the microchannel cards that we are
currently supporting.  They do not work as file servers at this time.
We will keep you updated on further progress.  Please pass this
information onto your respective people. 
 Subject:  No Upgrade from SFT v2.1 to SFT v2.11 
Date: 18-Jul-88 
 
Let me apologize for putting you and your area in a difficult and 
confusing situation.  Short of visiting everyone house separately 
the information was more than disseminated.  I have met with both 
1-800 and Product information at least weekly for the past 6-7 
weeks.  I went out and talked with all the sales people in each 
area and sent out information to all in-house both through mail 
and on The Coordinator.  The problem is that someone does not 
support the program and is giving bad information to facilitate a 
policy change.  That is blunt but the way it is.  I have gone 
over and over this detail with everyone I can think of.  If your 
area did not have sufficient training I apologize but felt that 
it should be handled and people had been trained adequately so 
that it would not impact your functions.  Let me reiterate: 
THERE IS NO UPGRADE FROM SFT v2.1 to SFT v2.11.  There is no
reason to as it is just an unbundled package of what they have 
and v2.1 and v2.11 will both receive the ON-LINE HELP free.  If 
your area receives questions on this I would appreciate this 
information being passed on to them.  Thank you.
 Subject:  Errors in Manual Regarding DCB UPS Interface Jumper
Settings
Date: 18-Jul-88 
 
Errors in the NetWare Manuals regarding the Disk Coprocessor 
Board (DCB) Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) interface jumper 
settings have been noted.  Through UPS testing in the Independent 
Product Test Program verification of the corrections have been 
made using hardware (DCBs Rev B and F) and SFT software (286 
Level II 2.0a, 2.1, 2.11). 
 
Some of the jumper settings for the DCB for the UPS interface are 
incorrect.  The information for the rev D or higher DCB is also 
contradicting itself by having the comments next to an 
incompatible diagram. 
 
The correct settings, for both Rev C or lower and Rev D or 
higher, are as follows: 
 
            Battery Low Input:          S17 is Closed 
                                        S18 is Open 
            Battery Online Input:       S19 is Closed 
                                        S20 is Open 
 Subject:  DOS COMMAND.COM Versions
Date: 15-Jul-88 
 
Working with a customer that was getting an "Invalid Command.com"
error upon exiting an application when the workstation was
accessing the DOS directory mapped by comspec, it appeared that he
had everything set up correctly.  The identifiers in the search drive
were picking up the correct directory path, and one workstation
that was booting off MS-DOS 3.20 was finding 
Command.com just fine.  The problem came up on an Everex 
workstation that came with MSDOS 3.30.  He purchased 2 of these 
workstation's, with 2 copies of DOS 3.30.  The workstation boot
disks must have been created with one copy of 3.30, and the other
copy was loaded in the V3.30 directory. 
 
After exploring all possibilities, he finally looked at the file 
dates of Command.com on the boot disk and the DOS directory, and 
found the dates varied by a couple of months, and there must have 
been some changes to the later Command.com that made it 
incompatible with the earlier file.  Replacing the Command.com 
with the file that had the same date as the boot disk solved the 
problem.  Evidently, even though the Command.com files were the 
same version, if they are not the same date, there may be changes 
to the file that make the two incompatible. 
 Subject:  DBASE and Disk Full Errors
Date: 15-Jul-88 
 
I have just gotten to the bottom of a mysterious "disk full 
error".  One of those that worked under 2.0a and quit working 
under 2.1. 
 
The user had an application that was written in dbase III+ and 
upgraded his network.  After the upgrade, when trying to write to 
the disk, he got a disk full error. 
 
It turned out that the header files of the database file were 
corrupted and saying that there were three times as many records 
in the file as there really were.  When trying to figure out why 
the header files were getting corrupt, we discovered that he was 
using Compaq 3.31 DOS on a NEC machine!  When he switched to 
NEC DOS the problem went away. 
 
I doubt that these particular circumstances will occur very often 
but it is good to know that the information from the header is 
what is giving the application the idea that the disk is full. 
Subject:  Core VADD and Btrieve VAP 
Date: 27-Jun-88  
 
We have had several calls reporting problems with the Core VADD 
and our Btrieve VAP.  Core has been working on the problem and 
has identified a place in their code that was causing the 
problem.  They are rushing the correction to production and it 
should be available by the end of the week.  The problem 
manifests itself anytime the VAP tries to access the core drive, 
and usually comes back with a message that indicates that the 
core drive cannot be found at the specified address.  Anyone 
calling should be directed to Core International @ 407 997-6033. 
 Subject:  Remote Reset Default Shell 
Date: 13-Jul-88 
 
Just another perhaps little known detail.  It is not specifically 
documented in the manuals but, the remote reset proms will only 
boot with a shell that is configured to the default (option zero) 
setting.  Since a user may pick any of the other configurations 
with a 2.1 shell they may think that the remote reset will work 
with them.  However, the proms are burned in with only one driver 
and it is the default configuration.  Otherwise we would have to 
sell proms for each configurations possible.  It would be a mess!   
I think we all agree. 
Subject:  68 Standard NIC 
Date: 13-Jul-88   
 
There is a bug in 2.1 68 that spills over from 2.0a. The problem 
is that the Standard Short NIC card will not work correctly in 6 
Mhz machines. It will work correctly in 4.77 and 8 Mhz machines. 
 
The problem is corrected by applying the last patch from 
Technical Bulletin #139. Because the driver is different from 
2.0a the offset where the patch is made is C52 instead of 9f4. 
 
The patch is made against the "starsh.obj" file which is found on 
the "LAN_DRV_.001." Using the DOS debug, change the value at 
offset C52 from 30 to 10 and re-link with this modified shell 
driver. 
 Subject:  Even Parity
Date: 23-Jun-88  
 
We have verified that EVEN PARITY does not work when printing 
from a 2.1 server. It is very possible that this bug has been in 
there for some time. This bug is being reported. 
 
In addition 2.1 revision 3 and above, does not support the audit 
trail correctly. This problem is also included in 2.11. The 
reason for this problem has been found and will be corrected. I 
pointed out to project management, that update MUST be made 
available to those that already have problems. They have 
committed to do something. 
 Subject:  2.1 NETGEN File Server Configuration Date: 12-Jul-88 
 
If users are doing NETGEN and there are garbage characters in the
fields of the configuration window (ie FS Name, # Open Files, Serial
Number, etc.) maybe it is because they haven't run COMPSURF yet. 
Apparently when you begin to install NetWare on the file server 
it reads the configuration from track zero and if you haven't 
done compsurf it will get back garbage and display it.  I found 
this problem myself while doing an install on a model 60. 
 
Some users will have this problem even though they have run 
COMPSURF.  In that case it is probably bad software. 
Subject:  Login Bug
Date: 12-Jul-88  
 
I believe there is a small problem in the way LOGIN.EXE interprets
the ERROR_LEVEL variable within an IF THEN statement. The
following login script demonstrates the problem: 
 
#ask  enter y for 0, n for 1: 
Write "ERROR_LEVEL = ";ERROR_LEVEL 
IF "ERROR_LEVEL" DOES NOT EQUAL "1" THEN Write "not equal
to 1" 
Write "ERROR_LEVEL = ";ERROR_LEVEL 
IF "ERROR_LEVEL" EQUALS "1" THEN Write "equal to 1" 
Write "ERROR_LEVEL = ";ERROR_LEVEL 
 
It seems to be interpreted correctly when ERROR_LEVEL is "0", but
not when it is "1". 
Subject:  2.11 Dropped Drivers
Date: 12-Jul-88  
 
Beginning with 2.11, the following drivers were discontinued 
from the release: 
 
AT&T Starlan                                            
883-000549-001 
Generic NetBIOS 5C                               883-000551-001 
Corvus Omninet                                   883-000550-001 
IBM PC Network (Original Sytek built adapter)    883-000552-001 
IBM PC Cluster                                   883-000553-001 
 
These drivers can be purchased as a kit with documentation for 75 
bucks a piece. 
 
Contrary to popular belief, these drivers are NOT available on 
NetWire nor will they ever be put there. They MUST be purchased 
according to the part number listed above. 
 Subject:  68000 Memory
Date: 7-Jul-88 
 
There are at least two instances where consistent vector 1F
problems have been corrected by making certain that the
replacement memory board does NOT contain either Micron or
Samsung parts.  Suggest NEC or Motorola parts to name a couple. 
Subject:  New WD 1006 Controller
Date: 2-Jul-88 
 
Western Digital has now released a high performance AT controller 
called the 1006. It can run at a 1:1 interleave. Our 2.1  and 
2.11 AT disk driver must be patched in order to work with it. The 
patch with documentation is available on NetWire as "WD1006.ARC." 
 
Sorry, there is no patch available for pre 2.1 systems nor is 
there any plans to provide such. This patch will be included in 
an ECO that will be made against 2.11 near the end of July. 
Subject:  2.11 NetWare GENDATA 
Date: 30-Jun-88 
 
If a user is having problems during NETGEN with 2.11 ask them if 
they happened to copy the GENDATA diskette and are trying to use
the copy they made.  Many users will simply copy all their 
diskettes including the GENDATA diskette even though the manual 
says not to.  Linking errors (error=9, error=255) or garbage 
characters appearing in configuration windows are some of the 
problems that may be caused by using a copy of the GENDATA
diskette. 
Subject:  BATRAM in Compaq II 
Date: 30-Jun-88  
 
The BATRAM works in the 16MHZ Compaq 386, but may need special
BATRAM utility software and PROM (version 1.20) for DOS, EMS or 
NetWare/86 v2.0A.  The 1.20 utilities and PROM work around an 
incompatibility in the Compaq BIOS which has nothing to do with 
the bus (see the BATRAM Technical Bulletin B102 and B106 about
the Compaq 386). 
 
The ESDI controller which Compaq provides with its large hard 
drives has a drive BIOS on the controller card which hangs unless 
the 1.20 PROM and software are used properly.  Again, see the 
Technical Bulletins. 
 
The 20MHz Compaq 386 seems to work with the BATRAM (using 1.20
utilities), except that the BATRAM's ECC (error correction) does 
not work properly.  This may be related to the bus. 
 
For NetWare 2.1 and higher, the BATRAM driver does not use the 
BATRAM PROM or need a formatted BATRAM, so the Compaq BIOS 
incompatibilities are irrelevant; simply use the BATRAM with the 
PROM removed from the host adapter. 
Subject:  New Compaq Systems
Date: 27-Jun-88 
 
Compaq has three new products: 
 
o          Disk subsystem w/controller, two 300 Meg. drives and a  
           VADD. 
 
o          DESKPRO 386 25 Mhz with two 110 MB internal         
           drives. 
 
o          New small foot print desk top 386.
 
The Disk subsystem was approved by the OEM group, 
because it is a VAD supported product. 
 
Both 386 machines were tested in the IPT program and reports are 
forthcoming. 
 
The machines are approved as file servers and as workstations. 
Testing was done with 2.11, 2.1, and 2.0a software.  2.0a 
software was patched with Compaq patches to support ESDI drives 
(ELS 2.0a already supports ESDI without modification), 300 Meg. 
volumes (ELS 2.0a only), and 3C501 shell driver (This is a Novell 
driver problem with speed.  The patch allow a machine to run with 
the 3C501 driver at speeds greater than 16 Mhz.) 
 
There is a file server performance degradation using 8 bit 
ethernet type cards with Compaq's fast 386 machines, because of a 
hardware design in the Compaq machines.  The solution is to use 
16 bit cards. 
 
The reason is, it appears that Compaq support for ethernet-type 
systems assumed that enhancements to 8 bit technology would be 16 
bit development, not enhancements to 8 bit technology, and Compaq 
built in support in their machines (relating to wait states) that 
made up for some of the weaknesses of 8 bit 3C501 ethernet 
technology.  Novell's NE1000 and NE1000A are examples of the 
enhanced 8 bit board.  Performance is the issue not 
functionality.  For more information contact Compaq.  They are 
aware of the problem and have indicated there is not a workable 
solution except to use a 16 bit card. 
Subject:  Copying an "Execute Only" File 
Date: 27-Jun-88 
 
When attempting to copy an "execute only" file, be sure that 
there are no other files with the same name in any of the search 
drives. If there are, the "execute only" file will be copied over 
by the one in the search drive. It will then appear that the user 
was able to copy an "execute only" file. 
 
This is not a bug but simply the way that DOS searches when it 
fails to open a file.  NCOPY knows what "execute only" means and 
will fail when it attempts to open the "execute only" file. 
 Subject:  Mail System
Date: 27-Jun-88  
 
Beginning with version 2.11, the NetWare Electronic Mail System is
no longer included.  It must be ordered as a separate kit.  The part
number is 883-000606-001.  It includes that software in both 3.5 
and 5.25 inch media.  It also includes the manual. 
 
The main reason for breaking the product out is to encourage the 
purchase of new mail products that are based on the NetWare Mail 
Handling System engine. 
Subject:  Token Ring 2.11 
Date: 21-Jun-88 
 
The Token Ring Boot program is available on NetWire as
"tok211.arc."  This file contains drivers and instructions for 
2.0a, 2.1 and 2.11.  This code is also supplied in version 2.11. 
Users will STILL have to buy a boot prom from IBM.  The part 
numbers for standard bus and micro channel Token Ring are listed 
in the readme file. 
 
As with the 3C503 drivers, users must either download this from 
NetWire or purchase the driver kit. 
 
----------- 
 
As you know the part #'s that were put with the TRN-RPL 
information is wrong.  The correct part #'s are  micro 
channel=83x8881  standard bus= 83x7839. 
 
The file on NetWire has been fixed to include these changes. 
 Subject:  DCB Information
Date: 21-Jun-88  
 
Here is some general information about DCB's.  It may help some 
of the new technicians, or people who are not very familiar with 
DCB's. 
 
                                  DCB INFORMATION 
 
 
A Disk Coprocessor board is installed in an expansion slot in a file
server, and is used to control communication between one or more
disk subsystems and the file server. 
 
RULES: 
o    Each hard disk channel can contain up to eight hard disk      
    controller boards, each with its own controller board address.   
    These controller board addresses are set on the boards         
    themselves, and can range from 0 to 7 in any order you        
    choose, so long as no two controller boards on the same        
    channel have the same address. 
 
o    The last controller to receive signals in a hard disk channel   
     must be "terminated" in some fashion to prevent signals from  
     echoing back through the channel. 
 
o    One (and only one) disk subsystem attached to a given Disk   
     Coprocessor board must have a hard disk controller board set  
     to controller number (address) 0.  See page 2-15 in the Hard  
     Disk manual for controller settings. 
 
o    If you are installing hard disks with Adaptec 4070 controller   
     boards, the last disk subsystem in a chain must have two      
    terminating resistors installed on its hard disk controller        
    board.  If you are installing embedded SCSI hard disks,         
    terminating resistors must be removed from all hard disk       
    controller boards and tape drives.  Embedded SCSI hard disks   
    are shipped from Novell with the terminating resistors          
    removed.  If termination occurs in the disk subsystem  you are 
     attaching, terminating resistors must be installed on the SCSI  
     adapter board attached to the inside rear of the subsystem. 
 
If you have a 68B you may need to replace the EPROMs at location
U15.4 (low-byte) and U10.1 (high-byte) of the CPU board.  For the
file server to boot with embedded SCSI hard disks, its EPROMs must
be part #817-48-010 or above. 
 
If the screen looks similar to the following you do not need to
upgrade the EPROMs. 
 
68 Monitor ROM v5.0 
(C) 1983, 1987 Novell, Inc. 
 
xxxxK 
Memory Test 1: [..........] 
Memory Test 2: [..........] 
Memory Test 3: [..........] 
 
Load from PC? 
 
o    Rev G2 DCB or newer has support as a keycard 
o    Rev E EPROM or greater needed for SFT II v2.0a 
o    Can't use Base I/O 340h if using a DCB because the DCB uses 
    it. 
     Also can't use 348h if using 2 DCB's. 
Subject:  Patches to Fix Problems with NetWare v2.1
Date: 21-Jun-88 
  
There are four files available on NetWire which include all the 
patches currently known to fix problems with 2.1 NetWare.  The 
following is a listing of what each file contains. 
 
