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1993-03-11
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NOVELL TECHNICAL BULLETIN
TITLE: Microsoft Windows for Workgroups and Novell NetWare
DOCUMENT ID: TB.P.303
DATE: 23 February 1993
PRODUCT: Microsoft Windows for Workgroups
PRODUCT VERSION: 3.1
SUPERSEDES: None
Note: Novell makes every effort within its means to verify this information.
However, the information provided in this document is FOR YOUR INFORMATION
only. Novell makes no explicit or implied claims to the validity of this
information. The publication of this information should not be construed as
an endorsement of, or limit in any way any action which Novell may take
relative to any non-Novell product or service.
OVERVIEW
Because Novell was not involved in the development or testing of
Microsoft's Windows for Workgroups (WFW) product before it was released,
several problems have been uncovered while working with the released
product. This technical bulletin will describe the problems encountered
to date and present solutions where possible.
Novell testing of the released WFW product found it to work generally as
specified by Microsoft when communicating to a NetWare file server.
Several compatibility and performance problems that were uncovered were
solved by using the Novell ODINSUP.COM file (available in DOSUP6.ZIP;
forum NOVFILES on NetWire) that allows NDIS protocol stacks to run
unmodified over the ODI LSL and talk to an ODI LAN driver. However,
ODINSUP.COM is not an optimal solution. Instead of supporting ODI,
Microsoft chose to use the older dedicated IPX model coupled with an
NDIS driver. This results in the WFW client's available NetWare
resources being limited and introduces several compatibility problems.
TEST RESULTS
Novell's initial testing found problems in the following areas:
* WFW installation
* Network connections using NDIS
* Performance degradation using NDIS
* SPX communications using NDIS
* WFW lack of support for DR DOS
* LAN driver compatibility using NDIS
* NetWare functionality inaccessible using NDIS
* Printing using NDIS
* NetWare utility compatibility
WFW INSTALLATION
During the WFW setup, the following intermittent problem appeared when
the NetWare drivers were installed but not invoked:
"Novell NetWare" appears in the "Other Networks In Use" list in
the "Compatible Networks" dialog box; however, the user does not
have access to NetWare services.
To avoid this problem, use the mouse to click on the ADD button or drag
the icon instead of using the <ENTER> key as prompted.
To correct this problem after it has occurred, open the CONTROL PANEL,
then select NETWORK. Next, click on the NETWORKS button. Add the
NOVELL NETWARE option from the "Available Network Types" box to the
"Other Networks in Use:" box. If the option already appears in the
"Other Networks in Use:" box, remove it, then add it again.
NETWORK CONNECTIONS USING NDIS
Network and local shared drives periodically lose their connection using
NDIS. Swap files may become corrupt as a result and must be recreated
by the user. No solution, other than recreating the swap file, has been
found to this apparently random problem.
PERFORMANCE DEGRADATION USING NDIS
Access to NetWare file services was considerably slower using the NDIS
drivers. After installing the Novell ODINSUP driver, performance
improved dramatically. Novell's performance testing on an NE2000
network interface board showed a throughput of 100 KB/s with NDIS
improving to 243 KB/s with ODINSUP loaded.
SPX COMMUNICATIONS USING NDIS
Some applications that make use of the SPX protocol will fail with
several errors when using the NDIS drivers. These errors include
application faults and general protection faults. When these same tests
were conducted with the ODINSUP driver loaded, they ran to completion
without error.
WFW LACK OF SUPPORT FOR DR DOS
Currently, the Microsoft NDIS protocol stack will not load if run on the
DR DOS operating system. Attempting to do so results in the machine
hanging. Novell is currently working on a resolution to this problem.
LAN DRIVER COMPATIBILITY USING NDIS
WFW is not supported by any of the over 400 Novell certified third-party
ODI LAN drivers. All of these drivers work normally if ODINSUP is
loaded with the exception of ARCNET drivers, because NDIS protocols do
not support ARCNET frame types.
NETWARE FUNCTIONALITY INACCESSIBLE USING NDIS
WFW clients using WFW-supplied networking components are not able to
access certain ODI-dependent features such as Novell's Network
Management or Novell's TCP/IP services. Future planned products that
require ODI drivers to be loaded will also be beyond the reach of WFW
clients using NDIS. Loading the ODINSUP driver provides the WFW client
access to all ODI services.
