TITLE: NetWare Connect Tips DOCUMENT ID: TID250047 DOCUMENT REVISION: E DATE: 20JUN94 NOVELL PRODUCT CLASS: Dial-In/Dial-Out Connectivity NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION: NetWare Connect 1.0 ABSTRACT: This file includes Technical Tips for NetWare Connect. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I. General Connect Tips ------------------------- A. Everyone with NetWare Connect 1.0 should download from NOVLIB, Library 9 the latest "Maintenance PTFs" (currently, NWC001.EXE and NWC002.EXE). Also, consider downloading the latest version of NWCMOD.EXE. - If your AIOMDMS.MDC is dated before 12/15/93, you should download NWCMOD.EXE to correct potential problems with all modems. - Even if your AIOMDMS.MDC is dated after 12/14/93, you may want to download the latest NWCMOD.EXE to get support for additional modems. NWCMOD.EXE will be updated periodically. These three "patches" correct many problems. They should be applied before any trouble shooting is done. B. Modems 1. If your modem is not included on the NetWare Connect menu, do the following: - Check the latest NWCMOD.EXE on NetWire to see if your modem has been added yet. - If it has not, you can have it added by FAXing the manual pages that deal with the following to Bob LoFaso at 408-577-5856: > AT commands > Sregisters > Responses - Try a similar modem; its initialization string may fit your modem. 2. If you choose "Hayes Compatible," (within NetWare Connect), the maximum speed is 4800 bps. 3. The NetWare Connect modem scripts do not turn on modem hardware compression. Instead, if you have EMS memory, compression is performed in the computers RAM. This should not result in a performance decrease. However, if you do not have EMS available and will not be using ARAS, you may enable V.42 with an additional initialization string. C. When using V.42 modems with NetWare Connect, you may see a NCS incoming call processed by NetWare Connect as an ARAS connection followed by the phone hanging up. This is caused because of a conflict between the AppleTalk Remote Access 1.0 connection negotiation and the modems V.42 negotiation. We recommend one of the following solutions: 1. Do not use the ARAS service of NetWare Connect, and add an "Additional Modem Initialization" string in the NetWare Connect modem configuration field that enables modem V.42 compression. Note: If it is necessary to support ARAS dial in users, choose solution 2. 2. Disable V.42 error control at the NCS client side by appropriately configuring the NCS application being used. If this is not possible, define a unique set of ports to be used for ARAS connections and on all remaining ports, enable hardware V.42 compression in the modems through the NetWare Connect modem configuration (as in solution 1). D. NetWare Connect should not be installed in a NetWare 4.x server until you have applied PTF 442 and PTF 440. All registered owners of 8 port or 32 port NetWare Connect have been sent a CD-ROM with RunTime NetWare 4.01. E. With a Digiboard, you may experience framing errors or abends. If you experience these problems, or others, when using a DigiBoard, call Digiboard (800-344-4273 or 612-943-9020) and get the latest driver from them. F. The first AIO multi-port board should always be board 0, and the first AIO port should be port 0. The mapping should look similar to the following: (DRIVER_NAME,0,0) where DRIVER_NAME is the currently loaded AIO driver. On the board driver LOAD line, put NODE=0 for the first board, NODE=1 for the second board, and so forth. (Note: The WNIM board neither supports nor requires a NODE= statement). Example: load AIODGXI port=200 mem=d0000 node=0. G. Question: The LOAD Btrieve description on page 1-29 and page 4-5 differ. Which is correct? Answer: Page 1-29 has a typographical error. Page 4-5 is correct. H. Do not load LSLENH or MSM31X in a NetWare 3.12 server (including RunTime). I. If you have problems connecting, it may be a modem problem. Try modem selections that are similar to your modem. Also drop the baud rate. A useful tool is to use a null modem cable and do a direct connect to the NetWare Connect server. K. If you use "Modem Independence," the modem strings will be supplied by NetWare Connect instead of the application: 1. If you use Modem Independence, inform the application that the modem type is "Hayes Compatible. The modem strings will be comprised of the basic Hayes Command set. 2. Expect a significant delay in the dialing. The delay is caused by NetWare Connect "translating" the initialization string. 3. Applications vary in their efficiency in relating to Modem Independence. If you experience problems with ports in a modem independence group, disabling modem independence may help. II. NASI/NCS Connect Tips -------------------------- A. The /NS parameter is provided for use with applications that are aware of it and prepared to take over the security role. No such applications yet exist. For the present, do not use the /NS parameter. However, if you want to decrease the amount of security involved in LOGIN, see pages 9, 10, and 11 of the NetWare Connect Addendum. B. Users calling in or out with a remote control application must use a name and password that exist in the bindery of the NetWare Connect server. Passwords must consist of only alpha-numeric characters without spaces. C. The NCS service allows you to define both OutBound and InBound port groups: InBound Port Group (One per server) t All ports in the InBound group will be available to remote users calling in with remote control applications (like PC AnyWhere). t All the ports in the InBound group will have a single logical port name consisting of the first eight characters of the NetWare Connect server name plus "dialin." For example, if the server name is "Communications," the logical port name will be COMMUNICDIALIN. All workstations and application servers put in the host mode must use that logical port name. t Attempting to dial out using the InBound logical port name will cause an error. OutBound Port Groups t Use only ports that are in an OutBound group for dialing out. t OutBound Ports may be selected by group name or individual name. t If you select a port by group name, NetWare Connect will select an available port within the group. t If you call out with an Int14 application, use only a specific port name instead of a group name. t Unlike NASI, NINT14 does not release a port until NINT14 is unloaded. NINT14 /U InBound/OutBound Ports t A port may be placed in both the InBound group and one or more OutBound groups. This allows InBound ports to be used for OutBound calls except when a remote user is actually connected. D. If your application supports both NASI and Int14, choose NASI when using NetWare Connect. 