 
21FIX.ARC 
 
Name          Length    Date 
============  ========  ========= 
DELACC.ARC        9344   6 Jun 88 
HLP21.ARC       131837  19 Apr 88 
IPX.ARC          14759  14 Jun 88 
LEAP.ARC         10540  21 Mar 88 
MOUSE.ARC          441  12 Mar 88 
READ.ME            771  15 Jun 88 
SETFIX.ARC        6187  10 Mar 88 
UPDT21.ARC       13877  13 Apr 88 
        ====  ======== 
Total      8    187756 
 
 
21UTIL.ARC 
 
Name          Length    Date 
============  ========  ========= 
LOGIN.ARC        49950   8 Apr 88 
MENU.ARC         48189  26 May 88 
NCONFIG.ARC        292   3 Mar 88 
READ.ME            260  14 Jun 88 
        ====  ======== 
Total      4     98691 
 
 
21DRVS.ARC 
 
Name          Length    Date 
============  ========  ========= 
3COMMC.ARC       70272  26 Apr 88 
NE21.ARC         20357  18 Mar 88 
NP600.ARC        20893  19 Apr 88 
PRO10.ARC        21888  19 May 88 
READ.ME            576  10 Jun 88 
        ====  ======== 
Total      5    133986 
 
 
21TAPE.ARC 
 
Name          Length    Date 
============  ========  ========= 
BACKUP.OBJ      102379  11 Nov 87 
RESTORE.OBJ     190232  11 Nov 87 
TAPE.DRV           953  25 Sep 87 
        ====  ======== 
Total      3    293564 
 Subject:  Sytos Backup Software for Wangtec Tape Drives Date:
22-Jun-88 
 
There was a previous FYI that talked about Sytos backup software 
for Wangtec tape drives.  I received a call from Mike Evans from 
Sytron (makers of Sytos) ph. 617-460-0106.  He cleared up some 
misinformation on the earlier FYI. 
 
Sytron has backup software for many different types of tape 
drives and controllers.  They play the same "game" that Novell 
does of making their software independent of the hardware. 
However, you must order the particular software that will run on 
your tape drive and controller.  They do sell a version that runs 
with a Wangtec drive and controller in a workstation (it backs up 
the binderies and all).  This version is v3.10 WKB and it will work 
in 386 machines, PS/2 MCA machines, etc. 
Subject:  PS110 MCA Card and 2.1 
Date: 23-Jun-88 
 
There is a small detail concerning PS/2 NetWare 2.1X and the 
PS110 Micro Channel card.  PS/2 2.1 includes support for both MCA
architecture and Standard bus architecture. 
 
The PS110 card comes with drivers included.  You must pick the 
PS/2 model 50, 60, or 80 resource first.  When choosing LAN 
drivers you must choose "Load and Select" in order to get the 
additional drivers for the PS110.  If you pick the SMC drivers 
(instead of doing "Load and Select") you will not be able to pick 
the ESDI driver. 
Subject:  Seagate ST4096 80MB and ST251 40MB Drives Date:
23-Jun-88 
 
The Seagate ST4096 80MB and ST251 40MB drives have had a 
history of problems in NetWare servers.  These drives do not 
have a definition in the standard BIOS drive table.  The 
write precomp parameter is wrong. 
 
We use both these drives in our 286A machines.  However, we 
have put a non-standard definition in our BIOS drive table to 
handle these drives.  The following is the definition Novell uses: 
 
Drive Type          Heads                 Cyl.               
PreComp 
 
26 (ST251)          6                     820                
0FFFFh 
27 (ST4096)         9                     1024                0h 
 
I have seen various problems when users have tried using these 
drives.  Some users have not been able to install or boot from the 
drive others may be able to run for weeks and then have problems. 
Basically, if a user is having any problems with their server and 
they have one of these drives they need to get a custom BIOS to 
support it or get a different drive. 
 Subject:  Debug Routing to Create PRFIX.COM File Date: 24-Jun-88 

 
Here is a quick debug routine that I use often to create the 
PRFIX.COM file talked about in TB #196.  It has saved a lot of 
time, because most people are at least somewhat familiar with 
debug, and they can do this patch in a matter of minutes instead 
of waiting a week for the floppy to go through the mail. 
 
DEBUG <CR> 
 
-N PRFIX.COM <CR> 
-A 
xxxx:0100  PUSH DS <CR> 
xxxx:xxxx  MOV AX,0000 <CR> 
xxxx:xxxx  MOV DS,AX <CR> 
xxxx:xxxx  MOV BL,01 <CR> 
xxxx:xxxx  MOV [0408],BL <CR> 
xxxx:xxxx  POP DS <CR> 
xxxx:xxxx  INT 20 <CR> 
xxxx:xxxx  <CR> 
-R BX <CR> 
XXXX 
:0000 <CR> 
-R CX <CR> 
XXXX 
:0057 <CR> 
-W 
Writing 0057 bytes 
-Q 
 
A file named prfix.com will be in the default directory where you
are as you enter debug.  It should be 87 bytes long.  (57 in hex) 
Subject:  NETGEN and CACHE.DAT File
Date: 27-Jun-88 
 
Many technicians are asking about the "error opening cache.obj"
when Netgenning with 2.11.  This file is created after the gendata
disk has been correctly encoded with the serial number.  If the
serialization does not occur correctly, the gendata diskette has been
tampered with or is corrupted, or the gendata diskette is an illegal
copy, this can occur.  
Subject:  Tape Drives not Rewinding
Date: 3-Aug-88  
 
There have been two individuals this week who received new 
Wangtec tape drives from us and it wouldn't rewind the tapes. 
All that needs to be done is to turn the mechanism carefully by 
hand.  Apparently it will get sticky from sitting on the shelf so 
try this before looking further. 
 Subject:  IBM Entry Level Emulation 
Date: 5-Aug-88  
 
IBM currently markets two 3270 emulation packages, 3270 Emulation
Version 3 and 3270 Emulation Entry Level.  The current version of 
the latter is 1.2, but there is also still a number of copies 
of 1.1 floating around.  In fact, the only difference between V1.1 
and V1.2 is that V1.2 has SRPI (ECF) support. 
 
3270V3 (3270 Emulation Version 3) is IBM's strategic product and is 
what they use on LANs both as the gateway and the workstation
software.  However, the catch is that if you leave it memory
resident to do something else, you find it takes up over 200k,
leaving little room for anything bigger than Wordstar! 
 
As a result, IBM customers wishing to run other IBM `strategic' 
products, such as ECF and PASF must use the stand-alone but very 
much more compact Entry Level Emulation to provide the necessary 
resident API. 
 
We had been getting reports of IBM 3270 Emulation Entry Level 
( V1.2 ) causing PS/2s to crash when loaded on top of Token 
Ring shells.  I came to look at this problem at a customer site 
today and found that the symptom was a total hardware freeze-up 
which could not be warm-booted out of.  On further investigation 
this turned out to be a hardware clash and nothing to do with the 
shell. 
 
The PS/2 MicroChannel Architecture allows for multiple boards to 
share the same ( level-triggered ) interrupt line.  The IBM 3270 
Connection board used in the PS/2 can only use interrupt 2.  The 
ADF file unfortunately, doesn't explicitly say that and under 
Setup only displays a message to the effect `Only option 
available'.  This means that the PS/2 auto-configure often sets 
the Token Ring board to interrupt 2 as well, which is 
theoretically valid in MicroChannel.  However, the software 
concerned is not designed to poll after an interrupt to determine 
its source ie it assumes it is the only user of that interrupt 
line.  The result is a total lock-up on the bus.  Manually 
setting the Token Ring board to interrupt 3 completely cures the 
problem. 
Subject:  MS WORD-Style Sheet Problem 
Date: 8-Aug-88 
 
I've been working with the folks at Microsoft on a couple of 
issues dealing with M.S. Word.  Primarily people keep getting 
the error: Style sheet in use when they enter into word. 
 
Most word users understand that each user must execute word from 
their own directory.  That is two users cannot both be in the 
same directory and run word even though they may want to work on
different documents.  HOWEVER, what they don't realize is that if 
somebody is running word from the directory where word is located 
(which usually includes the style sheet) then nobody else can use 
that style sheet... even though they are all in different 
directories. 
 
Word opens the style sheet exclusively to the user if the style 
sheet is in the same directory as the user when he executes word. 
On the flip side of the coin, word will ALWAYS open the style 
sheet for read only when it is in the same directory as word 
itself, and the user executes word from another directory.  This 
is the advised method. 
Subject:  Windows and Excel Info
Date: 8-Aug-88 
 
The following is some good info on Windows 286 and 386 and Excel 
and some of the configuration parameters needed to work properly  
for different situations: 
 
 
MICROSOFT WINDOWS AND EXCEL INFO: 
 
With the barrage of questions about Microsoft Windows and Excel
and NetWare, I hope this information proves helpful. 
 
Multiple problems are coming up and there are as usual multiple
solutions.  
 
The most popular problem seems to be Windows 386 simply loading
and running properly on a NetWare workstation.  For 2.0a the 2.01-4
shell solved 90% of the problems although a couple of drivers needed
to be changed (ie. Proteon and Token Ring.)  This seemed to
eliminate 99% of the problems reported.  Windows 286 only had a
problem opening files with ~ or ^ in their name.  This was fixed
long ago in the carat and tilde patch.  Windows 386 obviously
needed the same patch but that was inherent in the 2.01-4 shell. 

With the advent of 2.1 a new problem has been found with 2
topologies using Windows 386:  Token Ring and Proteon 4.  Token
Ring requires a few changes: 

1.  Set the textfile WIN.INI variable EMMPAGE FRAME = D000.  
    This tells Windows to start its extended memory usage at D000. 

2.  Set the Token Ring card to ROM - CC00 (switch setting on the 
   card.) 

3.  Set the Token Ring card to RAM - C400 (run TOKREUI ,C400.) 

4.  Use the Token Ring driver that fixes the 2.11 problem with    
local hard drives. 

5.  Choose one of the solutions below for temp files. 
  
This configuration was the only one we were able to get work with
Token Ring, Windows 386 and 2.1, or 2.11. 
 
The Proteon problem has been solved with Proteon's post 2.11
release of the Proteon 4 driver. One report from the field indicates
that during low usage on the network Windows 386 hangs while
printing.  However, neither Novell nor Microsoft has been able to
duplicate the problem.  And only one customer has reported the
problem although it is a large customer. 
 
The next most popular problem is within Windows.  Users report
errors opening temp files.  The reason for this is that Microsoft
prefers to open temporary files on local drives rather than network
drives.  The solution for this is either to buy a hard disk for every
workstation running Windows or map a C drive to the network.  The
second solution seems to be the best received by users.  This
mapping clears up many problems, including problems printing within
Word and Excel.  Both of these applications open up temp files for
printing.  If unsuccessful a printer error is returned (pretty accurate
error, eh?) If a user does not wish to change his mapped drives in
this way, Microsoft supplies a third solution which guarantees
success as well (though I wouldn't recommend it.)  The solution is
to set an environment variable TEMP to a network drive where you
have write rights (probably best to have all rights.)  For example:
SET TEMP=F:\PERSONAL\USER1. The problem with this solution is
that different users must set the variable differently and it takes up
room in the environment that can be vital later.  This will help
most all of Microsoft's applications which require a temporary file
to be opened.  When in doubt for a solution use one of these. 
 
A third problem has been found running Windows 286 and 386 on
Non-Dedicated NetWare.  The prfix.com patch applies for both
applications, as does the temp file patch mentioned above.  A third
problem with 386 however is the use of extended memory.  Windows
will attempt to use extended memory if no VDISK driver is found. 
To disable this the textfile WIN.INI variable EMMPAGE FRAME
needs to be set to 0 to tell Windows not to touch any extended
memory. 
 
I hope these ideas are helpful although I'm positive this list of
problems and solutions is nowhere near complete.  I would like to
hear from you if you have other reccurring problems with Windows
286 or 386 or Excel. Solutions are welcome as well. 
Subject:  Two Token Ring Problems

 
Here are two problems concerning IBM Token Ring networks: 
 
1)  We have narrowed down the problems with the 2.11 shell with 
    Token Ring. The problem appears to be tied with the 2.11 
    Token Ring shell driver. 
 
    2.1 ipx.obj + 2.1 TRN Driver = works 
    2.1 ipx.obj + 2.11 TRN Driver = drive "C:" is not available. 
    2.11 ipx.obj + 2.1 TRN Driver = works 
    2.11 ipx.obj + 2.11 TRN Driver = drive "C:" is not available. 
 
    This problem only applies to the model 30 w/HD and the original

    PC/XT with HD. 
 
 
2)  A copy of the 2.11 Token Ring drivers has been uploaded  
    to NetWire. The file name is 211TRN.ARC. They are necessary   
    for users that are doing the following: 
 
    SFT NetWare 2.1 + IBM Token Ring + NetWare Care 
 
    The 2.1 packet counters would not increment correctly under 
    NetWare Care. This has been fixed in 2.11 so 2.11 users already 
    have it. 
 
    Please tell your respective people that we do NOT provide      
    drivers for Proteon ProNet 4.  We only have drivers for Proteon 
    ProNEt 10.  Any requests regarding Pronet 4 should be referred 
    to Proteon customer service.  
Subject:  SMC PS110 Board Won't Run in PS/2 Model 80 Need Rev B 
Date: 21-Apr-88 
    
It has been reported from the field that the SMC PS110 boards for 
the Micro Channel have a problem running in the Model 80.  The  
field report also said that SMC is aware of the problem and has  
fixed it with a REV B board.  It was confirmed in the lab on a  
Model 80 that a REV B board works.  We don't have a REV A board 
so I can't give you the error that you would see when trying it  
in the Model 80.  
Subject:  IBM PC Cluster Support 
Date: 25-Aug-88 
 
Version 2.0a is the LAST version that supports IBM PC Cluster in 
a file server. We have been offering (starting with 2.11) a driver 
diskette P/N 883-000553-001. This driver provides workstation and 
bridge support only! It does not provide file server support. 
 
Please be aware of this.   
 Subject:  720K Limit 
Date: 15-Aug-88 
 
When using 3.5 inch diskettes that have been formatted to 720K, 
only 7 sectors are used for directory entries.  Each sector 
supports 16 entries.  Thus, you will only be able to put 112 files 
on a 720K diskette.  Users will probably run into this when using 
Larchive.  This is NOT a NetWare bug.  

This is a DOS limitation for the root directory of ANY diskette,  
not just 3.5 inch diskettes.  If using LARCHIVE, you may create  
a subdirectory and "CD" down to that directory before beginning  
the archive process.  From the subdirectory, the 112 file limit  
does not exist.  The user would need to create a subdirectory on  
each archive diskette with the same name. 
 
It appears that the larchive supplied with 2.11 handles this 
situation correctly. Please append this to the first message. 
 
In a previous FYI we said that you can only copy 112 files to a 
3.5 720K diskette.  This is partially true.  You can only copy 
112 files to the root directory.  However, you can copy more 
than 112 files into a subdirectory.  Larchive will still have 
this DOS limitation because it copies the files into the root 
directory. 
Subject:  2.11 Password
Date: 15-Aug-88 
 
If you set the "Default Account Balance/Restrictions" option 
"Force Periodic Password Changes" to "Yes" and then set a number 
of days, any new users created subsequently will have the "Date 
Password Expires" set to "January 1, 1985". 
 
In speaking with Engineering earlier on this question 
that is the way they chose to force a password update on new 
users. By making it expire the user then had to log in and change 
the password that the Supervisor had set for them. Thus the 
supervisor no longer knows the person's password (of course he 
can still change it) This was to check or balance the power of 
the supervisor and protect the user from wrongful use of his 
password. 
 
THIS A SECURITY FEATURE ! 
Subject:  Gandalf LDM 419 Modem 
Date: 30-Aug-88  
 
In trying to catch-up on reading all the back Tech-Tips the other 
day, I ran across one that I felt I had to comment on.  The 
original CFP came from Brent Larson NSSG and was sent on Mon 
30-May-88 in the "comm" domain.  On Wed 1-Jun-88, Earle Wells 
updated Brent's original communique. 
 
