Kosovo Orphans' Appeal Charity CD/KosovoOrphansAppeal.iso/commercialdemos/warmsilencesoftware/lanman98_demo/readme

Text File | 1999-01-27 | 16KB | 374 lines

               !LanMan98
               =========

!LanMan98 is a program for networking Acorn computers, running RiscOS with
PCs, running Windows 95, 98, NT, etc.  It allows users of RiscOS based
machines full access to remote PC shares.  That is the same role fulfilled by
LanManFS under !Omniclient, but !LanMan98 offers four advantages over the
older system.

* !LanMan98 allows files to be displayed and accessed via their long file
  names, rather than the garballed, backward-compatibility DOS names.

* !LanMan98 is very much faster than LanManFS across TCP/IP (although it is
  not quite as fast as LanManFS across NetBEUI.

* !LanMan98 prevents the common time-out problems when connected to
  Windows NT servers.

* !LanMan98 allows use of long file names when a PC is used as a RiscOS file
  server.

* !LanMan98 allows shares to be accessed across the internet.

* !LanMan98 is the only TCP/IP-based file system that can tolerate file
  accesses under callback.  Because of this, Fresco does not need to be
  patched to function correctly on discless machines, and can work more
  efficiently.


!LanMan98 can be used as a stand alone system; it can be used with !NTFiler;
or it can be used with !Omniclient as a partial replacement for LanManFS.
(See the section on installation for the setting up procedure for the two
different styles of use).


!LanMan98 implements the CIFS (Common Internet File System) protocol, which
has arisen out of microsoft's earlier SMB protocol (the protocols used by
LanManFS).  There are people working towards standardising CIFS, for the more
general use suggested by the expanded form of its name, and there are already
servers written for a large number of different platforms; so you may find
uses for !LanMan98 other than just communication between RiscOS and Windows.
On the other hand, the current situation is a terrible mess, with the Windows
95 and NT servers being so different that they cannot be driven in a
consistent way.  Certainly, users must realise that this version of !LanMan98
was written for communication with Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 98 and
SAMBA only; success with any other server should be considered as a
fortuitous event.


Prerequisites
=============

* All machines running !LanMan98 must be correctly set up to use TCP/IP.

* All PC servers to which access is required must be running TCP/IP, and must
  have "File and print sharing via TCP/IP" enabled.


Installation for use with !Omniclient or !NTFiler
=================================================
In the same directory as this file you are now reading you will see the main
!LanMan98 application, and two subdirectories called "StandAlone" and
"Restore".  Drag the !LanMan98 application to a sutiable directory on your
hard disc, and ignore the contents of the two subdirectories: you do not need
them.  Whenever you wish to use !LanMan98 just double-click the application,
or better still place the application in your !Boot, inside the
Choices.Boot.Tasks directory, so that it will be invoked automatically when
you switch on your computer.


Installation for use with neither !Omniclient nor !NTFiler
==========================================================
Follow the directions for use with !Omniclient, and then open the
subdirectory called "StandAlone".  You will see what seems to be a second
copy of the !LanMan98 application.  In fact, it is just a skeleton containing
the few extra files required for stand-alone use.  Copy this to the same
directory that you copied the main application.  As with the !Omniclient
integrated version, you simply need to double-click the !LanMan98 application
when you wish to use it, or place it in your !Boot.


Using !LanMan98 with !Omniclient
================================
!LanMan98 is not able to browse your network (i.e., it cannot automatically
produce a list of all the shares visible from your machine).  However, if you
have LanManFS (as you may well do if you are running !Omniclient) then
!LanMan98 can make use of LanManFS's browsing capabilities.  This being the
case, each auto-detected PC share on your local network will appear twice in
!Omniclient's "FS list", once with the usual LanManFS icon, and secondly with
a more colourful icon.  To access a mount via LanManFS, double-click the old
grey icon; to access a mount via LanMan98, double-click the more colourful
one.  Also from !Omniclient's main menu, you can follow "Mounts", "Protocols"
and then click "LanMan98"; this opens a dialogue box into which to type the
details of the share to be mounted.


Using !LanMan98 with !NTFiler
=============================
!NTFiler will automatically detect the presence of !LanMan98 and make use of
it exeactly as would use LanManFS.


Using !LanMan98 with neither !Omniclient nor !NTFiler
=====================================================
When you double-click the !LanMan98 application (or on computer startup,
should you have !LanMan98 in your boot sequence), an unnamed icon will appear
on the left of the icon bar.  This is !LanMan98 in its dormant state.

