LANtastic Network Operating System Compatibility Bulletin Product Reviewed: Microsoft DOS version 6.0 Classification: Operating Systems Date: 3/31/93 Engineer: JAG ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Compatibility Statement: MS-DOS version 6.0 is compatible with LANtastic versions 4.xx and 5.xx. Product Overview: MS-DOS 6.0, the newest revision of Microsoft's DOS operating system, includes many new features and enhancements. In general, those features may be used with LANtastic, see the Compatibility Notes section below for any limitations. Product Installation Notes: The LANtastic SERVER.EXE program should not be running at the time that you run the MS-DOS 6 SETUP program to install MS-DOS. If it is, you will receive the error: "Setup cannot identify your hard disk's startup partition, and therefore cannot install MS-DOS on your hard disk. Press ENTER to exit Setup, and then contact your computer vendor for assistance." If you see this message, you must remove the SERVER program from memory by either rebooting or using the '/REMOVE' option of the SERVER command. Microsoft also instructs you to remove any disk caching programs, delete-protection utilities, or Anti- virus programs. Therefore, if you are using the LANtastic LANCache disk- caching utility, you must also remove it from memory before running SETUP. See your LANtastic manuals for more information on removing SERVER and LANCache from memory; see the MS-DOS 6 User's Guide for further instructions on preparing your computer for MS-DOS 6 installation. Additional information about setting up MS-DOS 6 with LANtastic is available in the NETWORKS.TXT file that ships with the MS-DOS upgrade. Product Execution Notes: MS-DOS 6 includes a revised EMM386.EXE that can make more upper memory blocks (UMBs) available for loading drivers and terminate-stay-resident programs (TSRs), freeing more conventional memory for DOS programs. You can use DOS's LOADHI command to load any LANtastic TSRs into UMBs. When you configure UMBs on a PC that is using an Artisoft Enhanced 2Mbps adapter, an SMC/WD 8003 series adapter, or another manufacturer's adapter that uses an upper memory address, make sure to use EMM386's '/X' switch to exclude the adapter's memory from being used by EMM386. See the MS-DOS 6 Resource Kit for more information on EMM386.EXE switches. A new feature in MS-DOS 6 that is designed for use with EMM386.EXE is MemMaker, a memory optimization utility. MemMaker can be used to find the optimum configuration for your computer's drivers and TSRs, maximizing the amount of conventional memory available to programs. You can use MemMaker to optimize memory for PCs running LANtastic, with one precaution: MemMaker has to reboot your machine in order to determine the best configuration. Therefore, on PCs that are LANtastic servers (e.g. PCs running the SERVER command in the STARTNET.BAT or AUTOEXEC.BAT file), be sure that no users are logged in at the time you run MemMaker. Otherwise, files that those users have opened may be damaged by the reboot. Another new feature is DoubleSpace, a powerful new disk compression utility that is integrated into MS-DOS 6. DoubleSpaced drives can be used on a LANtastic workstation or server, but you cannot do the initial setup of DoubleSpace while the LANtastic SERVER or LANCache programs are loaded. For best results, reboot your computer and bring it up without any LANtastic TSRs loaded before setting up DoubleSpace drives. Once DoubleSpace is set up, you may re-load the LAN software and use it normally. In addition, LANCache version 3.0, which ships with LANtastic v5.0, may be used to cache DoubleSpaced drives. See the MS-DOS 6 NETWORKS.TXT file for more information about using DoubleSpace and LANtastic together. MS-DOS 6 includes a completely new BACKUP utility which is also compatible with LANtastic. You can use it to back up your local or network drives to diskettes, another local drive, or another network drive. Compatibility Notes: NOTE: See the MS-DOS 6 NETWORKS.TXT file for more information on some of the following topics. 1) Once DoubleSpace has been set up, the host drive(s) and the compressed drive(s) do not show up correctly in the 'Disk Drives and Printers' section of the LANtastic NET program. A DoubleSpaced C: drive will be displayed in NET as "physical" rather than compressed, and host drives and other drives that should be "Available for DoubleSpace" do not appear on NET's drive list at all. This limitation does not affect the functionality of DoubleSpace or NET and you can still redirect drives and printers normally. 2) The UNDELETE utility, for both DOS and Windows, will only function in the "Delete Sentry" mode if a PC is running the LANtastic SERVER program. Additionally, files on a server's local hard drive may onlu be undeleted with the DOS UNDELETE command and not with the Windows Undelete utiltity. UNDELETE tracking may be used in any of its modes if the PC is set up as a workstation only (running the REDIR program, but not SERVER). If you want to track deletions on network drives from any PC running LANtastic, you must use UNDELETE in Delete Sentry mode. 3) The MS-DOS 6 UNFORMAT command cannot be used on a hard disk if SERVER is loaded. It may be used on floppy disk drives if the "Floppy Direct" parameter is set to "Enabled" in the NET_MGR "Server Startup Parameters." 4) The new MS-DOS DEFRAG disk defragmenting command may not be used when SERVER is running. To run DEFRAG, remove server from memory or reboot the PC without loading the LAN software. LANCache should also be removed from memory or disabled when you run DEFRAG. 5) The SMARTDRV disk caching utility may be used with LANtastic, but do not run LANCache and SMARTDRV at the same time. 6) Microsoft's new Anti-Virus utility MSAV cannot be used to scan for virii if the LANtastic SERVER program is loaded. Remove server from memory or reboot your PC without loading SERVER in order for MSAV to run correctly. Vendor Information: Microsoft, Inc. One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399 Phone: 206/882-8080 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ARTISOFT, Inc. makes no warranties as to the completeness or accuracy of this document. LANtastic is a trademark of ARTISOFT, Inc. Brand names, company names, and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. _______________________________________________________________________________