What strikes me odd about this is that Gandalf's LDM 419 is not a 
*true* modem so to speak.  It is a <L>imited <D>istance <M>odem 
(hence the LDM designation). 
 
The only reason I mention this is so that the folks out there 
don't try using this unit in a application where the two host 
sites are more than 10 to 20 miles apart.  These units do not 
have the amplification circuits that *true* leased-line modems 
have.  They are also designed to function at greater distances on 
unloaded (3010) circuits better than loaded (3002) circuits. 
Final distance will also depend upon the speed (baud rate) you 
wish to run them at and the gauge of the wire. 
(not true figures but typical) 

example:         baud rate          unloaded        loaded 
 
                 300                19 miles        9 miles 
                 1200               16 miles        7.5 miles 
                 2400               12 miles        5 miles 
                 4800               8 miles         2 miles 
                 9600               4 miles         forget it 
                 19,200             1.5 miles       ha ha ha ha 
 
 
A true 9600bps leased-line modem will drive a data signal 
coast-to-coast with no problem (other than a phone line glitch) 
whereas a LDM will be lucky to make it to the next town.  LDMs 
(or Short Haul Modems or Line Drivers) work best on private wire
or short run leased circuits. 
 
Also, NEVER try to use a LDM if the circuit is leased from the 
phone company and passes through more than one (1) of their
Central Office (COs).  It just won't work. 
 
p.s. beware of the following: 
 
  Host A       -- 10 miles -------  Bell CO 
                                  / 
                                 / 
   2 miles                      / 
                               / 
                              / 
  Host B       -- 11 miles --/ 
 
 
Host A is 2 miles from Host B but the actual *cable distance* 
turns out to be over 21 miles!!!  Be sure to ASK the phone 
company the *actual wire length* of the proposed circuit. 
 Subject:  Model 50z and 70 Patch
Date: 30-Aug-88 
 
The patch to fix the 2.0a Operating System for the model 50z and 
the model 70 is available on NetWire in group 2 "patches". 
The file name is 50z&70.arc.  This file contains a readme file 
that explains the operation of the two files. 
 
After the patch, the OS will only work on the 50z and 70 ! 
Subject:  Print Server VAP 
Date: 9-Aug-88 
 
I was talking to someone from LAN Systems yesterday and 
apparently their VAP requires Rev D of 2.1.  They have been 
advertising their software in LAN Times. 
 
Most VAPS work best with rev. D. 
Subject:  ATterminal Drive Table 
Date: 10-Aug-88  
 
The drive table that went out with the AT terminal information 
was an FYI item only.  We do not currently support hard drives in 
the AT terminal.  The reason it was sent is because it is the 
latest drive table from Hardware Products Division.  One other 
note,  the AT terminal is strictly an Ethernet workstation.  It 
is not supported as a Novell file server and does not currently 
support Extended, or Expanded memory. 
Subject:  NetWare VMS Specifications 
Date: 11-Aug-88 
 
There was an oversight in the functional spec for NetWare for VMS
v2.0a.  It is too late to implement it now, but it will be 
implemented in future versions of the product. 
 
Specifically, the following NCP's were dropped as per the 
Functional Spec: 
 
Synchronization Strings 
 
Semaphores 
 
Communication Pipes 
 
Synchronization strings are essentially Logical Record locks. 
Commercial developers don't use them because they are specific to 
NetWare.  However, custom built "in-house" NetWare specific 
applications use them widely.  We have two beta sites whose 
in-house applications won't work with NetWare for VMS because of 
this. 
Subject:  Pause Key on PS/2 File Servers Halts Network Date:
12-Aug-88 
 
On 286 and 386 Machines with the enhanced keyboard, the 
"PAUSE" key can actually suspend the CPU even on a dedicated file
server. By pressing the pause key again, processing will resume. 
This feature was probably implemented so that operating systems and
applications that run in protected mode could be stopped if 
desired. 
Subject:  2.1 Flag Utility 
Date: 15-Aug-88  
 
I was using the 2.1 and 2.11 flag utility and doing a "global" 
flag of 1,000 files (ie flag *.*). This command slowly raises 
the utilization of the server.  By the time you've gone through 
500 to 600 files utilization can be as high as 100%. This brings 
the server to crawl and by 800 to 900 you are dead in the water. 
If instead of using 2.11 or 2.1 flag you copy in the 2.0a flag on 
the same server with the same files, utilization jumps initially 
and then goes back down. According to Software Engineering, there
is no fix for the 2.11 and 2.1 flag and no plans to make one.
Anyone doing global flags and experiencing this slow down will have
to copy 2.0a flag into the Public directory. 
 Subject:  NetBIOS 
Date: 15-Aug-88 
 
Whenever users are having problems with NetBIOS applications, 
suggest that they try to adjust the NetBIOS parameters using the 
directions found on pages B-8 and B-9 of the supervisor reference 
manual. 
 Subject:  DOS 4.0 Shell 
Date: 18-Aug-88 
 
The DOS 4.0 shell was uploaded to NetWire.  It is named NET4.ARC
in Data Library 3.  We also have a copy on
NSD-PRINT/SYS:PCBOARD/DL1 and VERN/VOL1:GENERAL/NETWIRE
with the same file name. 
 Subject:  DISKED With 2.1 NetWare 
Date: 19-Aug-88 
 
Just a note about using Disked to blow away the binderies under 
2.1 NetWare.  In 2.0a it was easy to find the starting point of 
the directory table.  It was at sector 32 so you just typed 
"R 32" and then proceeded to look for the bindery files. 
 
However, in 2.1 (and also 2.0a SFT NetWare) it becomes more 
difficult to find the directory table.  After experimenting 
with Disked on a 2.1 server I found that the directory table 
starts on a 32 sector boundary.  I checked with Kirk Matheson and 
he confirmed that this is true. 
 
Therefore, when searching for the bindery files on a 2.1 server 
start reading at 32 sector boundaries.  For example: "R 32", 
"R 64", "R 96", etc. until you find the directory table (you will 
see the file names and sub directory names like PUBLIC, SYSTEM,
etc. in the right column). Then you can start searching at that point
for the bindery files. 
Subject:  Illegal Characters 
Date: 22-Aug-88 
 
Before doing a backup with the Novell Tape Software, make sure 
that there are no file names that contain any of the following 
illegal characters: 
 
1. Any characters below SPACE (0x00 through 0x1F) this includes
ALL control characters. 
 
2. The SPACE character.

3. Wild-card characters * and ?.
 
4. The backward and forward slash characters, \ and /.
 
5. The comma.
 
6. The DELETE character (0x7F).
 
7. Any character with the bit 7 set to 1 (0x80 through 0xFF).
 
The backup will go just fine since the backup is done according 
to allocated data blocks and not by files. The trouble begins 
when the restoration is done and all of the data blocks are put 
back into files. 
 Subject:  PAN Drivers 
Date: 26-Aug-88 
 
Apparently several of us were unaware that many of the PAN
drivers shipped with 2.0a were not good.  The older the version of
2.0a the better the drivers. 
 Subject:  Real Mode with Non Dedicated 
Date: 26-Aug-88 
  
When running on the non-dedicated station of ELS or Advanced 
NetWare, you MUST be careful that all applications run in real 
mode. You cannot run Windows/386 Paradox/386 or other 
applications that attempt to change the operation mode of the 
shared CPU. The reasons why are very obvious. 
 Subject:  Running 2.1 using Ethernet @ 20Mhz 
Date: 29-Aug-88 
 
We have had some experience running 2.1 using Ethernet @ 
20Mhz at the Democratic National Convention. 
 
The dealer who put together the network, BCR Computers, 
used a Compaq 386/20 with 3-NP600 cards in it and we 
didn't experience any trouble once we got the drivers for the 
faster speed. 
 
This server got a heavy work out and could have been considered 
the main server at the Convention. 
 Subject:  Network and DOS File Handles 
Date: 30-Aug-88 
  
Concerning the number of files a given user needs to have opened. 
Shell.cfg or using debug on a shell affects only the Network 
side, if the user is using a local drive the config.sys ALONE 
controls the number of files open. Contrary to previous belief 
the two are not interrelated. Config.sys has nothing to do with 
the number of files a user has open on the network. 
 
For example: If a user has a config.sys of files=10 and a 
Shell.cfg (or has debugged his shell) for 40 files. The user can 
then access a program on the Network and open 40 files with that 
program, even though his config.sys only allows 10 files. 
Steve Butt has tested and proven this as a fact. 
 
These parameters also are strictly maximum limits.  They by no  
means allow users to open more than 20 files.  This must be  
allowed by the user making room for more handles in their 
PSP which is with function 67H of DOS 3.3, and some serious  
kludging under previous DOS versions. 
Subject:  LOGOUT from Batch File 
Date: 9-Aug-88 
 
NetWare Version 2.0a 
 
Some users have requested information on how to gracefully logout 
from a batch file so that everything is automated.  Basically 
they want to use the AUTOEXEC.BAT file to log people in and then

from the login script they exit to a batch file that calls a menu. 
When they escape from the menu the batch file logs them out and 
then it may run a local batch file or menu. 
 
The following is a listing of the batch file that we tested 
successfully.  One important detail - you must copy your batch 
file to the LOGIN directory in order for DOS to find it after you 
log out.  Otherwise, you will get "Batch file missing" and no more 
commands from the batch file will be executed. 
 
menu main 
map f:=sys:login            { After exiting menu, map network drive
                              to LOGIN } 
path=c:;c:\temp             { Set path to local drive - LOGOUT    
                              erases path   } 
set comspec=c:command.com   { Set comspec to local drive } 
z:logout                    { z: is search drive to PUBLIC, must do
                              this way } 
pause                       { This pause is crucial } 
c:                          { Now you can execute local batch files,
                              etc. } 
cd \temp 
menu.bat 
 Subject:  PURE DATA Support
Date: 23-Aug-88 
 
There seems to be some confusion about the Pure Data boards 
being supported on ELS. 
 
The boards are fully supported. 
Subject:  Allen Bradley Drivers 
Date: 23-Aug-88 
 
The Allen-Bradley driver for NetWare 2.1 and higher must be dated 
7/18/88 or later. The NIC board must be a modified REV.A or
REV.B.  Without these changes the correct Netgen operation cannot
be done.  Options that are needed will not be available.  Errors
while attempting to Netgen also may prevent the completion of the 
Netgen process. 
 
Please Note: 
 
Allen-Bradley is an OEM, therefore, all support should be channeled 
through Allen-Bradley. 
Subject:  68B 2.1 Record Locks 
Date: 24-Aug-88 
 
There has been a bug reported and fixed in 68B 2.1 NetWare. 
The problem is that when a Physical Record Lock is placed on a 
file by one work station and a second work station has the same 
file open (ie. a database of any sort) when the first workstation 
closes the file the record lock remains until the second 
workstation also closes the file. This may present a large 
problem with any sort of database running on 68 2.1 software. The 
fix is a new OS and has been uploaded to the 68UP21.ARC file on 
Netwire.  
 
Note: 
 
This is going to be a 2.1a revision soon. 
Subject:  Changing From Dedicated to Non-dedicated Date:
25-Aug-88 
 
If you are using a dedicated system for NetWare, you CANNOT  
change it to a non-dedicated system without re-initializing 
the disk. 
 
For example, if you are using a dedicated system and change  
to a non-dedicated system, NetWare will over-write the DOS 
partition that you install when it needs more disk space  
because it does not update the volume information unless 
you re-initialize the drive also. 
 
The solution is to back up the DOS partition and the NetWare 
partition, then re-initialize the disk. 
Subject:  Format Fix For PS/2 Drives 
Date: 26-Aug-88 
 
This patch will restore the primary defect list on ESDI 
drives used in the IBM Personal System/2 models 60 and 
80.  It has been put on NetWire as "FORMAT.ARC".  Until now, 
users have not been able to run the low level format after 
Compsurf has been run on the drive.  The low level format 
routine will report that it cannot locate the defect list 
and will terminate.  This will restore the list so that the 
low level format will run.  There is a revised ESDI driver 
available on NetWire as "ESDIFX.ARC" that will preserve the 
defect list.  When this driver is used, the format patch will 
not be necessary. 
 
For anyone using 2.0a PS/2 NetWare they will need to run this 
format patch because the ESDI driver is only for 2.1X. 
 
Note: 
You still need the up-to-date ESDI controller from IBM. 
Subject:  Questions and Answers About Main Frame Gateways and
X.25 Bridge  
Date: Wed 20-Apr-88 
  
Problem: A customer using PCOX/ONE Coax was trying to switch
from one host to another, by using an A/B switch connected to the
coax board and he was having a problem.  
  
After completing his work on host A, the user would logoff; run  
CXIEXIT; turn the A/B switch to host B; load CXI3278C R and jump
to the host.  He found the screen had not been refreshed and his  
keyboard was inhibited.  When he attempted to type anything, the  
PC would beep.  
  
Solution:  This problem was resolved by having the user execute
CXIRESET after CXIEXIT and before switching the A/B switch and
loading CXI3278C R the second time.  
  
Q: Can you run a 5250 Workstation on a 5250 Gateway Server?  
A: NO.  You must have a dedicated 5250 GW server.  All 5250 WSs
must reside on their own PCs.  Each GW and WS must also load
NetBIOS prior to loading the control program.  
  
Q: 3270 Gateway Token-Ring...What is a 1L on a 3174?  Does the
whole controller need to be dedicated (32 ports @ 4 sessions
each-128 sessions)?  What is the packet size or speed of cable
between the Token Ring card and the 3174?  
A:  The 1L is a feature on the 3174 that effectively splits the  
controller.  It still allows use of normal port assignment and  
allow an additional 128 sessions for the Token Ring.  Two PUs must 
be gen'd on VTAM to support both configurations.  
  
As the cabling is special Token Ring cable to the 3174 , the  
speed is similar (256 byte packets) to IBM.  Our control program  
may be slightly faster.  
  
Q: What kind of CPUs reside on PCOX boards?  
A:  
Remote Assist  
CoaxMux            Both of these boards use an Intel 80186  
Remote  
Twinax             Both of these boards use a Zilog Z80  
Coax               Custom Gate Array  
  
X.25 QUESTIONS  

Q:  Can you cross bridges via a gateway with the current X.25  
bridges?  
A:  NO.  Presently the X.25 bridges use the GENBR shell from
Novell 2.0a.  This older version of the GENBR driver will not allow
it to pass through the bridge.  A new version of NetBIOS,  
2.1 has the ability to cross bridges but cannot cross this X.25  
bridge.  Version 2.1 GENBR drivers are presently under development
to accommodate this "internet" NetBIOS.  
  
Q:  Can I run Novell 2.1 on the same LAN as an X.25 bridge?  
A:  As long as you use the GENBR drivers that are packaged with
the X.25 Bridges when creating BRIDGE.EXE, all WSs accessing the
bridge can use version 2.1 of Novell.  It is important to know that
the Bridge needs the 2.0a drivers from GENBR.  
  
Q:  Can the X.25 bridge run non-dedicated?  
A:  Yes.  Upon execution of the BRIDGE.EXE program, you have a
choice to allocate memory.  If you choose to run the bridge
non-dedicated, add a 192 statement to the command line.  
  
Q:  What type of modems can I run on X.25?  
A:  Synchronous, full duplex.  

Q:  What are the requirements of a leased line for X.25?  
A:  If on a leased line it cannot be multi-dropped and needs to
support 4-wire.  
 Subject:  File Allocation Table Error Abandon Error Report 
 
 network went down without closing files or logging out 
 answer yes to and remove the file NET$SYS.ERR 
 
FILE CREATION ERROR 
 
 file I/O 
 file flags need to be changed, or can't find file 
 
FILE SPEC HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM DISKETTE 
 
 when running Lrestore, the file is listed in Larchive.log, but has 
 been deleted from diskette.  Ignore 
 
FILE FILENAME.EXT TOO LONG 
 
 file has more disk blocks allocated to it than its recorded length 
 warrants.  This is caused by not using the down command. 
 Delete and reload from backup. 
Subject:  Exec Failure
 
Conflict between DOS and NetWare or not enough memory check
that the versions are compatible.

Conflicts between versions of DOS when command.com or what was 
booted from when loading. 
 