PRINTING USING NDIS
PSERVER does not run on WFW workstations using NDIS. PSERVER requires
an option to be set in NET.CFG, which is not read by NDIS. PSERVER ran
successfully on a WFW workstation when ODINSUP was loaded.
RPRINTER does not run under WFW. Attempting to execute RPRINTER in this
case causes the machine to hang. This problem has been attributed to
WFW, and no solution is known.
Print jobs issued in PCONSOLE get "stuck" in the queue and do not print.
Loading ODINSUP solves this problem, so print jobs print normally.
Occasionally, the Print Manager will lose its connection to the server
and print jobs will appear in Print Manager with the message "!ERROR."
This connection problem was resolved by loading ODINSUP.
Printers attached to NetWare file servers are accessible only to those
workstations that are directly attached to that server. The network
printer cannot be accessed by the shared printer option in the WFW
workgroup.
NETWARE UTILITY COMPATIBILITY
Most NetWare utilities work as expected, with the following exceptions.
* The version of NCOPY that shipped with NetWare version 3.11
(v3.56) dated 2-11-91 does not work with WFW. Updated copies of
NCOPY, dated 7-18-91 or newer, work properly.
* Copy utilities, including NCOPY and XCOPY, fail after exiting WFW
when copying from local and network drives to or from WFW shared
drives. This is because WFW does not detect that the peer
workstation has been shut down.
* RENDIR works as it should; however, WFW does not detect that the
directory name has been changed. Hence it is no longer shared.
* SEND works as expected; however, the default setting in WFW is
"disable incoming messages." Therefore, until the default is
changed, workstations cannot receive any messages.
* SYSCON intermittently exited ungracefully when creating a full
name for a group using the function keys.
* PCONSOLE requires the ODINSUP driver to be loaded to work
properly.
SUMMARY
While Windows for Workgroups using NDIS and the MSIPX driver alone does
allow for a connection to a NetWare file server, a number of problems
exist with this configuration. Many of these problems are solved by
adding the ODINSUP driver to allow access to Novell's LSL. Other
problems are WFW specific and must be addressed by Microsoft. Still
others will need to be addressed by Novell. WFW configured with only
the Microsoft NDIS drivers is not fully supportable by Novell. WFW
configured with the ODINSUP driver is generally supportable by Novell
but users should keep in mind that ODINSUP.COM is not an optimal
solution.
APPENDIX
The following ODINSUP configuration was used in testing WFW with an
NE2000 board installed in the workstation:
PROTOCOL.INI
[NETWORK.SETUP]
VERSION=0X3100
NETCARD=NE2000,1,NE2000
TRANSPORT=MS$NETBEUI,MS$NETBEUI
TRANSPORT=IPX,IPX
LANA0=NE2000,1,IPX
LANA1=NE2000,1,MS$NETBEUI
[PROTMAN]
DRIVERNAME=PROTMAN$
PRIORITY=MS$NETBEUI
[NE2000]
DRIVERNAME=NE2000
IOBASE=0X300
INTERRUPT=3
[MS$NETBEUI]
DRIVERNAME=NETBEUI$
SESSIONS=10
NCBS=32
BINDINGS=NE2000
LANABASE=1
[IPX]
DRIVERNAME=IPX
MEDIATYPE=NOVELL/ETHERNET
BINDINGS=NE2000
NET.CFG
PB BUFFERS 7
PROTOCOL ODINSUP
BIND NE2000
BUFFERED
LINK DRIVER NE2000
FRAME ETHERNET_802.2
FRAME ETHERNET_802.3
FRAME ETHERNET_II
FRAME ETHERNET_SNAP
PROTOCOL IPX 0 ETHERNET_802.3
CONFIG.SYS
FILES=30
BUFFERS=30
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\PROTMAN.DOS /I:C:\WINDOWS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\WORKGRP.SYS
LASTDRIVE=P
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
STACKS=9,256
AUTOEXEC.BAT
PATH=C:\WINDOWS
C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE
LSL
NE2000
ODINSUP
C:\WINDOWS\NET START
IPXODI
REM C:\WINDOWS\MSIPX
SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
NETX
REM C:\WINDOWS\NETX
Q:
LOGIN SUPERVISOR