1. Few, if any, Int14 applications go faster than 9,600 (at least not in this environment.) 2. As described in the manual, NetWare Connect supports only the basic Int14 features. 3. You must run NASI to be able to run Int14. The reverse is not true. E. A NASI.DLL file is available to any developer who requests it. It will be of use to users only after applications are developed with hooks for it. F. The only remote control applications that are supported through NCS are the ones that support NASI. They are usually identified as the "LAN Version." G. NetWare Connect NCS Dialback To use NCS Dialback with Netware Connect 1.0, you must choose between the following two options: Option 1: If you will be using the remote-control software's (PC Anywhere LAN 4.5 or Reachout 3.3) dialback instead of NetWare Connect's dialback, configure NCS to work like the old NACS 3.0 product. This option has two drawbacks: - As each PC is put into host mode, it will tie up a NWC port. - The remote caller will not be prompted for user id and password. To use option 1, do the following: Do not add a port group into the DIAL-IN Group field under NCS configuration under configure service. NCS will then broadcast the ports like NACS 3.0. Option 2 If you will be using NetWare Connect's dialback function instead of the remote control software's dialback, use the DIAL-IN Group field in NCS configuration. This option has one drawback: The remote user must manually put their PC into Auto Answer (Host) Mode during the interval between dialing in and receiving NetWare Connect's dialback. To use option 2, do the following: 1. Within the third-party remote control software, disable Dialback. 2. Within NetWare Connect, do the following: a. Go into Configure Security under Configuration Options. b. Choose Set User Parameters. c. Choose a user (the same user as the NASI defined user on the host PC). d. Choose dialback mode option, "Force Dialback". III. NRN Connect Tips ------------------------ A. The frame type bound to RNS in the server must match the frame type on the NRN client that will be calling in to the server. B. The NET.CFG file on the remote NRN client must specify a preferred server for the shell to be able to find a server. Also the SET REPLY TO GET NEAREST SERVER=ON parameter at the server console. C. When running NRN/Dialcon and MS Windows in enhanced mode, serial port contention problems will occur unless the SYSTEM.INI of the remote workstation is modified to lock Windows out of the port used by NetWare Connect. Adding one of the following case sensitive lines to the 386enh section of the SYSTEM.INI file corrects the problem: MaxComPort=0 Locks Windows out of all the remote workstations serial ports. COM1Irq=-1 Locks Windows out of port 1. COM2Irq=-1 Locks Windows out of port 2. D. If you will be using the servers comm ports, AIOCOMX will report the UART detected. (NRN.COM will only report the presence of a 16550 UART on the remote workstation, it does not report other UARTs.) 1. If it is a 16550 UART, you can safely operate at up to 19,200 bps. 2. If you have not applied PTF436 (or PTF439 or PTF442) and it is a 8250 UART or 16450 UART, you should not try to operate at speeds over 2,400 bps. 3. If you have applied PTF436 (or later) and it is a 8250 or 16450, you can safely operate at up to 4,800 bps, or in many cases, up to 9,600 bps. E. Before running TCP/IP and IPX over Remote Node, do the following: 1. Edit the NWCSTART.NCF file and load RNS once with the frame type of ethernet_II. 2. Bind IPX to RNS and also bind IP to RNS. 3. At the NRN workstation, edit the NET.CFG file to use ethernet_II frame. 4. At this point, load the following files: LSL.COM NRN.COM DIALCON.EXE IPXODI.COM TCPIP.EXE NETX.EXE LOGIN.EXE You should now be logged into the NetWare server and should be able to PING to any IP host. F. To run TCP/IP over remote node, you must specify the node address for the driver in the NET.CFG file. This statement should go in the Link Driver NRN heading. G. If you find that you lose IP connections after 6 minutes of complete inactivity, load RNS with the parameter EB. H. Node Address Each NetWare Connect Remote Node, must have a node address which is unlike any other on the WAN. On an Ethernet or Token Ring LAN this unique address would be supplied by a 12 digit hex address burned into the network board. Example: 1a2b3c4d5e6f However, NetWare Connect Remote Mode connections use a serial port instead of a network board; therefore, the unique address must be specified during configuration. Only two hex digits are needed to supply enough node numbers for the maximum number of workstations which can supported by Netware Connect through Remote Node. The digits used by NRN are the seventh and eighth digits of the 12 digit number. All other digits should be filled in with zeros. Example: 000000nn0000 (where n is a hex number from 0 to F) The six leading zeros may be omitted if desired; however, the four trailing zeros must be present as place holders. I. On the Connect server, the subnet mask for all adapters must be the same and the network addresses must be unique (use the same rules you would for any two or more adapters in the server). J. Symptom: User authentication fails in Dialcon. Solution: Ensure that the user name and password exists in the bindery of the NetWare Connect server. K. A workstation cannot run NRN until it logs out of its local LAN. IPX will not bind to both the serial driver and the network board. L. Symptom: (RNS/NRN) is unable to attach to a server using NETX. Solutions: 1. Make sure you have selected the correct frame type for RNS. 2. Make sure the client side has been updated with the latest NetWare Connect PTFs and DOSUP9 or WINUP9. 3. If 1 and 2 do not correct the problem, do the following: - Put a preferred server statement in NET.CFG. - Set Reply to Get Nearest Server to ON. M. Symptom: NCS application unable to attach to port. Solution: t Load NASI using a valid username and password on the NetWare Connect server. t Run NASAIDIAG, if it works reexamine the application set up. t If you are using the comm ports on the server, try lowering the baud rate in Port Configuration and in the Application. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Any trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Consult your product manuals for complete trademark information. -----------------------------------------------------------------