Also make sure you have allocated enough memory for application! 
Subject:  WARNING!  Multiple Routers with Same Internet Address!  
Occurs on:  ND286, SFT I, SFT II, TTS. 
 
Meaning:  This error message is displayed on the console when the
router process in the file server detects that another router in the
internetwork has the same Internetwork Number (Network Address)
as itself.  This is not a fatal error and will not halt the server. 
 
Cause:  At least two networks have been set up with the same
internetwork number.  This error will occur if the duplicate network
number is assigned to LAN B, C, D or E as well as LAN A in a file
server.  Each network within the same internetwork must have a
unique network address unless they exist on the same cabling
system. 
 
This error could also be generated if a break had occurred in a
wiring system with at least one file server on each side of the
break.  If the file servers are both still connected to the internet,
they would both appear to have separate cabling systems, but both
would have routers with the same network address. 
 
Solution:  Use the SCONFIG utility to find and change the duplicate
network addresses.  The new network addresses should be unique
from all other networks in the internetwork. 
 
If the two conflicting networks are supposed to be part of the same
large network, then check for a break in the cabling between the
two servers.  
 Subject:  IPX FIX FOR v2.11 
Date: 13-Jun-88 
 
The 2.11 version of IPX.OBJ for workstations has been placed on  
NetWire so that people who are having problems with gateway  
products from CXI and NAS can download it.  This version  
contains a fix which will prevent IPX based applications  
from hanging the workstation by calling the IPXSendPacket  
function during interrupt processing.  It should be noted  
that this was implemented by Novell to fix bugs caused by  
the gateway writers.  This is NOT a Novell bug! 
Subject:  Token Ring Gateway Problems
Date: 9-Jun-88 
 
We have experienced some problems in certain environments with 
the Token-Ring Gateway product.  These problems have now been 
resolved.  Application Notes 4-0176 and 4-0177 have been written 
to explain these solutions, and Product Temporary Fixes (PTFs) 
131 and 132 are available from the PCOX Hot Line 
(1-800-221-6402). 
 
The Token-Ring Gateway production software will be refreshed in 
early July to include these fixes. 
Subject:  Token Ring 
Date:  7-Sep-88  
  
The NetWare operating system drivers do not support the Token  
Ring II board. This is not the Micro Channel board but is a  
standard bus board with all of the memory populated.  
  
It does work correctly on the workstation side.  
  
This is true for 2.x versions.  
  Subject:  DCB Serialization Errors
Date:  31-Aug-88  
  
There is an old 2.0a trick that works with 2.1x and a DCB that is  
being used as an expensive key card (no drives attached).  
  
If you get a serialization mismatch error with the DCB set up  
this way try the following before assuming a gendata or hardware  
problem:  
  
1) Boot server up under DOS and run Diskset.  
  
2) Hit insert to bring up drive list. Select any drive.  
  
3) Hit escape and say yes to save question.  
  
4) Exit to DOS  
  
5) Run Diskset again and delete the above selected drive. Exit and  
say yes to save question.  
  
6) Try to boot server.  
  
I have had 5 people in the last week that this has worked on.  
Subject:  WD Ethernet and NE1000 
Date:  1-Sep-88  
  
I had a problem getting PCTerminals (which applies to NE1000  
cards, too) up on a 2.1 network that was running "AT" machines  
with Western Digital Ethernet. I found that the Western Digital  
drivers have some code that excludes the other Ethernet cards.  
For this reason W/D drivers are not supported on 2.1 or 2.11 yet.  
The 2.0A drivers are supported but also have the same exclusion  
type of code. The 2.0A drivers seem to work with 2.0A but won't  
with 2.1 or 2.11.  
  
Western Digital says they will have the code fixed by 9/9.  
  
They have also changed their default settings (reported from 
customer).  
Subject:  DOS Function 39H 
Date:  1-Sep-88  
  
Here's another one of those "relatively minor problems, but still  
a programmer's headache" type bug with the 2.11 shell and DOS:  
  
When using the DOS int 21h function call 39h (MKDIR) on a  
network drive, if the subdirectory already exists, the return  
code is 2 (file not found), where without the shell loaded or on  
a local drive, the return code for that situation is a 5 (access  
denied.)  
  
I imagine the same completion code is being returned with  
earlier versions of the shell as well...  
  Subject:  ELS "In-depth"  
Date:  8-Sep-88  
  
In the "IN-DEPTH" ELS NetWare Level II there is some information 
that is not clear. On page 11 of the "Questions and Answers"  
section, it mentions that Windows/386, OS/2 and PC/MOS-386 are  
all supported by ELS-II. It does not mention that the  
non-dedicated workstation is excluded from this list. Because the  
non-dedicated process shares the CPU with the OS, care must be  
taken in ensuring that applications that are run do not alter the  
CPU's operation mode.  
  
Please be aware of this in speaking about the product.  
Subject:  FCB's and 2.10 NetWare 
Date:  8-Sep-88  
  
A problem has been encountered in using FCB's (File Control Blocks)
again.  It concerns the 2.1 version of the Operating System.  The
version of the shell does not seem to matter.  The problem occurs
when an FCB which is already open is "reopened."  In 2.0a and 2.11
this is allowed and 00 is returned as a completion code (ie. a
successful open.)  
  
However, for some reason under 2.1, FF is returned meaning the  
file was not opened.  This can cause havoc amongst those  
programs still using FCB's.  One example is BASIC 1.0 since  
it uses FCB's as a standard. If the file is left open and an  
attempt is made to "reopen" it, access is denied even though the  
user already has it open!  
  
The fix for this is to 0 local buffers.  Refer to Technical Bulletin   
#223.  
Subject:  Paging Errors on PC Terminals 
Date:  13-Sep-88  
  
A paging error on the PC terminal can, in most cases, be 
eliminated by using the NE1000 boot EPROM in the machine.  
Although boot code is included in the 6.6X BIOS, it does not  
incorporate the latest changes to the shell.  These changes have  
been implemented in the NE1000 boot EPROM part no 817-287-020  
rev B.  
  
THE EPROM MUST BE REVISION B OR HIGHER FOR THE  
PAGING ERROR TO BE ADDRESSED.  Revision A parts do not  
have the code needed to remedy the problem.  It is also important  
to note that the chips used must be 200ns or faster.  The speed  
of the EPROM will be marked similar to that of a memory chip in  
that a '20' will indicate 200ns and a '25' will indicate a 250ns  
chip.  If a slow chip is used, the video will be blank after the  
chip is installed and will function normally when the chip is  
removed.  This is important to note because the normal  
requirement for the chip that is used with the NE1000 card is  
250ns.  The PC terminal requires a faster chip.  
  
The EPROM should be inserted into the 'user' socket on the  
motherboard next to the BIOS.  Make sure you align the notch on  
the EPROM with the notch on the socket.  
If the EPROM is inserted backwards it will ruin it.  
Subject:  Nestar Drivers 
Date:  15-Sep-88  
  
  
The Riverbend Group, 703/883-0616, has written a Nestar driver  
for NetWare 2.1+.  Anyone wanting support for that topology for  
2.1 should call them.  
  
Subject:  2.12 Gendata  
Date:  15-Sep-88  
  
  
I received a call from someone who was getting linking errors with 
a new installation of 2.12.  He also said that the Netgen never  
asked for his Gendata diskette.  I told him to run Netgen  with  
the -n option (ie netgen -n). This solved the problem completely  
including the linking errors.  
  Subject:  NP600 TCP/IP Gateway  
Date:  19-Sep-88  
  
Micom says that the NLP600 gateway board (used with the TCP/IP  
gateway) does not work with 2.11 NetWare.  A customer said that  
his worked fine on 2.1 NetWare.  Micom apparently is aware of the 
problem.  
Subject:  PCTerminal Floppy Install  
Date:  20-Sep-88  
  
I was working with a customer on site today who was trying to  
install a floppy drive into a PC Terminal that was working fine  
booting from a remote reset prom.  
  
After installing our chip set that would allow him to do this  
when he booted to DOS and tried to load IPX, it would hang.  
After checking all the switches and the IPX settings, it was   
suggested that he enable DMA 1, and it worked.  
  
The DMA settings are not very clear in the manual. They are listed 
as DRQ1 and DACK1. Enabling these made the difference.  
Subject:  Network Assistant Update  
Date:  22-Sep-88  
  
We found out that a problem has been documented and corrected   
with the latest update of Network Assistant.  
  
Network Assistant is a TSR that allows network printing on local  
printers. The problem is with large print files (anything above  
1MB).  The user and the workstation that the printer is connected 
to will get a variety of network errors.  
  
The Network Assistant people know about this problem and have a  
fix for it. The end user needs to contact them.  
  Subject:  TRESTORE 0 Byte Problem  
Date:  22-Sep-88  
  
  
The updated 2.1X tape restore object file is available on NetWire.   
 
The original 2.1X tape restore program will quit after restoring   
too many 0 byte files.    
  Subject:  Security Change  
Date:  3-Oct-88  
  
Please note the following change with SYSCON in 2.12. If you go 
into SYSCON and bring up "user information," you can then go into 
"trustee assignments."  At this point, you can hit the insert key  
and enter in a path that does not exist. If this is done, the  
system will ask if you wish to create that path. If you do, the  
path will be created and Read Open and Search rights will be  
granted to the user. Earlier versions of NetWare would grant all  
rights to the user at this point. However, 2.12 will only grant  
the three mentioned above.  This is NOT a bug.  It was 
intentionally changed.  
  
The supervisor can of course, grant any and all rights at this  
time if they so desire.  
  Subject:  Packed File Corrupt Error  
Date:  27-Sep-88  
  
A customer received a "packed file corrupt" error.  The people I   
talked to gave varying answers about the file itself being corrupted 
or using different compilers to compile a program.  
  
It turns out that while this error occurs mostly during our  
utilities (They got the error while running other third party  
programs also) the problem was an arcnet board that could not  
run at faster speeds.  When the machine was run at slower  
speeds the error went away and when the arcnet card was  
replaced with a Thomas-Conrad card they no longer had the  
problem even at the faster speed (the speed was 20 or 25 mhz)  
  Subject:  IBM Basic  
Date:  28-Sep-88  
  
When using a remote async shell and some basic interpreters there
is a problem because the basic will initialize the communication port 
that the shell is using.  
  
The problem comes up the first time you access a file in any way  
off the file server (open close etc). It will attach fine but  
when you do the file access you will get a Network read or  
access error. This particular customer was using 2.0a, but the  
same problem exists in any version.  
  
This particular customer was using IBM BASIC Compiler Version  
1.0 and I am told that version 2.0 corrects this problem. Also  
with some other compilers the only fix is to have two serial  
ports, one for the Async shell to use (Use com2) and one for the  
compiler to initialize.  
  Subject:  ACS2 Problems  
Date:  28-Sep-88  
  
A customer had a problem with Network Products ACS2  (this  
board is supposed to be the same as our NACS product).  
  
The configuration was as follows:  
  
1)  2.0a shells with Token Ring and Omninet boards  
  
2)  7 servers with a mix of 2.0a Advanced and SFT  
  
3)  2 of these servers had internal Bridge between Token Ring and  
    Omninet  
  
4)  All servers had a true backbone utilizing Token Ring (both  
    fiber and Type One Cable).  
  
The Token Ring users were having no problems running Reflection  
(the purpose of the ACS was to give terminal emulation to a  
HP3000 mini). The users on the Omninet side of things that were  
on SFT servers were having no problems. The users on servers that 
had just 2.0a Advanced NetWare, the Reflection terminal would  
hang after about 5 seconds of inactivity. This is usually time out  
problems. I suggested that they take the SFT Omninet drivers and  
reconfigure the operating system and shell with them.  The  
problem then went away. I have to assume that the drivers have  
been updated.  
  Subject:  NetBIOS v2.12  
Date:  4-Oct-88  
  
Novell NetBIOS Emulator v2.12 is incorrectly labeled.  The header  
shows up as BETA VERSION 1.  However, it is not the Beta version.

The header was not changed before it was shipped.  Engineering is  
making the change now.  
  Subject:  More Packed File Corrupt  
Date:  4-Oct-88  
  
In working with several clients that were receiving "Packed File  
is Corrupt" error message in totally different circumstances I  
have found out several things that need to be passed along to the  
other technicians or anybody that needs to know.  
  
The "Packed File is Corrupt" error message is caused by one of  
two things.  The first is caused by bad memory.  One thing  
you might want to check is if they are using a combination of  
64KB and 256KB chips or mixing speeds of 256KB chips, make sure  
the slow or 64KB chips are in the first banks of memory on the  
board (either mother or expansion).  
  
The other is the file is actually corrupted.  The client I was  
working with was running Word Perfect 5.0 network.  It would run  
fine from a local drive, but not from a network drive.  Word  
Perfect said that they had seen this with 5.0 before and a  
different copy solved the problem.  
  Subject:  ELS Level II Drivers  
Date:  6-Oct-88  
  
It seems as though there is some confusion regarding  ELS/II and
the "load and select" option of Netgen.  ELSGEN will not give you
the "load and select" option.  Disk drivers are pre-configured in
ELS/II and only those pre-configured drivers are supported.  
  Subject:  2.0a Shell and Netgen  
Date:  6-Oct-88  
  
When using Netgen on a hard drive or off the network it has been  
found that when using a 2.0a shell it will ask you to insert the  
Netgen disk.  When a 2.1x shell is used it works normally.  
  Subject:  ATOTAL Error Reading File  
Date:  6-Oct-88  
  
The ATOTAL in 2.1 and 2.11 has a problem when it encounters a  
corrupt net$acct.dat file.  It will hang when it runs.  The  
new file for 2.12 will return an error stating the file is corrupt  
and will not hang the station running it.  It should be noted  
that the NET$ACCT.DAT file should be looked at often and then  
deleted thus making a new one to help prevent corruption within  
that file.  
  Subject:  Token Ring II  
Date:  7-Oct-88  
  
Please note that none or our file server/bridge drivers will support 
the Token Ring II board.  This is the standard bus card that has all 
16K populated.  The Micro Channel card works correctly.   No
commitments have been made as to when this problem will be
resolved.  
  
The Token Ring II board WILL work correctly in workstations.  This
is because "TOKREUI" or "DXMAID" is talking to the board and  
knows how to handle it.  Our shell in turn talks to "TOKREUI" or  
"DXMAID."  
  Subject:  Hidden Diskette  
Date:  7-Oct-88  
  
We have been getting many calls from users installing 2.12 regarding
a disk named programs-1.   The disk does exist even though it is
not packaged with the standard set of disks.  It is located under the
upper flap of the same box the standard disk are shipped in.  Some
customers expect to find it with the standard set and when they
don't they think it has been left out or they are seeing a bug in
2.12.  Have your customers check the upper flap first and issue an
RMA only if the disk has "really" been left out.  
  Subject:  300 MB drives  
Date:  10-Oct-88  
  
Here are the drives Hardware Engineering has tested and officially  
qualified.  We will only sell them in 386As and not in NDS4s.  
  
              CDC Wren IV - 344  
              Maxtor 4380s  
              Newbury 4380s  
  
These are all supported under 2.12 - select them using DISKSET  
option 320.  
  Subject:  WordPerfect Disk Error 88  
Date:  10-Oct-88  
  
We have had an increasing number of people inquiring about the 
error message "DISK ERROR 88" when running WordPerfect.  Our  
technicians point the finger at WordPerfect and their technicians  
point the finger right back at us.  
  
We have attempted to discover some of the circumstances which 
might cause this error message to appear.    
  
This is what we have found out:  
  
First of all, "DISK ERROR 88" is a DOS error message, not a  
WordPerfect error message. The problem is that Wordperfect  
grabs the DOS critical error handler (interrupt 24) and  
redirects it to their own error handler.  We also do that with  
our shell.  Needless to say only one program is allowed access  
to that interrupt.  So, when the shell looses it's connection  
to the network because of hardware failures or software failures  
Wordperfect doesn't get our "Network error.." message.  
  
We are trying to get them to set up their error handler to interface
with the shell so they get the appropriate network errors.  
  
Anyway, that's why we say it's their fault and they say it's ours!  
If people get this error they can usually save their files to a  
local drive or to another file name on the network (so the shell  
re-tries it's connection).  
  
