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TITLE: Assisting Floppy Based Clients
DOCUMENT ID#: FYI.P.6017
DATE: October 29, 1991
PRODUCT: NetWare Lite
PRODUCT VERSION: All versions
SUPERSEDES: NA
SYMPTOM: NA
ISSUE/PROBLEM
Assisting Floppy Based Clients
If there are workstations on the network that don't have hard disks then we suggest that NetWork Directories be set up to help those workstations. A DOS shared Network Directory should be created so that workstations with no hard disks can load DOS commands from the network. A Network Directory sharing IBM DOS version 3.10 (named IBM_DOS_310 perhaps) would be useful for those CLIENTs with only floppy drives to get to their version of DOS. In conjunction with this, the DOS environment variable "COMSPEC" should be set to allow you to load COMMAND.COM from across the network. For example, these lines could be included in an AUTOEXEC.BAT or STARTNET.BAT file:
NET MAP F: IBM_DOS_310
SET COMSPEC=F:\COMMAND.COM
In addition, workstations that only have floppies can be assisted by creating a Network Directory where the NetWare Lite utility (NET.EXE, NET.OVL, NET.HLP and LITE$RUN.OVL) can be loaded; instead of always loading them from the floppy. We suggest that a Network Directory called NWLITE be created. This directory should be a SERVER's C:\NWLITE directory. We also suggest that this Network Directory be given default rights of READ and not the default of ALL.
All floppy-only CLIENTs should map a drive to this resource and add the drive to their DOS path. This will allow the loading of the NET utility from across the network; a much better solution than loading from floppy. For example, these lines could be included in an AUTOEXEC.BAT or STARTNET.BAT file:
NET MAP M: NWLITE
PATH=M:.;%PATH%
If you want to run the CLIENT from a floppy drive and have that diskette be the boot diskette, the following configuration is suggested. (Where ever NE2000.COM appears, replace it with the appropriate driver name you are using. Also, L: and M: are simply used as examples; you may use any other valid driver letters. We map drive M: to the Network Directory NWLITE as described above. Similarly, L: is mapped to the Network Directory IBM_DOS_310 as described above.)
1. Create a bootable diskette using the FORMAT A: /S command.
2. Copy the following NetWare Lite files to the diskette:
LSL.COM
NE2000.COM
IPXODI.COM
CLIENT.EXE
NET.EXE
NET.CFG
3. Create an AUTOEXEC.BAT with the following lines added to it:
LSL
NE2000
IPXODI A
CLIENT
NET LOGIN
NET MAP L: IBM_DOS_310
NET MAP M: NWLITE
PATH=L:\;M:\;%PATH%
SET COMSPEC=L:\COMMAND.COM
4. Create an CONFIG.SYS with the following line added to it.
LASTDRIVE=M
For those Network Directories that contain applications (executables) the drives used to map to these applications should be included in the DOS environment variable PATH. For example, these lines could also be included in an AUTOEXEC.BAT or STARTNET.BAT file:
