Troubleshooting Netware Systems

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Troubleshooting Netware Systems / CSTRIAL0196.BIN / attach / pcc / v08n03 / netwrk.exe / LANTL124.ZIP / LANTOOLS.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1990-05-21 | 42KB | 841 lines

LANTOOLS Version 1.2 (C) Copyright 1990, Gary S. Sarasin, All rights Reserved Introduction LANTOOLS is a Terminate and Stay Resident NETBIOS utility used to help bring a workgroup into closer communication with each other. LANTOOLS provides the ability to have conversations with one or more people at the same time. A conversation can be just one person talking to another, or can be any number of people talking to any number of people (only limited by the maximum number of netbios sessions available). A PC can be remotely monitored and/or controlled by another. This can be very useful in groups when someone needs a little help from a co-worker or supervisor. Files can be transferred between PCs either in foreground or background operation. In addition, for more technical people, the ability to display adaptor status for other workstations and to turn on a netbios trace is very helpful in debugging problems. Uses LANTOOLS can be used by a variety of people in their daily jobs. For example: In an office with a bunch of workers and one or two supervisors. A worker when faced with a problem could send a message to the supervisor that they need help. The supervisor could either send a message back with the answer, or use remote monitor and remote control to help solve the problem. A supervisor could monitor others work for evaluations. In an education situation where the instructor could show the students how to perform some task on the PC and the students could monitor the demonstration on their PCs. Students could even be called upon to perform some task by taking control while everyone watches. Where a help center is used to assist people through problems they have with various PC software. Messages can be sent to ask questions and receive answers, or even allow the help center person take remote control to assist them. In a programming environment with a bunch of programmers. Messages can be sent to ask questions and receive answers. In a distributed environment, PCs on the LAN could be maintained remotely. For example an application program running as a server process could be remotely taken down, new software copied to the PC and the server process started again, all using LANTOOLS. System Requirements NETBIOS memory: 85K DOS 2.0 or greater Using LANTOOLS General LANTOOLS is loaded as a TSR, at the minimum you must specify what name you are to go by for others to talk to you. Optionally you can specify a workgroup configuration file. To invoke LANTOOLS enter the following at the DOS prompt: >LANTOOLS yourname lantools.cnf Yourname can be any name up to 14 characters long. For example you could use a convention like your initials followed by your last name. For example if John F. Kennedy had a PC with LANTOOLS he could have used the name JFKENNEDY as his user name. Optionally a workgroup configuration file can be specified, such as lantools.cnf. This file consists of the names of other LANTOOLS user names. See discussion on configuration files below. LANTOOLS provide pop-up displays. Entering data into fields is primarily the same as most programs. In general, as you select some functions, other windows will pop-up. To return to the previous menu press the ESC key. From the main menu the ESC key will return you to the application you were using. The only exceptions are help displays which, though they look like the other windows, they are not. You cannot type to them and you don't press ESC to get rid of them. They will go away when they feel like it, but hopefully will stay long enough for you to use the information provided. In order to pop-up LANTOOLS press ALT-F1 (this hot-key can be changed by each user using the configuration utility). The application you are currently running must be displaying a character format. If in graphics, LANTOOLS ignores the request. For graphical applications either move to a non-graphic display, or exit the program before using LANTOOLS. When LANTOOLS pops up, a current copy of the screen, cursor position, and size are saved so that everything can be put back as it was before the pop-up. Configuration files There are two configuration files. The first is for a workgroup. It lists the LANTOOLS user names that commonly will use LANTOOLS together. The second is the individual configuration file. Both files are optional. Workgroup Configuration: In order to talk to anyone you must know the name that the person used when starting LANTOOLS. This allows LANTOOLS to display these names on the main menu. This file can be created using most text editors such as EDLIN. It is a data file read in by LANTOOLS at startup time and as such the text editor you use cannot put in extra text formatting information. Each name listed in the file must begin in column 1 with the keyword NAME, followed by the LANTOOLS name, and be on a single line. Up to 105 names can be specified. If you need to talk to someone who isn't in the file, don't worry, since the name list can be added to and subtracted from while LANTOOLS is being used, however changes through LANTOOLS will not be written back to the file. Example: NAME jfkenedy NAME gssarasin NAME yourname Individual Configuration: This configuration file allows a single user to configure how LANTOOLS works for their workstation. In order to create and maintain this file you must use the configuration utility LANTCONF: >LANTCONF yourname Yourname is the user name you specify when starting LANTOOLS. For example using the previous example of John F. Kennedy, then the name would be JFKENNEDY. However, only the first 8 characters of the name is used and .cnf is added. Thus the file created and maintained is really JFKENNED.CNF. Therefore all names must be unique in the first 8 characters. You can configure the following information: Hot keys used by LANTOOLS Popup LANTOOLS - This is the key to popup LANTOOLS when at the DOS prompt or within a DOS program (default is ALT-F1). Exit Remote Monitor - This is the key used to exit from remote monitor/control back to the LANTOOLS main menu (default is ALT-F1). Display Next Remote - This is the key used to jump to the next remote PC. You can remotely monitor or control more than one workstation at a time. This allows you to jump between them (default is ALT-F9). Background time slicing values Normal Timeslice - This value is how many timer ticks do you want the DOS application program to get before LANTOOLS looks to see if someone has sent a message or established a call (default is 90 which is once every 5 seconds). File Transfer - This value is how many timer ticks you want the DOS application to get before LANTOOLS does more file transfer work. This only applies if you do background file transferring. In the foreground LANTOOLS goes as fast as it can. (The default is 6 which allows for about three times per second that LANTOOLS can do work). Remote Control - This value is how many timer ticks you want the DOS application to get while LANTOOLS is controlling the PC during a remote control or monitor operation. (The default is 2, this allows a fairly smooth control of the keyboard remotely). Miscellaneous Options: Password - This password allows you or someone else to either use file transfer or remote monitor/control of your PC