I hope this helps to clarify the situation and will stop most of  
the finger pointing.  
  Subject:  2.1X and Pure Data Arcnet  
Date:  10-Oct-88  
  
We received a call from a dealer who said that they could not get a
model 70 to run using Pure Data's card.  They called Pure Data,
who stepped them through a debug routine to change the offsets.  
  
Pure Data is an OEM company so we need to refer customers to 
Pure Data if they are having problems.  
  Subject:  Advanced NetWare 2.0  
Date:  10-Oct-88  
  
We still receive calls from users with Advanced NetWare version  
2.0 (not 2.0A).  If someone says they have 2.0 NetWare make sure  
it's not 2.0A.  If they really have version 2.0 HAVE THEM GET THE
UPDATE TO 2.0A.  Our 2.0 version had a long list of bugs and we  
will have a difficult time determining the causes of their  
problems if they really are using a 2.0 version.  
  Subject:  Config.ups  
Date:  17-Oct-88  
  
If you have a "config.ups" in your system area, you MUST have a  
UPS system attached and it must be operational. Otherwise the  
server will go down in the specified time. This is NOT a bug!!!  
  Subject:  ELS Serialization Fix  
Date:  17-Oct-88  
  
Here is a little note I thought would be useful for the technicians
in case any of these little nasties (ie. ELS I) still are hanging
around.  
  
This is in response to some problems we have had in the past  
with ELS I users having problems with their serial number showing  
up as 00000000. It turns out that if the START.BAT utility is not  
run that the serialization will not be put on the server properly,  
but since ELS I does not check the serial number against a key  
device this will not show up until the user either checks in SYSCON
or is running a MUSLS program which checks the serialization and  
is failing.  
  
In either case there is a remedy for the problem.  What needs 
to be done is the cold boot loader on the START diskette (ie.  
LOADER.DAT.) needs to be installed. The user cannot use the 
INSTALL program that comes with ELS I since it will not install the
cold boot loader.  Instead the INSTALL program from another set of 
software (hopefully available from the distributor) must be used  
and the LOADER.DAT must be copied from the ELS I START disk to
the other INSTALL disk and then INSTALL option 4 (install cold
boot loaders) must be run.  This will solve the serialization problem
in 99% of the cases.  The key is the LOADER.DAT file from the
START disk and an INSTALL program from a non-ELS I version of
NetWare (Non-Dedicated is not a good idea either.)  
  
We haven't heard of any problems with ELS-II.  
  Subject:  2.0A Restore on 2.1  
Date:  17-Oct-88  
  
This may or may not come as a surprise to you but we have 
successfully restored a 43MB file onto a 2.1 T286B server backed  
up with 2.0A tape software and restored with same.  It took  
almost 2 hours for the machine to grind it out even before it  
started to write, we had assumed because there was no activity  
that it died, wrong.  The file was restored intact.  
  
After trying to restore the one 43MB file, we did a complete  
restore with no apparent problems. All user files including the  
binderies were restored and the system works fine.  
  Subject:  PCONSOLE Delete Queues  
Date:  17-Oct-88  
  
We recently had some problems with corrupt print queues.  
  
Case 1: Several queues seemed to go bad shortly after installing  
the OS.  

Case 2: After having a drive go bad and doing a complete restore  
(ADIC software and hardware) the print binderies were corrupted.  
If you tried to do a queue status (or delete), an error 156 or 152 
would occur.  The newest Pconsole wouldn't fix the problem (2.15).  
  
Engineering made un update to the regular Pconsole (version 1.02b). 
This new version allowed me to delete the queues.  
  Subject:  HP Connectivity  
Date:  17-Oct-88  
  
Next month HP will be shipping a gateway product that allows  
HP compatibility in a NetBIOS environment.    
                                            
      Memory  
o WorkStation (software)                                  
     Virtual Terminal Session                         60K  
     Shared Disk or printer Session                   60K  
     Both Session                                     100K  
  
The software is TSR and it can be loaded into extended or 
expanded memory.  The gateway requires two Ethernet boards; one
has to be a 3C501 board.  They only support the 3C501 as the GW
board.  
  
o Gateway (software)                                             
     Requires 286 based PC.                         100K  
  
This GW can be non-dedicated; howver, HP recommends to leave it
dedicated.  Like the WS software, the GW software can be loaded 
into  extended or expanded memory.  
  
o HP3000  
     Local Area Network InterConnect Card (LANIC)Hdw   
     Network Services (NS) Software              
               
The LANIC board is HPs ethernet board (802.3).  
  
Summary  
  
The workstation must be running NetBIOS. One emulation option  
is Reflections Three using ADV.NET vs COM1 setting.  
Others packages will be supported but the list wasn't available.  
The gateway stack is converting ((NetBIOS)EtherII) packets to  
((TCP/IP)802.3) packets. This is a pretty expensive solution  
compared to NACS, but nevertheless an option.  
  Subject:  ELS/I and Compaq Support  
Date:  17-Oct-88  
  
This is to correct some of the info I gave on running Compaq and  
ELS I.  Novell FULLY supports ELS I on a Compaq 386-20.  The 
only patch needed is if the Compaq will have a 300 meg drive  
(FIXELS.ARC on DL5) Please note that to run the 130 meg drive in 
MFM mode (drive type 25) we need to set the interleave to 3:1 not 
the default of 2:1.  Most people will run the 130 meg in ESDI mode 
which is drive type 35 and the interleave for ESDI mode is 1:1.  
  
Again, I was misinformed when I previously said we did not support 
this.  We FULLY support ELS I on a Compaq 386-20.  
Subject:  AST Premium Non-Dedicated  
Date:  17-Oct-88  
  
A problem with AST Premium 386 and NetWare 2.12 non-dedicated
has arisen.  The keyboard gets very sluggish and can also put
garbage in your document.  AST said that a new keyboard or
controller chip would be out by the end of November.  A work
around for now is to hit ctrl alt down arrow-down arrow.  This
slows the processor.  Ctrl alt up arrow-up arrow brings the
processor back up to speed.  
  Subject:  ELS/II NP600 Wyse 386  
Date:  17-Oct-88  
  
A customer called in with the following problem:  
  
When installing ELS II on a Wyse 386 using and NP600 the regular
workstation would only find the file server if the file server was in 
console mode.  Whenever the file server was switched into DOS
mode the workstation would lose their connections.  
  
We tested the same configuration in a 286A without any problems.  
We suggested that he try a different card in the file server.  He put
a 3c501 into the file server and it worked normally.  
Subject:  IPX & Remote Bridging  
Date:  17-Oct-88  
  
A customer is concerned with performance over a 56KB Vitalink
bridge.  They can transfer a file (she doesn't know what size) over
a local LAN in 2 seconds but it takes 48 seconds over a 56KB
Vitalink bridge.  My understanding of a bridge is that IPX sends a
packet across and then waits for an acknowledgement before sending
out the next request.  The customer insists that this wait time
should be modifiable with a patch to improve performance.  Is it??? 
If it is, will we provide a patch and how long will it take??    
  
The answer is that the protocols are not easily alterable.  The  
NetWare protocols were designed for optimum performance in a  
local area network where high speed connections were prevalent  
and propagation delays were negligible.  If you know what it  
means, NetWare uses a single window protocol.  We will probably  
make some enhancements in the distant future to optimize WAN  
traffic.  
  
In proportion to the speed, what she is seeing is reasonable.  
Assuming she is running on a 2 mgb/sec LAN and transferring a file
in 2 seconds, then 48 seconds for the same file over 56 kb/sec  
line is about right.  56 kb/sec is essentially 40 times slower  
than 2 mgb/sec.  
  Subject:  68 RXNet Addresses 2.1  
Date:  17-Oct-88  
  
The issue of internetwork addresses on a 68b is sometimes  
confusing.    
  
In v2.01 and v2.02 the OS only showed one driver for RXNet which
made only one RXNet network address. In v2.1 for the 68b we have
found that the RXNet has four network addresses (RXNet = 2,3,4,
and 5 Snet = 1).  This could cause problems for people whether they
are using an RXNet board in the 68b or not.  
  
This is something that would be good to look for if people are  
having weird internetwork problems with a 68b.    
Subject:  ELS/II VAPS and Bridges  
Date:  19-Oct-88  
  
When using ELS/II and any VAPs or external bridges, they use  
connections and will reduce the number of attachments that  
you can have.    
  
The Btrieve VAP requires 4 connections.    
Subject:  PRINTCON Job Limit  
Date:  20-Oct-88  
  
There is a limit of 37 entries with PRINTCON. This is because  
of the caching routine that is used. It works best with a prime  
number. 37 was selected because the table will still fit in a 4K  
data block. The next prime number is 59 which would require the  
allocation of two data blocks.  
  Subject:  Packed File Corrupt - TRN  
Date:  21-Oct-88  
  
We encountered a problem during Netgen with a IBM Token Ring  
board installed in a Model 80.  
  
The customer would type Netgen and then about 10 seconds later  
get the infamous "Packed File Is Corrupt" error message.  After  
trying everything from a new package of NetWare to another 
machine the customer attached the NIC to a MAU and it ran fine.  
The wrap plug supplied with the type 3 media filter did not solve  
the problem.  
  
I haven't confirmed this but just attaching a Type One  
workstation cable should do the same as attaching it to the MAU.  
  Subject:  PRONET Confusion
Date:  21-Oct-88  
  
A user was upset because the ELS II brochure says Proteon Pronet
is supported.  The user assumed that this included Pronet 4 (IBM
token ring compatible).  This is not true, only Pronet 10 (a
non-compatible token ring passing scheme topology).  This runs at
10MB.
Subject:  Windows and NetWare  
Date:  24-Oct-88  
  
We have occasionally seen problems, where MS Windows appears to
be incompatible with NetWare shells, but where this is not actually  
the case at all.  There are two combinations which can give rise  
to these effects, and both are actually caused by hardware conflicts
between Windows and the NIC.  
  
1)  RAM CONFLICTS  If the NIC is an IBM Token Ring card, GNET
LNIM or any other NIC using shared RAM to transfer data. 
Windows 286 is often used with EMS memory, and that can often
conflict with the NIC's RAM.  To the user it can appear that the
shell is to blame.  
  
More subtly, Windows 386 maps 386 extended memory to look like  
EMS.  Often this will clash with the NIC RAM, causing Windows to 
lock up the PC as it starts.  Again, because the problem doesn't  
show up without the shell loaded, NetWare gets blamed!  The cure  
is to disable EMS emulation ( emmsize = 0 ) or to locate its page  
frame away from the NIC ( lastemmseg = 0DC00 for Token Ring ).  
  
2)  INTERRUPT CONFLICTS  This is a really subtle one!  It occurs 
if you select a Microsoft mouse when installing Windows.  The  
install program is incredibly non-specific, giving only one  
generic Microsoft option for all varieties ( serial and bus).  In  
practice this causes Windows to hog the interrupts for BOTH  
serial ports, so that any NIC using interrupts 3 or 4 will cause  
Windows to crash the moment you select a Network drive from  
within it.  Again the user thinks that there is a conflict with  
the shell.  The cure here is to reconfigure the NIC and shell to  
use "safe" interrupts, such as 5 or 7.  
  Subject:  WNIMs 
Date:  24-Oct-88  
  
The old WNIM works only in machines with bus speeds at or below 
6MHz.  The new WNIM+ definitely improves on this.  Specific  
machines that have been tested were listed in the WNIM+  
announcement.  And yes, the WNIM+ (905-302029-001) does support  
the async remote bridge.  The WNIM+ supports everything except  
for ACS.  
  
-----------------  
  
Subject:  WNIM's Correction  
Date:  24-Oct-88  
  
This is to clarify an earlier announcement of the new WNIM+ (Wide
Area Network Interface Module).    
  
There are three WNIM boards:  
  
  
#1         Part # 913-000017-001  
           This is the older model WNIM that uses three flat cables 
           and an external connector on the back.  This model has 
           been in use with the current version of ACS (v1.46). 
 
           This board is no longer in stock.  
  
#2          Part # 905-301962-001  
            This board is now called the ACS FOUR-PORT         
            EXPANSION BOARD and replaces the WNIM referred to 
            above.  This  board utilizes a single connector for all  
            four ports.  This board is for use on the ACS and the  
            NACS.   
  
  
#3          Part # 905-302029-001  
            This board does not replace any other board.  This is  
            the new WNIM+ board that is designed to run on the 
            NACS.  THIS BOARD IS NOT DOWNWARD              
            COMPATIBLE.  There are changes in the pal chips from 
            this board and the ACS FOUR-PORT EXPANSION       
            BOARD listed above.  The two are not                 
            interchangeable...one is for the ACS and one is for the 
            NACS.  
  
The first two WNIMS are UPWARD COMPATIBLE and for this 
reason they can be used with the ACS or the NACS software. 
However,  the third board (WNIM+ our newest WNIM) only supports
the NACS. 
 
It is not DOWNWARD COMPATIBLE!  
Subject:  GPI's Usually Hardware  
Date:  25-Oct-88  
  
A few weeks ago we sent out information about collecting data on 
GPI errors.  Some clarification is needed.  GPI's are
hardware/firmware related.  Occasionally, we see a GPI which is
related to software regardless of what hardware is involved.  
Customers sometimes have a different sense of 'hardware' than we
do.  
  
For example, in one recent case the customer told the technician
that he had tried another file server and had the same problem. 
Two days later he told the technician the rest of the story:  He
took the disk drive and controller from the first file server and put
it in the second file server.  Well, guess what piece of hardware
was causing the GPI?!  
  
The critical bit of information is that on bad hardware, the  
software will be unpredictable.  We must start with hardware that  
is known good (as much as it is possible to know about hardware).  
  
If the system has been running and the site suddenly starts  
getting GPI's, that is probably not a software problem, unless a  
new piece of software has been introduced.  I don't want to beat  
this issue over the head but hardware MUST be swapped out before 
software is looked at.  If a customer still has GPI's, then we  
can start exploring the software end of things.  
  Subject:  Btrieve RC=06 Error  
Date:  25-Oct-88  
  
The RC=06 error can be caused by a physical disconnection from the
file server.  Working with a Proteon network with connections, of
course, into a wire center, the server connection into the wire
center got pulled.  The server reports rc=06, Send failure to
advertiser.  Of course in this case there is a good reason for a send
failure ---- there's nothing out there to send to or receive from.  
  Subject:  Token Ring  
Date:  1-Nov-88  
    
The file server driver for the Token Ring cards DO NOT know how 
to deal with the extra RAM found on a Token Ring II card.  In
addition, you will get very frustrated if you try to set the switches
according to the manual.  They are all glued in the opposite
direction on the TRN-II card!  
  
On a workstation, it works correctly because TOKREUI does all the 
work.  
Subject:  Token Ring  
Date:  2-Nov-88  
  
Everything you always wanted to know about Token Ring.  
  
Question #1: Can I use a Token Ring card in my workstation and  
use an alternate setting when there is not a board using a  
primary setting?  
  
Answer: Yes. The shell will get the needed configuration  
information from Tokreui or the LAN support program. Whichever is 
being used.  
  
Question #2: I have heard that Token Ring will not work in  
machines without wait states. Is this true?  
  
Answer: It was true in 1986 when the Token Ring was first  
released. The operating system side was fixed with updated 2.0a  
drivers that we developed in July of 1986. These fixes were  
incorporated into all later versions of NetWare. The 286B is an  
exception to this rule. You need a PAL upgrade in addition to  
these newer drivers.  
  
On the workstation side, the original support interface  
"TOKREUI.COM" has a problem when running in a no wait state  
machine. This problem was eventually corrected in the LAN Support 
program which IBM introduced with the Token Ring/A or micro  
channel card. The LAN Support Program convention is compatible  
with earlier standard bus Token Ring Cards.  
  
The latest NetWare Token Ring supplement manuals document only  
the LAN Support Program and have discontinued "TOKREUI.COM."  
The file server driver for the Token Ring cards DO NOT know how 
to deal with the extra RAM found on found on a Token Ring II  
card. In addition, you will get very frustrated if you try to set  
the switches according to are manual. They are all glued in the  
opposite direction on the TRN-II card!  
  