To connect to a share for the first time, click the middle button on the bar
icon and select "New...".  This will open a dialogue box, via which you can
provide details of the share.  For the "Local name", you choose a name by
which you wish the share to be known on the RiscOS side.  For "Server", you
must supply the name of the machine on which the remote share resides.  And
for "Share" you must supply the name of that share as known to the remote
machine.  Some shares will require "User name" and/or "Password" to be filled
in; others will not.

Now click the "Connect" button.  If a connection is successfully made then
the unnamed icon dissappears, and a new icon appears carrying below it your
chosen local name for the share.  You can simply click SELECT on the new icon
to open a filer window on the root directory of the share, and then use it
just as you would any other disc accessible by your machine.

Repeat the instruction in the above two paragraphs for each share to which
you need access.  Each will present itself as a new icon on the icon bar.

The typing in of the share's details is necessary only when you first connect
to it.  Each successfully connected share is remembered by !LanMan98.  To see
the known shares, click SELECT on the unnamed icon (when !LanMan98 is
dormant), click ADJUST on any of !LanMan98's disc icons, or select "Show
discs" from the menu.  A filer window will open showing all the known shares;
you simply need double-click them to reform the connections (you can also
drag groups of them to the icon bar for fast forming of connections to
multiple shares).  If a password was provided at the last time of connection
to a share then the password is not remembered, but the fact that a password
was given is remembered, and the usual "Connect" dialogue box appears, with
all but the password filled in.


File types
==========
Within the !LanMan98 application is a file named "Mappings".  The lines of
that file specify a mapping from DOS name extensions to RiscOS file types.
You can alter this file, but it is probably best not to make a habit of it.
The mappings have two effects.  They determine the RiscOS file type for files
that originate from the PC, and they control whether files originating from
RiscOS need to have file type information hidden in their names.

For example:

The file xxx.txt created on the PC will appear as xxx.txt from LanMan98 and
with file type "Text", because the Mappings file takes the extension txt to
the hexidecimal number &fff, which is the RiscOS code for "Text".

Likewise, a file xxx.txt with file type "Text" created with LanMan98 will
appear on the PC as xxx.txt.

But a file xxx.txt created with file type "Data" appears on the PC as
xxx.txt,ffd  The ",ffd" part recording the file type (&ffd is the RiscOS code
for "Data").

The general rule is, leave the mapping file alone, and things will work
without you having to think about it, but if you often change the Mappings
file be careful.  One important case: if you backup your PC via LanMan98 then
you should save the Mappings file with the backup, because it is essential
that the same Mappings file is used when Restoring the backup.

For people who desperately want to avoid the hidden RiscOS, file-type codes
being tagged to file names, LanMan98 provides a way to avoid them through use
of special fields.  For example, if you have a share mounted with name PC1
say then typing, at the command line,

  *Filer_OpenDir LanMan98#notypes::PC1.$

will open a filer window via which files can be created without the hidden
type codes being being appended to the file names, and within which any already existing type codes are visible made visible.


Hidden files
============
In its default configuration, LanMan98 respects the DOS hidden file
attribute, and will not display or allow access to hidden files.  To override
this behaviour, and obtain access to hidden files, set the system variable
LanMan98$ShowHidden (any value will do).  There is already a commented out
line in the !Run file that does this.  Once the variable is set, all
subsequently made connections will allow access to hidden files.


Accessing shares across the internet
====================================
An additional feature of LanMan98, over those provided by the original
LanManFS, is that you can mount remote machines via the internet.  To do this
you must specify the internet address of the server as well as its name.  For
an example of how to do this, we'll use SUN Microsystem's doc.ic.ac.uk site.

The share name is

    \\sunsite\packages

If this was on you local network, you could access it with !Omniclient by
using

    SUNSITE

as the "Server", and

    packages

as the "Share".

But across the internet "SUNSITE" isn't enough to find it.  You also need to
specify that the internet address as being sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk.  LanMan98
will accept this extra information, surrounded by angle brackets, appended to
the server name.  So you should use

    SUNSITE<sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk>

as the server name.


Remote printing
===============
If you are using !LanMan98 with !Omniclient, and you have the LanManFS module
loaded then carry on as you did before; !LanMan98 will not stand in the way
of remote printing through !Omniclient.

If you are using !LanMan98 in stand-alone mode then you should use a slightly
different procedure.  Consider the case where you have a PC called "PC1" that
allows access to a printer under the share name "EPSON".  You should set up
!Printers as though you had a printer of the type in question directly
connected to your computer, accept when filling in the details of the
"Connections" dialogue box.  Here you should check the "File" radio button
and type in, as the file name

    LanMan98#printer;PC1;EPSON:

Every character in this file name is important including the ":" on the end.