On a workstation, it works correctly because TOKREUI does all the 
work.  
  Subject:  DOS 4.0  
Date:  4-Nov-88  
    
We have done some testing with DOS 4.0 and found that with DOS
4.0 the login script command MACHINE NAME does not work  
properly.  With the command MACHINE NAME in login script the  
following message is returned:  "Must be DOS 3.1 or greater to set 
the machine name."  
  Subject:  NetCrack  
Date:  4-Nov-88  
  
Netcrack is a program that patches the NetWare operating system.  
Once the operating system is patched and the file server  
re-booted, the operating system will not recognize the bindery  
files and the system acts just like a new installation.  
  
The same results can be achieved by going in with disked and  
trashing the bindery. We have guided users through this  
procedure for several years. Novell also provides a utility  
called "bindkill" which does the same thing.  
  
IN ALL CASES IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT PHYSICAL 
ACCESS TO THE FILE SERVER IS REQUIRED IN ORDER TO
CIRCUMVENT THE SYSTEM SECURITY!!!  IF THE FILE SERVER IS
LOCKED AWAY IN A SECURE AREA, ALL OF THE ABOVE
PROCEDURES ARE NOT POSSIBLE!!!  
  
There is not way to circumvent system security with only  
workstation access.  
  Subject:  Password Synchronization  
Date:  7-Nov-88  
  
There seems to be some confusion regarding password 
synchronization.  
  
The user will be asked if they want to "synchronize passwords on
all servers" only if the passwords were originally synchronized and a
password expiration necessitates a re-synchronization.  It cannot be
used to synchronize passwords when they were not synchronized in
the first place.  
Subject:  DISOSS Solutions for LANs
Date:  4-Nov-88  
  
The following should satisfy the need for us to be aware of 
solutions that are available for NetWare users to get to DISOSS.  
  
DISOSS is an application which runs on CICS (which runs on VTAM,
running on IBM's MVS operating system). Only fortune 1000 type  
companies are big enough to need it (or are able to justify its  
cost). I've never heard anyone be complementary about its'  
functionality, ie. a typical IBM software implementation.  
  
There are 2 major functions it provides:  
  
Distribution Services, which could be considered the mainframe  
equivalent of MHS. It is built upon IBM SNADS architecture  
(Systems Network Architecture (SNA) Distribution Services) which  
is IBM's store and forward architecture.  
  
Library Services,  which is in some ways similar (in concept  
only) to the archive server. Its' purpose is to maintain a library  
of documents. (in the mainframe world documents are not  
synonymous with files as they are in our world). I have yet to  
find anyone who uses Library Services for anything more than a  
"corporate garbage can".  
  
These are 3 possible solutions for NetWare users to access  
DISOSS.  There are also others which I am aware of.  
  
1 - Indisy Software Inc., L.A.  and Toronto: Novell recently  
acquired 60% of the company.  Their product, "Indisy" short for  
Information Distribution System not only can connect LANs to  
DISOSS but can functionally replace DISOSS' distribution services  
(DISOSS provides both 'Distribution Services' and 'Library  
Services' except library services are very, very rarely used.)  
  
Indisy has an E-mail front end that talks to their mail  
gateway. An MHS gateway is now under development and nearing  
completion.  
  
2 - Softswitch, Wayne, Pa.: They have been around a long time but 
have failed to penetrate the potential of the market. There are  
several reasons why or why not Softswitch would be a reasonable  
alternative. In my experience we've only pursued softswitch as an  
option if the customer already has it installed on the host AND  
is happy with it.  
  
No E-mail application is offered by Softswitch.  An MHS  
gateway is now available.  
  
3 - Emissary Systems, Toronto: Their product, Herald Mail, is  
brand new (it was released this summer). It is unique in that it  
is the only solution available to my knowledge that does not  
require any additional software to be installed on the host ie.  
the gateway on the LAN talks directly to DISOSS. Herald Mail has  
it's own E-mail front end and its' to-date is not MHS compatible. I 
am unaware of any plans for MHS compatibility.  
  
This solution could be attractive to firms who are so blue that they
love DISOSS (I've yet to find any).   This solution will lack some of
the flexibility of the Indisy solution.  Herald Mail could be
considered an entry level solution as it will cost $5,000 per LAN.  
Indisy and Softswitch are much more expensive than we naive LAN  
folks would expect: $50k to 150k range, which is nothing compared
to the investment required to get and keep DISOSS running.  
  
It should be understood that these solutions do not directly  
compete with each other. They have been architected to address  
related but different sets of needs. There is a very long list of  
decision criteria to be considered before a recommendation can be  
made. Thus, we would do well to refer all such leads to Ron Percy  
of Indisy at (416) 499-5552 or via MHS as RONP @ INDISY.  
  
Many of our sales people are aware of Indisy because a presentation
of it has been included in the last 2 Connectivity Seminars.  
  
A little market forecast info:  
Although IBM is now encouraging DISOSS customers to make DISOSS
their corporate standard, IBM has very rarely made application  
software a key part of their marketing strategy. DISOSS' purpose  
is to facilitate the complete market acceptance of the SNADS  
architecture. At that time (first half of the next decade) DISOSS  
will be retired and the market will be wide open for third party  
vendors.  
Subject:  Installing Btrieve 
  
ITEM 1  
It has just come to my attention that the Btrieve documentation  
does not tell the user to down the file server and bring it back  
up in order to activate the VAP.  
  
ITEM 2  
If the VAP is not active, the user will get an error 20 (or  
Status=20, as it is called in Btrieve lingo) returned  
at the workstation.  BREQUEST can be run at the workstation   
without getting a message that the VAP is not active.  
  
ITEM 3  
When using the Btrieve VAP, Btrieve activity must take place   
from a drive mapped to the server where the VAP is installed.  
  
-----------  
  
A status=20 will also be returned if the user has run their  
Btrieve application without first installing the record manager,  
which in the case of the VAP version, is BREQUEST.  
Subject:  Btrieve and File Names 
  
We have discovered that the Btrieve.VAP does not like conversing  
with a file server who has a . in its name!!!!  
  
An application may run perfectly under the BTRIEVE/N on a  
file server called MYSERVER.ACCT .  User decides to run the same
application using the VAP and gets a status code of 12 or 25.  
Have user change the name of the file server to  MYSERVER  and  
everything will work fine.  
Subject:  ELS/II 86 Dedicated on 286 
Date:     10-Nov-88 
   
We have seen a problem repeatedly over the last week or   
so for users running ELS/II.  The problem is that there is not  
enough memory for hashing and caching.  The users also mention  
that the number of files open are very small and that they can't  
change them.  The reason for this is that they have chosen the 86  
dedicated mode and are running it on a 286 based machine.  I found
this to be true in every case when these errors came up in ELS/II. 
 
ELS should never be run on a 286 file server in a dedicated mode.  
   Subject:  Login Upgrade 
Date: 11-Nov-88 
   
When doing upgrades to later versions of NetWare, don't forget to  
update the login program in both the SYS:PUBLIC and SYS:LOGIN   
directories.  Many users have reported that when they initially
login, certain script commands will not work correctly.   If they
login a second time, everything works correctly.   
   
This is because during the initial login, the login program is being  
pulled from the login directory.  During the second login, the   
login program is pulled from SYS:PUBLIC.  Most of the time, users  
forget to update the login program in the login directory.   
   
This may sound like problem that is too easily solved, but I   
assure you that it happens more times than you would think.   
   
Also note that if you upgrade some, but not all of your servers,   
sometimes you will get an older login, and sometimes you will be get
the upgraded one. I usually instruct my customers to copy  
LOGIN.EXE to all their servers SYS:LOGIN and SYS:PUBLIC  
subdirectories; we don't believe there is anything in LOGIN that   
is 2.1 specific (outside of generating error messages based on why  
your login just failed)...   
Subject:  Token Ring 
Date: 11-Nov-88  
  
The Drivers in Netgen for Token Ring are the SAME for both the  
micro channel and standard bus cards.  There is a card called   
Token Ring II. It is NOT a micro channel card, it is a standard   
bus card and we do not have drivers for it.   
Subject:  ADIC Tape in 286Terminal 
Date: 11-Nov-88  
   
We have successfully installed an ADIC 440 controller into the AT  
Terminal.   We used the standard settings on the controller as   
shipped by ADIC.   
   
We created two NET$DOS.SYS files:  One containing the device  
driver and the other not.  When we want to do a backup we just  
run a batch file which renames the .SYS to .TMP and the .TAP to  
.SYS and reboot the workstation.  Everything functions as normal.  
Subject:  PS/2 Model 30-286 
Date: 16-Nov-88 
  
THIS INFORMATION HAS NOT BEEN VERIFIED BY NOVELL  
  
The PS/2 30-286 has some problems, especially with Token Ring.   
Apparently it does function as a workstation, but it still has some  
bugs.  Product information, unless specifically asked, will say it is 
an approved machine with no problems.  Engineering is testing them
now so more information will be coming as time goes by.  We will  
keep you informed.   
  
We had a user call who said that other major software packages are
also finding a compatibility problem with the PS/2 model 30/286  
machine.  The user wanted the machine but found out that software 
packages such as Auto Cad, Wordstar, Lotus 123, Clipper, and  
several other packages also appear to have problems running on this
machine.  He was wondering if this was the case with NetWare also,
which it is.  I guess that the problems with this machine are not  
just with Novell!   
   Subject:  NetWire Files 
Date:  11-Nov-88  
  
ALL Files on NetWire are now located as follows:   
   
NETWIRE\NETWIRE:NOVFOR\(00-12)   Files found in the Novell    
                                 Forum.   
NETWIRE\NETWIRE:NOVUSER\(01-13)  Files found in the Novell    
                                 User Forum.   
NETWIRE\NETWIRE:NSD              Files found in the "private"   
                                 area on NetWire.   
NETWIRE\NETWIRE:IPT              Independent Product Testing   
                                 Bulletins.   
NETWIRE\NETWIRE:TECHBUL          Technical Bulletins.   
   
Netwire\Netwire:datalib will be deleted.   
  Subject:  ELS-II Incompatibilities 
Date: 11-Nov-88  
  
THIS INFORMATION HAS NOT BEEN VERIFIED BY NOVELL  
   
We have noticed two problems with ELS-II v2.12 which everyone  
should be aware of.   
   
1.   COMPSURF will not work properly with the new Western  
     Digital WX1 controller on an XT type machine.  The WX1  
     controller can be configured (through the low level format  
     routine) for several sizes and types of drives.  However, when 
 
     COMPSURF starts the "Random Test Initialization" the error  
     "Abend: Command unsuitable for use." appears.  At that point, 
     the controller has then been reprogrammed for a 20 MB disk  
     size.   
   
     Engineering claims that the 86 Dedicated software has only  
     been tested on a true IBM XT machine.  There is probably an 
     incompatibility with the Western Digital WX1 Controller.   
   
2.   In attempting to bring up 286 Nondedicated ELS-II on an AT  
     clone, the messages "Problem with drive 00: Error reading disk 
     redirection information on sector 14" or "Problem with drive  
     00:  Error reading disk redirection data", and "Abend: Error  
     reading mirror information on all drives, Run NETGEN." would 
     occur when booting the server for the first time.  This problem 
    was resolved by replacing the TDK BIOS in the motherboard  
     with a Wells American BIOS.   
  Subject: 2.1 Proteon 
Date: 14-Nov-88   
   
There seems to be an incompatibility between MicroSoft's COBOL  
compiler vs. 3.0 and Proteon's 2.1 Pronet 10 driver.  The workstation
will hang when compiling if running on 2.1 Proteon drivers.  
Proteon's technical support suggested entering "set  
novelldriverint=7D" at the command line or in an AUTOEXEC.BAT  
before loading the shell in order to modify the software interrupt.  
 
We had two sites reporting this problem and in both cases "set  
novelldriverint=7D" solved this problem.  
Subject:  OS/2 Requestor Default 
Date: 16-Nov-88  
  
Q:  We were just informed of an undocumented problem with OS/2  
requestor.  The default setting for the requestor for standard bus  
RX-NET card is actually Option 2, IRQ 2 I/O 300h Bas Memory  
CC00.  If the card is set to normal default (option 0) you will get  
something like "NIC initialization signature not found."   
  
   
A:  Just by way of information, this is not a problem.  This change 
was made to accommodate the Compaq 386 20 and 25 MHz machines.

These machines cannot use the default Base I/O 2E0 option because 
of the caching they do.  When trying to use the default option   
with these machines, the user will see the error "NIC Initialization  
Signature not found."  The Compaq 386/16 MHz machine does not  
have this problem. (It doesn't do caching.)  
   
If the user does not have one of these machines, he can use the  
NET.CFG file to set up the requester for option 0.   
Subject:  Login to Ninth Server 
Date: 17-Nov-88 
  
A small bug has been reported and verified by us.  If you are  
attached to eight servers and you try logging into another server,  
you get the error message:   
   
  "The limit of 8 server connections has been reached."  
   
A user shouldn't get this error because as soon as he logs into   
a server he should automatically lose all of his connections to other
servers.   
   
There are some other concerns about attachments over 8 servers.  
  
If you have 8 attachments and you try to do a capture to the ninth
server you will get a message from the OS saying that it is unable  
to attach to the server (Server trying to attach), but also at this  
time you will lose your mappings.  We found that you are still  
attached to the previous servers but your mappings are deleted.  
   
You can bring yourself back to a drive mapping by typing cd   
sys:public and do a map and you'll see that all the mappings will   
have gone.   
   Subject:  Printing on WordPerfect 
Date: 17-Nov-88 
  
Q:  We have experienced a problem while trying to print from within
WordPerfect using NetWare 2.1x.  The error "File is locked was  
received intermittently.    
  
A:  The problem was resolved by putting "Read only compatibility = 
on" in a SHELL.CFG.    
  
This message is documented in the Supervisor Reference Manual  
Appendix B.  This problem occurs when you try to open a read-only
file with write access.  This was possible to do using versions   
of NetWare under 2.1.   
Subject:  BATRAM 
Date: 21-Nov-88  
  
Q:  We have a customer who is trying to install a 4 meg BATRAM  
on a COMPAQ 386 machine.  Everything went fine until he tried to
make the BATRAM a second volume.  He received an error "No   
room to create a new volume".    
  
A:  We suggested going through the default installation option  
instead of the custom installation.  He tried that and it worked.   
Subject:  New Remote Reset Proms 
Date:  22-Nov-88 
  
There are new remote boot proms for the NE1000 and NE2000  
Ethernet cards.  These proms allow the user to set the card up for 
an interrupt and base I/O memory that was chosen.  Here are the  
options:  
  
Option    Interrupt      I/O Addr       Base Mem  
0         3              300h           C800h  
2         4              340h           D000h  
9         5              320h           CC00h  
  
Options 0 and 9 are used with standard NetWare while option 2 can 
only be used with Ethernet II Versions (DEC, etc.).  
  
In other words, if you have a user that is getting a boot  
configuration different from the default, he has these new Proms  
and the Base Memory must be set to one of the settings mentioned 
above.  Also, the base memory address C800h (default) will conflict 
with the hard disk controller on a PC or an XT.  This information  
is in the manuals that should have come with the new boot Proms;  
however, they did not.  
Subject:  CONFIG.UPS 
Date: 28-Nov-88  
   
IMPORTANT INFORMATION   
   
UPS monitoring is done differently with version 2.15. than with  
other NetWare versions.  The file "CONFIG.UPS" is not recognized  
by v2.15.  It is replaced with a file called "SERVER.CFG."   
SERVER.CFG is capable of automatically backing out transactions  
and loading VAPS.  As you know, this is something that had to be  
manually done with previous versions.   
   
The valid entries in SERVER.CFG are as follows:   
   
TTS WAIT XX:  
Where XX is the number of seconds before the system will begin   
the backout of transactions as the server is coming up.  If a key   
is pressed during the countdown procedure, the backout will be   
aborted.  A range of 10 to 300 seconds is valid.   
   
VAP WAIT XX:   
Where XX is the number of seconds before VAPS will be loaded.  If 
any key is pressed during the count down, the VAPS will not be   
loaded.   
   
UPS T=X:  
Where X is the UPS interface type.   
   
1=UPS Stand alone board   
2=Disk Coprocessor   
3=SS Key card with UPS connector   
4=IBM PS/2 Mouse Port   
   
UPS IO=X:  
Where X is the IO port for UPS monitoring.   
   
UPS Standalone board can be set to I/O 231 or 240.  
SS Keycard with UPS is 230.  
DCB is 346, 34E, 326 or 32E depending on the channel number.  
If the PS/2 mouse port is being used, an I/O port is not   
specified.   
   
UPS D=X:   
Where X is the amount of time before the server will go down   
after the UPS has kicked in.   
   
UPS WAIT=X:  
Where X is the amount of time for the server to wait before  
starting the UPS sequences.   
   
If TTS and VAP load options are not used, the system will respond 
as in earlier versions.   
Subject:  TCP/IP CONFIGURATION 
Date: 28-Nov-88  
   
We had a customer who was very upset because he had talked to us 
three times and we had always told him that the NP600G card was  
bad (this happened three times - possible, but not too probable).   
   
His problem was that he was using the NP600G card and a NP600A  
card.  In this case the NP600A should be installed as LAN A and the
NP600G card as LAN B.   
   
This customer had done this correctly, but had just terminated   
the NP600A card and hooked up workstations to the NP600G card  
with no TCP/IP host on the Ethernet bus. There are two problems  
with doing this:   
   
     1)   The NP600G card sends out XNS Ethernet packets and the 
         standard NetWare shell sends out 802.3 packets.  
            
     2)   When the server sees the NP600G it will ask you if you   
          want to load the TCP/IP software.  If you say yes to   
          this prompt, the TCP/IP software will keep sending   
          "advertising" packet to establish a connection with   
          other TCP/IP nodes. With this customer, no other TCP/IP 
          nodes were on the Ethernet bus, therefore it kept   
          sending the initialization packet, which is a large   
          packet and will tie up the whole bus.   
   
Also be advised that there are several other TCP/IP Ethernet  
solutions:  Proteon offers TCP/IP for Pronet-10 and Pronet 4.   
Subject:  16-bit EtherNet Cards 
Date: 28-Nov-88 
   
Apparently there is a problem with running more than 2 16-bit   
Ethernet cards and our Disk CoProcessor.  16-bit Ethernet cards   
include the NP600 series, the 3C505 and the NE2000.   
   
The only two combinations we could get to work are as follows:   
   
1)   2 3C505 installed as LAN A and LAN C. LAN B was a NP600A. 
     This was done with the drivers that come with 2.12 dated  
     10-18-88 or pretty close to that.   
   
2)   3 3C505 installed with some drivers from engineering.   
   
These installations where done in a Compaq 386/25 at any speed.   
In our 386A(E) we had to set the machine to fast mode in the BIOS
and the switch on the back to standard mode.   
   
Many other operating systems/card combinations can be linked with 
the DCB selected as the controller.  When you try to run these  
other combination you will either get a message somewhere along  
the line that you DCB is not functioning or is not installed.  The  
other message you will eventually get when one network is running, 
but as soon as you bring up another workstation on another network
(different board) is a time out error.  
  
Another opinion:    
    
I question whether the problem is "16-bit" Ethernet, or just  
address/base I/O conflicts.   
   
We just put together a number of systems with 2 DCBs and 3   
NE1000s. The configuration called for 4 NE1000s, but there was an  
address conflict that couldn't be resolved.   
   
The DCBs occupy the following addresses and IRQs:   
   
Channel 1       340-437h        11   
Channel 2       348-34Fh        12   
Channel 3       320-327h        10   
Channel 4       328-32Fh        15   
   
Ethernet base I/O addresses run from 300-360h in 20h increments.   
The NP600 runs in this same range.   
   
We have requested that software provide alternative addresses   
(likely in the 200h range) for the DCB to eliminate some of these   
conflicts.   
   
We also uncovered some interesting things about routing that   
caused the systems to hang when backboning the LANs.  The  
original configuration called for multiple backbones as a way of  
balancing the network traffic load, on the assumption that dynamic 
routing and hard-coded LAN addresses could be combined to provide 
a smooth load.   
   
What we found instead was that NetWare attempts to do all routing 
on LAN A, if backboned. If LAN A is not backboned, it then sends 
all traffic across LAN C. (Actually, I don't know for sure what   
is going on here, these are just observations of what appears to   
be happening.)   
  
Anyway, another question that came up in this project is whether   
multiple LANs actually improves aggregate throughput. The answer  
seems to be that it does NOT, contrary to popular belief.   
   
What we seem to be seeing is that a single NIC becomes bogged   
down with about 4-6 workstations. Adding additional NICs to the   
server doesn't improve the situation. The problem is that the   
bottleneck is getting data from the NIC to the system across an   
AT bus, not the ability of the NIC to grab data off the wire.   
   
Adding more cards does not ease this bottleneck.   
   
We are hoping that some of these issues can be looked at in   
greater detail in the lab so we have better information when we   
are configuring systems.   
Subject:  Invalid COMMAND.COM 
Date: 2-Dec-88  
   
Several people have reported receiving the error "Invalid  
COMMAND.COM  Cannot Load COMMAND  System Halted" when  
they exit an application on ELS II.  Specifically, the applications   
involved are Lotus 2.01 and Paradox (so far at least).   
   
One customer reported that by placing the prompt command in his  
system login script, he no longer had a problem with "invalid   
COMMAND.COM".  We tested this in the lab and found that this  
does indeed stop the invalid COMMAND.COM problem.   
   
It appears that for some reason the environment is being altered   
when the above applications are called or that a pointer has been   
left which is changing the environment somehow.   
   
The recent FYI does not necessarily fix the problem.  The  
suggestion was to set a prompt in the system login script.  However,
I tried this on my test system and still received the error message. 

There is a bug with v2.12 NonDed and ELS Level II v2.12 with the  
DOS environment being corrupted at the file server when used as a 
workstation.  The problem occurs when an application is run at   
the file server that overwrites COMMAND.COM.  When exiting the  
application, an error occurs:   
   
Invalid COMMAND.COM   
   
Cannot load COMMAND system halted   
   
When this error occurs the workstation at the file server is hung  
but the remaining workstation can continue normally.   
   
The work around that we suggest is to put  " #command /c " in   
the system login script after mapping the DOS search drive and   
setting Comspec.  What this does is opens a temporary, secondary   
command session.  This does not use any memory and the login   
script continues normally.  This is also transparent to the user.   
Some users are also using an "If Then" statement so that the   
command is only issued at the file server.  
   
The problem has been reported to Engineering and will be   
resolved.  In the mean time this should fix the problem without any 
side effects.   
   
If there is any other information or if anyone has a customer for  
whom this fix doesn't work, please let me know.   
Subject:  ELS-II ON MOD. 60 (MFM) 
Date: 5-Dec-88  
  
A customer reported that he was unable to select an MFM controller
for his Mod. 60 in ELSGEN.  Controllers are all linked into ELS II. 

Thus no driver choice is given in ELSGEN.  After investigation we  
found that it can be selected through a rather complicated  
procedure.  Here's the way it goes:   
  
1.   Select operating system. (non ded)   
2.   Select resource sets (select loaded item--PS/2 Mod. 60(esc))   
       
Then if you "edit resource list" and choose an MFM drive, it still  
comes up as ESDI when you review the selected resources.   
  
Here's the procedure that will correctly set the resource as an MFM
drive:   
1.   After selecting the resource set, Generate Operating System,   
     set the Network Addresses (Lan board & DOS Process)--esc.   
2.   At "Continue Network Generation Using Selected  
     Configurations" select "No" and select "No" to "Abandon  
     Network Generation".   
3.   Select "Configure Operating System", then "Release Resource  
     Set Configuration" which will show you that the "configured  
     Resource set is an IBM Mod 60, <RET> shows Mod 60 Hard  
     Drive <RET>.   
4.   Under "Configure Drivers/Resources" choose "Resource Set  
     Configuration".  On the "Unconfigured Resource Sets" menu  
     choose the "IBM PS/2 Mod 60 File Server", followed by "Mod  
     60 Hard Drive" in the "Unconfigured Resources" menu.   
5.   Now you can select option 0 (MFM) which will stay and  
     actually be there when you review the selected configurations. 
 
Since the problem of selecting a MFM drive came up twice in five
minutes, this must be a common problem for customers.   
Subject:  ELS Limitations 
Date: 5-Dec-88  
  
We have just been informed by a dealer (not a gold) that he had  
never, in all his years of selling Novell, heard that there were any  
limitations to the ELS or Non-dedicated operating systems.  In fact, 
to my knowledge, it is not written anywhere.  He claimed that Costa
had no knowledge of any limitations with ELS.   
   
Questions asked to me by the dealer:   
Has it ever been sent out in a LINK?  Is there a technical bulletin 
written on it?  Is it in the documentation?   
   
So, until something official is said or written let this be a   
written statement:  ELS and Non-ded have some limitations.  The   
file server workstation seems to hang in CPU intensive applications 
such as Lotus 123.  Reports from the field indicate that Dbase III+  
simply will not come up at the file server workstation.   
   
There are issues of course with the file server switching between  
real and protected mode.  I don't know that anyone is fully aware  
of the kinds of problems that this causes.  I certainly don't.   
Subject:  MAXTOR 2190 and PRIAM ID230 
Date: 6-Dec-88  
   
Here is a little trick to get the Maxtor 2190 and Priam ID230 drive 
to work on 2.1X.  Use a 2.0a diskset and set it selection 26 or 27  
(26 is the Maxtor 2190/A4070, 27 is the same, but mirrored).   
Then use the 2.1X installation routines.   
   
This will work fine, but IT IS NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED BY  
NOVELL.  
Subject:  NULL MODEM CABLE 
Date: 6-Dec-88 
   
We have gotten a lot of requests for the pin outs for a null modem 
cable (great for diagnosing ACS or bridging problems).  It is as   
follows:   
   
                 1-------1   
                       2-------3   
                       3-------2   
             5 & 6-------20   
                       7-------7   
                      20-------5 & 6   
                       8-------19   
   
This for a DB 25 connection.   
   
   
And here's the pin outs for our SYNCHRONOUS products (the  
previous one is for Asynchronous only).   
   
If you need a null modem cable (leased-line type) for the X.25   
products, try the following :-   
   
                  1------------1   
                  2------------3   
                  3------------2   
                  4\          /4    <-- Join 4&5 at the same end  
 
                  5/          \5        of the cable......   
                6&8------------20   <-- Forces FDX operation   
                  7------------7   
              15&17------------24   <-- Unifies clock from ETXC   
                 20------------6&8   
                 24------------15&17   <--- added for symmetry   
   
   
This is for a DB25 connection to V.24/RS-232 specs.   
   
This CONFIG. may be used for other synchronous applications  
provided the following is true :  
   
a)   Both boards are of physical DTE configuration.   
   
b)   At least one end of the link supplies the External Terminal  
     Transmit Clock (ETXC) on pin 24 (configure for INTERNAL  
     timing with the PCOX X.25 board).   
   
c)   The link is expected to be FULL-DUPLEX.   
   
Note:  If the board you are using ALWAYS produces a clock on pin 
24 (it shouldn't !), then delete one of the cross connections   
with 15&17 crossed to 24, and connect the remaining pin 24 to the  
board which you wish to supply the clock.   
Subject:  Model 30-286 UPS 
Date: 12-Dec-88  
  
We have tested the UPS monitoring function the IBM PS/2 Model  
30-286 and found that it appears to work correctly.  The test was  
completed using 2.15 which uses the SERVER.CFG file.   
    
Q:  I presume that this is with reference to monitoring the UPS via
the Model 30-286's mouse port, rather than via a UPS monitor card.
Is this correct?   
   
A:  Yes, this is through the mouse port.  
Subject:  Documentation of Search Modes 
Date: 12-Dec-88 
  
Supervisor Reference Manual p.B-7, refers to "use another search  
mode by flagging the .EXE or .COM file."  It should state something
to the effect of: "use another search mode by using the NetWare  
utility SMODE to change the search mode of the .EXE or .COM file. 
SMODE is documented in Command Line Utilities, p3-35."   
   
Using the word 'flagging' makes users think that you are referring  
to the Flag command, which of course does not pertain to search  
modes.   
Subject:  WD Ethernet
Date: 14-Dec-88   
   
The new WD Ethernet (8003) drivers that allow this board to run   
with other Ethernet boards on the same network will not boot in a 
server that runs faster than 16MHZ.  WD has a patch for IPX so it 
will work in a workstation.  The only way to boot the server is to 
load the OS off of the osexe-1 and osexe-2 disks. IT WILL NOT   
WORK IF YOU TRY TO COMBINE THE FILES ON A HIGH DENSITY 
DISKETTE.   
Subject:  Invalid IPT Bulletin 
Date:  15-Dec-88 
  
There was a previously released version of Independent Product Test
Bulletin #117 regarding the Compaq 386/20e that is not valid.  This 
IPT was never meant to be published because the test was done on 
a pre-released machine.  The IPT stated that the Micom NP600  
board would not function at any speed in the Compaq machine.   
Compaq has assured us that the N\Micom MP600 board functions  
properly with the appropriate NetWare operating system driver with 
the released machine.  Watch for a new IPT bulletin to be released 
in the near future with the test results for the Compaq 386/20e  
machine.  
  
It should also be noted that the number 117 of the IPT list has  
been reassigned to the test results of another machine and the  
results of this test are valid.  
Subject:  IRQ7 Conflicts 
Date: 15-Dec-88  
  
We recently worked with a customer who was exhibiting problems  
with a ARCNET card configured for IRQ7.  He mentioned an article 
in "LAN MAGAZINE" which described problems and conflicts with  
2.11 itself.  Although I was unable to locate a copy of the magazine
to verify this, I did get some undocumented information.  Apparently
IRQ7 was reserved by the OS in 2.11 and 2.12 for VAPs, etc.  They 
also reported that this problem was fixed in the 2.12b upgrade.  I  
should also note that this would also cause a conflict problem for  
anyone trying to use LPT-1 as a local printer, not as a network  
printer on a non dedicated file server, as it also uses IRQ7.   
Subject:  ARCNET's Limit 
Date: 15-Dec-88  
   
While working onsite the other day, we ran into an interesting   
problem.  The networks' basic configuration was Advanced NetWare 
2.12 in an Acer 900 with four Thomas Conrad 16 bit boards and   
Thomas Conrad active and passive hubs.  The cable was RG-62/AU  
Teflon coated.   
   
The customer lost connection with the file server every time they  
called for a certain file in the server.  For example, if the user  
used MODE.COM from z:public\ipm_pc\DOS\x.x (x= 1,2,3,4) the  
workstation would eventually get "network error reading fs1, abort, 
retry, ignore."  Another example was in FCONSOLE:  While trying to
read the disk statistics, the same error would occur eventually  
losing connection with the file server, but only in the stations  
which had problems.   
   
Only 8 of the workstations had this problem.  
   
Some stations which had a certain circuitry in the card (a  
transceiver with exposed components) would work fine even in the  
stations which had problems.   
   
It was also interesting that we replaced the boards in question with 
RX-net, and SMC boards and it didn't help.   
   
The cable distanced seemed to be within limits but we didn't have  
an exact measurement, so they could have been near the limits  
between passive and active hubs.   
   
Our solution was to plug the stations directly into active hubs,   
or replace the boards with weak transceivers with other known good
ones.   
   
The moral of the story is that there are some boards out in the   
field which may not be able to handle cable distances close to   
the limit of 100 feet, but will work fine in short distance   
cable runs (1-80 feet) even if ohming out the cable and reading   
93 + or -1 ohm of impedance with a terminator in one end.   
Subject:  Synchronizing Passwords 
Date: 15-Dec-88 
   
Q:  One of my students has encountered a problem synchronizing   
passwords, a problem which I thought had been fixed with the latest
NetWare release.  Here is a breakdown of how their system is set  
up:   
   
There are 2 file servers.  All users are logged in automatically and  
shown a menu, and when they exit are automatically logged out.  All
users have the same login name on each server, and the users have 
been advised to have the same password.  The user's login script  
attaches them to the second server, and this works perfectly until  
the passwords expire.   
   
When the passwords expire, they change the password as requested  
on the first server, and answer 'Y' to the question:  Would you like 
to synchronize your passwords on all attached servers? (Y/N).  They
are then logged into the network as usual.   
   