Commands
========
LanMan98 has commands equivalent to the *Connect, *Disconnect, *LMLogon and
*LMLogoff of LanManFS: they are *Connect98, *Disconnect98, *LMLogon98 and
*LMLogoff98.


Interaction with Fresco
=======================
Fresco is slightly unusual in that it accesses files under callback.
Although this is a perfectly legitimate thing to do, almost all TCP/IP based,
remote file systems are flawed in a way that causes errors under such
conditions.  The file acccesses that are faulted are those to files within
the !Scrap directory; so the problem is manifest only when your !Scrap
directory is on a remote server accessed via TCP/IP.

Fresco has been patched to recognise both ShareFS and LanManFS so as to avoid
the problem, although this does mean that it works less efficiently with them.

!LanMan98, in its default configuration, suffers in the same way as other
TCP/IP based file systems, but it can be configured to completely solve the
problem (whether for Fresco or for any other call-back-using application).
To protect !LanMan98 against call backs, you should set the system variable
LanMan98$CallBackPatch; any value will do so long as the variable is set, and
provided the setting of it is performed before the LanMan98 module is loaded.
There is a line to uncomment in the !Run file specifically for this purpose.
The patch uses undocumented features of RiscOS and may fail with some
versions of RiscOS or some versions of the Internet module.


Trouble shooting
================
If attempts to mount shares give the error message "Cannot find given
server", or if attempts to logon to a domain fail to mount your home
directory, then it may be that your network has a NetBIOS name server and
LanMan98 can't find it.  Try setting the system variable LanMan98$NameServer,
by typing

    Set LanMan98$NameServer <IP address>

where <IP address> is the network address of the name server in
ddd.ddd.ddd.ddd format.  If you have one particularly powerful PC running
Windows NT, then that is probably the name server.  If this does not solve
the problem, try also typing

    RMKill LanManFS

It may be that LanManFS is preventing LanMan98 from receiving replies from
the name server.

LanMan98 will also look in your "hosts" file to try and find the IP address
of a server, so adding a line in you host file for each of the PCs on your
network might help.


Licence
=======
!LanMan98 is Copyright ⌐ Warm Silence Software Ltd. 1998 All rights reserved.

Full versions of this program are available to registered users ONLY, and may
not be copied except for the purposes of backup, or installation on
harddrives.

Site licenses are priced according to number of machines.  Unless explicitly
stated, the version of the software supplied is for a single user only.

We hereby reserve the right to take action against any person, persons or
company that infringes the above conditions.  Applications for permission to
distribute contrary to these conditions may be made in writing, or by
electronic mail to the addresses given below.

This software is provided 'as is', with no guarantee of its suitability for
any purpose.  While every effort has been made to ensure the stability of
this software, we will accept no responsibility for any data lost while using
this program. NO WARRANTY IS GIVEN!



    Warm Silence Software,
    PO Box 28,
    Woodstock,
    Oxfordshire,
    OX20 1XX
    Tel: [phone]
    Email: [e-mail]


Acknowledgements
================

The author, Paul Gardiner, would like to thank a number of people for help
with the numerous problems that have occured during the development of this
software.

* Julian Davison: for much of the initial beta testing, and explaining
  some of the workings of the original LanManFS.

* Christian Starkjohann: for a never ending stream of advice on the
  intricacies of the CIFS protocol.

* Kevin Bracey: for explaining many details of the workings of TCP/IP.

* Keith Hall: for formulating and conducting tests that lead to !LanMan98
  working with Windows NT.

* Robin Watts: for sorting out a stupid bug of mine concerning receipt of
  broadcast packets.

* Paul Leach: for his part in writing the CIFS specs, and for answering
  many questions on them.

* Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton: for much help in understanding CIFS
  browsing.

* Microsoft: for freely releasing all details of the CIFS protocol.

* Erik Devriendt: for a work around for a bug in Windows 95 servers.

* Wookey of Aleph One: for supplying a copy of NetLinks; the initial
  development of !LanMan98 relied totally on using a PC card as a CIFS
  server, and that was possible only through the use of NetLinks.

* Julian Smith: for writing MemCheck.  I always like to pretend I don't
  need MemCheck, but in this case it was a life saver.

* Neil Bingham: for some nice sprites and improvements to the Mappings file,
  and for hunting out the last few important bugs (they seemed like the last
  few at the time).

* Paul Corke: for the "notypes" special field idea.

* Tim Howarth: for weeks of help making LanMan98 work with NTFiler, and then
  yet more help with loads of newly uncovered bugs and bad design decisions
  that he noticed.  Also, for loads of suggestions, most now implemented.