However the next time they login they are prompted for the  
password for both the first and second server.  The only password  
the network will accept is the old one.  
   
This problem does not occur for the few users who are not  
automatically logged out when they exit the menu.  A message  
appears saying that the passwords have been synchronized, and   
they have no difficulty when next logging in.   
   
It would appear that the user can only synchronize passwords when 
the user reaches the system prompt; however, it is necessary for   
security reasons that the users on this network are not allowed   
to do that!   
   
A:  This problem has been corrected with the LOGIN.EXE that is   
supplied with version 2.15.   
   
In addition, make sure that you are NOT using the exit command.   
If the exit command is being used, synchronization never occurs.   
The Engineering Dept. is aware of this problem but has not yet  
found a clean way to deal with it.  For now, you can either do one 
or the other.   
Subject:  VGA, NIC, and EMS Conflicts 
Date: 15-Dec-88 
   
It appears that the Model 25 will not work with the remote reset   
prom on Token Ring.  We tested it with the short new Token Ring  
II card.  We got it to run in the model 30 and in the model 30-286 
Subject:  VGA, NIC, and EMS Conflicts 
Date: 16-Dec-88   
    
If a customer is using VGA (or EGA), a NIC, and EMS, which all  
use memory addressing and they are having a problem, have them  
try using Quarterdesk's QIMM.  It allows more flexibility in   
setting up EMS.  It will also allow you to use extended memory for 
expanded memory and set the I/O address.  Have them try setting  
the Above (also Rampage! or clone) board to extended and then use 
QIMM to give them a I/O address that doesn't conflict with the   
VGA or NIC.   
Subject:  Token Ring Update 
Date: 16-Dec-88   
   
UPDATE TO REMOTE RESET TOKEN RING DRIVERS AND PROMS  
 
There are a couple of problems with Token Ring drivers and the   
remote reset proms:   
   
1)   The TOKEN.RPL file WILL NOT WORK with 2.10 or 2.10 with  
     the 2.11 updated drivers.  It works fine with straight 2.11 or  
     2.12.   
   
2)   Version 2.10 with the TOK211.ARC patch installed on the  
     operating system will not boot reliably. If it does come up it  
     gets frequent NMI.   
   
3)   The Model 25 will not boot with the remote reset prom. This is 
    the straight model, 25 not the Lanstation 25. When I say the  
     model 25 won't boot, I mean the one in the lab will not pass  
     the diagnostics on the prom.  Microage Corporate can get a  
     Lanstation 25 up (on 2.11 or 2.12), but I didn't have access to 
     one.   
   
This was verified by Microage Corporate, a Microage store and   
and myself.   
Subject:  Remote Reset 
Date: 16-Dec-88  
  
While testing a PC Terminal recently, we stumbled across an  
interesting bug.  We have had a lot of customers call in and say  
that when they do a remote reset, the workstation executes IPX and
NET3 but doesn't login.  One customer discovered that when he put 
10 spaces before the login command that it would be executed.   
Strange but true.   
   
While we were testing it we stumbled across the reason for this  
phenomenon.  By copying the AUTOEXEC.BAT from the DOSGEN  
diskette into the login directory, everything works fine.  If you  
create an AUTOEXEC.BAT in the login directory that is different  
from the one on the DOSGEN diskette, the first 11 characters in  
the AUTOEXEC.BAT file are ignored.   
   
The solution is to either copy the AUTOEXEC.BAT from the  
DOSGEN diskette into the login directory, or put 11 null   
characters in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the login directory.   
   
On a side note, we had a customer with the same problem and it  
turned out to be some bad drivers.  They were Western Digital  
drivers.   
Subject:  Corrupt Login Script 
Date: 17-Dec-88  
   
We had a customer who loaded an application which came with its  
own login script.  This corrupted the system and supervisor login   
scripts so that the supervisor could not login.  Every attempt to  
login yielded unknown directory errors and immediate logout.  Crtl  
break would not stop the login script before logging out.  After  
using disk-ed to blow the binderies, the new supervisor still picked 
up the old login script.  The solution was to copy con a  
NET$LOG.DAT with only exit in it.  This was done on public 1 of  
v2.0A.  After using install to reload the system and public files, the
supervisor login would break out of the script into the system.  He
could now access syscon and correct the login script problem.   
  
Another solution:  There is a common misconception regarding the  
system or user login script and its relationship with the binderies.  
They are not the same file!  I keep hearing technicians talk about  
blowing the binderies to fix a problem with login in.  All this does 
is waste a lot of everyone's time.   
   
The binderies consist of two hidden system files in the system  
subdirectory.  The system login script is simply a text file in the  
public directory called NET$LOG.DAT.  The users login script is also
a text file residing in the users i.d. number directory under the mail
directory, called Login.   
   
99% of the time that a user can get past his password when logging
in, the problem has to do with one of the login scripts, not the  
binderies!   
Subject:  HP VECTRA RS20 
Date: 17-Dec-88  
  
A customer has been having troubles getting a VECTRA RS 20 file
server to communicate with a VECTRA ES 12 workstation.  All nor- 
mal efforts failed to show communication.  Comcheck would not even
show the machine that it was running on.  We found out that the  
HP was running a PAM (Personal Application Manager), which was  
interfering with the display, which resulted in a blank display.  The 
communications were okay, but nothing was showing up on the  
monitor. After disabling the PAM, Comcheck worked fine and the   
problems were resolved.   
Subject:  ELS II and ARCONFIG 
Date: 19-Dec-88  
  
When running ARCONFIG on ELSII's OS, the manual says to run it  
against NET$OS.EX1, where we've been getting errors:  "NO CONFIG
DATA" then getting kicked out of ARCONFIG.  The customer we've 
been working with is using G-NET as his LAN A and IBM ASYNC  
for LAN B.   
   
It was suggested that we try it on NET$OS.EX2, because if the  
G-NET drivers are large, it may be forcing the configuration data  
onto the NET$OS.EX2.  This seemed to be the case as we got the  
ARCONFIG menu, and were able to make our selections for the  
ASYNC.  I also did a DOS "CONCATONATE" of the two files, in my 
work directory, then copied the ARCONFIG files there also.  We  
were able to run it against NET$OS.EXE with no problems.   
However, none of this is documented in the ELSII INSTALLATION  
manual however.   
   
This is being escalated to engineering as we feel that ARCONFIG  
should prompt the user for OSEXE-2 if the needed DATA files are  
not on OSEXE-1 (NET$OS.EX1).   
   
We don't have the time to set up an ELSII network, with modems,  
to verify whether there are any problems in operation using either  
of these methods.    
  
We should be able to find out from the customer within a few days 
and we will keep you advised.   
Subject:  Model 80/Lpt 1 Problem 
Date: 21-Dec-88  
  
Q:  We had to install SFT NetWare 2.12 on a PS/2 80 (the same  
thing happened with ELS II v2.12), once in TRN, once in ARCNET.  
NETGEN/ELSGEN ran fine until we had to define the spooled  
printers.  COM1: will show up, but no way to see LPT1: on the  
NETGEN/ELSGEN menu, although parallel port is present and  
correctly setup.   
   
A:  Take an IBM parallel cable and plug it in the PS parallel port.  
Re-call 'Printer maintenance' menu a second time and LPT1 is   
here!!  No need to have a printer connected on line.   
   
Alternate Solution:  Use the reference diskette and set your Lpt   
1 up for lpt 2- then in your resource sets select your Lpt1.  It will 
now be available to you in printer maintenance at this time.   
This sounds like a backwards and crazy work around but it works.  
Sounds like the first solution is the easiest.   
Subject:  NEC LC890 
Date: 23-Dec-88 
   
We have had many requests about switching modes from HP  
emulation to Postscript emulation through the use of a mode  
selected in printcon on the NEC LC890.   
   
Q:  You can switch emulations on the NEC LC890 through the use of
modes.  However, the emulation will not switch until the current job
is completed.  This poses a problem for the users of printcon.  When
a job is sent to the network printer it is sent in a series of four  
stages.  They are as follows:   
   
     1.   The banner is sent (if banner is set to yes in         
          printcon).   
   
     2.   The mode is sent.  This is often referred to as           
          the print header.  This contains the escape sequences to  
          initialize the printer.  For example, the escape sequence  
          to change the printer from HP emulation to Postscript  
          emulation would be sent at this point.   
   
     3.   The file is sent.   
   
     4.   The print tail is sent to re-initialize the printer.  This   
          is where the printer is set back to the default mode.   
   
Because all four of these steps are part of the same job, the printer
will not change emulation until the end of the job.  As many of our
customers have found out, by this time it is too late.   
   
A:  I talked to NEC and they said that the NEC LC890 was not  
designed to be a network printer.  They have no plans of fixing the
problem and suggested that if people wanted to use the LC890 as a 
network printer to keep it in one emulation.  In other words do not
change the emulation through the use of modes.  I have been telling
people to send the escape sequence to change the emulation in a  
batch file and then to nprint the file afterwards.  This works but  
can cause other problems if others are trying to print in the  
opposite emulation at the same time.   
   
Q:  It's a little unclear to me about why the printer doesn't switch. 
If the print job sends the control codes to change the mode before 
the text is sent, then why isn't the printer changed?   You say that
it doesn't change emulation until the end of the job, but the codes 
are sent before that.  It sounds like a problem with our software.   
   
A:  This is how the NEC LC890 was designed.  We don't know why 
the printer was designed to change modes after the current job is  
complete.  We asked NEC about this and their technical support   
had no reasoning for this either and added that NEC had no  
intention of changing the design.  NEC's technical support also   
added that if the users of the Novell network wanted to use the   
NEC LC890 as a sharable device that NOVELL would have to put a  
40 second pause between the mode and the file that is being sent.  
This pause would allow the printer to time out and change modes.   
Subject:Adaptec ACB-23XX Disk Controllers Patch for Novell  
        NetWare 2.1 
Date:  23-Dec-88  
  
This software patch has the advantage of allowing the use of the  
Adaptec Primary format and autoconfiguration feature.  This feature 
gives you the capability to use all kinds to different disk types  
while leaving the "setup" of the disk type definition to "TYPE 1".   
Also, there is no need to modify the content of the motherboard  
BIOS.  The following paragraph describes the necessary steps for  
Novell NetWare 2.1.  
  
Step 1:  
Make sure the Adaptec BIOS is enabled (factory default).  Use the  
PC AT setup program to select the disk type 1.  
  
Step 2:  Primary Format:  
When formatting the drive for the first time, the Adaptec disk  
preparation program must be sued.  This is mandatory for the  
autoconfiguration to work properly.  Later the disk can be  
reformatted with the Novell Compsurf program.  The Adaptec disk  
preparation is started by entering the DOS debug program, then  
typing the command:  G-C800:5 <CR>.  
  
Option 0 of the menu is used to do the primary format.  When the  
primary format is finished, option 1 (to create Adaptec and logical  
partition) must be used in order to get a successful  
autoconfiguration.  Select option 0 (to create a volume).  As volume
number pick 1.  As number of cylinders, give the total amount of  
the cylinders available.  This amount is displayed on the top of the 
screen, and it can be larger than 1024.  
  
Exit the disk preparation program with option 3, then option 5.  
  
Step 3:  Executing the Patch on Novell 2.1 Software:  
Novell 2.1 is delivered with a standard disk driver file called  
ATDISK.OBJ.  That file must be patched before the generation of  
the utilities and the Operating System.  This is done with the  
standard DOS debug program.  
  
1)   Make a backup of the original diskette.  Work from the backup 
    copy.  
2)   Load the debugger and the ATDISK.OBJ file by entering the  
     command:  
  
          Debug ATDISK.OBJ <CR>  
  
3)   Search for the hexadecimal code sequence B9 64 00 by entering 
    the command:  
  
          S CS:0 FFF B9 64 00 <CR>  
  
     The debugger should find one occurrence of that sequence and 
     tell you the address of the first byte of the sequence with a  
     display having the following format:  
  
          XXXX:YYYY  where YYYY is the address of the first byte 
         of the sequence.  
  
     In the sequence of code B9 64 00, the value 64 must be  
     replaced by value 00 and the value 00 must be replaced by  
     value 02.  This is done by entering the command:  
  
          E CS:YYYY <CR>  
  
     The debugger displays the value B9; press the spacebar one the 
    debugger displays the value 00; type in 02 and press the return 
    key.  
  
     To make sure that the patch was properly done, you may  
     display the new code sequence by entering the command:  
  
          D CS:YYYY <CR>  
  
     You should now observe the sequence B9 00 02.  
  
4)   Search for the hexadecimal sequence of code 3D 00 C8 72 by  
     entering the command:  
  
          S CS: 0 FFFF 3D 00 C8 72 <CR>  
  
     The debugger should find TWO occurrences of that sequence  
     and tell you the address of the first byte of each sequence  
     with a display having the following format:  
  
          AAAA:BBBB  where BBBB and YYYY are the addresses of 
 
          XXXX:YYYY  the first byte of each occurrence.  
  
     In the sequence 3D 00 C8 72, the value C8 must be replaced by 
    value 00.  This is done by entering the command:  
  
          E CS:BBBB  
  
     The debugger displays the value 3D; press the space bar twice 
     and the debugger displays the value C8; type in 00 and press  
     the return key.  The second occurrence must also be modified 
     by entering the command:  
  
          E CS:YYYY <CR>  
  
     Again, the debugger displays the value 3D; press the space bar 
     twice and the debugger displays the value C8; type in 00 and  
     press the return key.    
  
     To make sure that the patch was properly done, you may do a 
     display command by entering the command:  
  
          D CS:BBBB <CR>  
  
     You should now observe the sequence 3D 00 00 72.  
  
5)   The patched file is now saved on the diskette by entering the  
     command:  
  
          W <CR>  
  
Step 4:  
The standard Novell 2.1 software generation procedure can now be  
followed, i.e. the link of the utilities, and the operating system.  
  
Step 5:  
Once the link and generation is finished, the newly generated  
COMPSURF.EXE program can be run.  Compsurf is a program  
supplied by Novell to assess the disk data reliability.  It has the  
ability to primary format and extensively verify the hard disk.  
  
If you use the Compsurf format option, it is recommended that you 
enter the manufacturer defect list.  Compsurf has its own defect  
handling and maps defect at a track level (if a track contains one  
or several defects, all blocks on that track are made bad).  
  
Step 6:  
Once COMPSURF.EXE is done, (message: "disk passed"), the Novell  
2.1 software can be installed following the standard installation  
procedure.  
Subject:  Novell 286Terminals 
Date: 29-Dec-88 
  
We found that there are about one in three of the new machines  
that have problems.  If you are having problems with the  
286Terminals, give these things a try.  
   
1.   It doesn't come up at all or had intermittent problems.   
     Try tightening the four mounting screws on the motherboard. It 
    seems that these four screws are also the ground for the  
     motherboard.  Also, try reseating the VLSI chips on the  
     motherboard.   
   
2.   Are you getting parity errors?   
     The memory chips on almost every single one of these new  
     machines are seated too far to the back of the of the sockets; 
     try reseating the memory chips.   
Subject:  PS/2's in Dedicated Mode

We were sent an FYI that said PS/2s would run in dedicated mode, 
but that was incorrect.  While there are some 80286 based AT's  
whose controllers can pass for an XT controller (which is what the 
dedicated ELS II requires), the PS/2's will NOT run in dedicated at 
all.  Even if SOME of the AT's work in dedicated mode, that  
configuration is NOT supported by Novell.  AT's should be run in  
non-dedicated mode only.  
Subject:  Dataease Lan 1.12 
Date:  30-Dec-88  
  
Q:  We had a customer using Dataease Lan 1.12 who was having a  
problem with his HP Laser 2686a printer not receiving data that he 
was sending to the printer from the application.    
  
A:  The customer called Dataease; they advised him to use "spool x 
to queue" at the server console for all relevant queues.  On   
investigating this fix, we found that Dataease is using the 2.0a   
function calls for printing (spool) instead of the newer function   
calls (capture) which are found in version 2.1x.  You must have a   
queue assigned to a spooler to print if you are using this   
application.   
   
Dataease Lan 1.12 is a new release.   