without anyone knowing or needing to acknowledge any message. If this field is blank, then anyone trying to request remote monitor/control or do file transfers must get an ok from you at your machine. This can be used to access and control a remote PC without requiring someone to be there. If this field is not blank, then this password will be required to update the individual configuration file. If you forget the password you will have to delete this configuration file and recreate it using the LANTCONF program. Enhanced Keyboard - This just allows you to specify whether or not you have 12 function keys. Registration information Registered to - When you register your copy(s) of LANTOOLS this is the name registered. This must be entered exactly as specified on the registration notice sent to you. Number of Copies - This is the number of copies registered. Registration Number - This is the registration number sent to you when you registered. If this is the correct number, then each time LANTOOLS is installed your name will be displayed instead of the unregistered notice. Help provided Though LANTOOLS is a TSR program and as such it is desirable to be as small as possible, it is also nice for a program to be easy to use. To assist, the F1 key can be used on some of the windows to display some brief help information. The Help display is just an extension of the window currently displayed, so don't press ESC to get rid of it or you'll to back to the previous menu. Conversations The main menu lists the names of other LANTOOLS users you can converse with (up to 105). This list is mostly for convenience so you don't have to keep typing names. You can type any names that aren't on the list or change the ones that are included. Remember, these names can be automatically placed here at startup time by specifying a workgroup configuration file. Use the up and down cursor keys, and the PGUP and PGDN keys to highlight a name, press enter for a menu of options to perform. On the main menu there are four columns after the names labeled 'A', 'C', 'F', and 'R'. Each of these indicate what LANTOOLS features you are allowing for the conversation. An X in the column indicates the following: A - A conversation is established. You must have an X here to do anything with the user. C - Chit-chat is enabled. F - File-transfer is enabled. R - Remote monitor/control is enabled. When using the Chit-chat, File-transfer, and Remote operations each feature allows you to scroll to the name you wish to talk with. If you find that you have a bunch of conversations going but for one or another of the features you only want to deal with a subset of the names, you can toggle on and off the features for each conversation without dropping the conversation. To establish a conversation or to toggle on and off features you must move the highlight bar to the name desired and press ENTER. This will popup a menu of options. The following options are provided and can be toggled on or off: All Options - This is the normal option to select. This allows you to call someone, or to hangup if you had already called them. While a conversation is established an X will be in the 'A' column on the main menu after the user name. By selecting this option to start a conversation, all options will be selected for this conversation. That means that you can do chit-chat, file-transfer, and/or remote monitor/control. An X will be displayed in each of the 'C', 'F', and 'R' columns respectively. Chit-Chat - If no conversation is started, then this will start the conversation and place an X in the 'C' column. When an X is in the 'C' column then this name can be selected to send messages using the chit-chat feature. If an X is already in the 'C' column, then it is removed, but the conversation is not hungup. File-Transfer - If no conversation is started, then this will start the conversation and place an X in the 'F' column. When an X is in this column this name can be selected to send or receive file from. If an X is already in the column, then it is removed, but the conversation is not hungup. If anything else is in the 'F' column (such as P for Pending, or 'F' for file transfer in progress) then selecting this will abort the current file transfer. Remote Operations - If no conversation is started, then this will start the conversation and place an X in the 'R' column. when an X is in this column this name can be selected to give or request remote control or monitoring. If an X is already in the column, then it is removed, but the conversation is not hungup. If anything else is in the 'R' column (such as 'R' indicating already in remote control, 'G' for remote given to them, or 'P' for remote request in process) then selecting this will abort the current remote control or monitor. Once one or more conversations are established, you can perform one of the following features: CHIT-CHAT F3 - This brings up the chit-chat window. The window contains a log area showing calls, messages received, hangups, and the results of all file-transfers. To send a message to someone: - Make sure you have a conversation established with the person(s) you want to send a message to. This can be done by looking on the main menu. An 'X' must be on in both the 'A' and 'C' columns after the name(s) you wish to talk to. - From the main menu, press F3 for the Chit-Chat function. - You must get their name displayed in the field just left of where you type in the message text. If the correct name is not already there, press F9 until it is. This will scroll you through the names that have the chit-chat feature selected. If you wish to send a message to the group of people that you have the Chit- Chat feature turned on for, then use F9 to scroll to the name 'ALL'. - Type in the message to send, up to 4 lines. - Press F10 to send the message. When a message is sent to someone who is actively using a DOS application, then a prompt will appear on the bottom right corner of the screen indicating that a message is available. When the LANTOOLS hot key is pressed they will be brought directly to the F3 chit-chat display. FILE-TRANSFER F4 - This brings up the request for file transferring menu. Files can be sent to or from you. To send or receive one or more files: - Make sure you have a conversation established with the person you want to send or receive a file from. This can be done by looking on the main menu. An 'X' must be on in both the 'A' and 'F' columns after the name(s) you wish to talk to. - From the main menu, press F4 for File Transfer. The file transfer request menu should display. If the status menu displays, then you have already sent a file transfer request which is pending, a file transfer is in progress, or a file transfer aborted for some reason. If you wish to "clean up" the file transfer, and try another request, then from the main menu, select the name, press ENTER, and select the file transfer option. (This will abort an active file transfer.) Then try F4 again. - LANTOOLS assumes you want to send files from your PC to another, if you want to send files to your PC instead press F8 to swap the direction. - Make sure the name you want to do file transfer with is displayed. If the correct name is not already displayed, press F9 to scroll through the names that have the file-transfer feature selected. - You must at minimum fill in the file information for your PC. If you are doing the sending, then fill in the 'From Drive:\path\filespec'. You must specify the drive and path. The filespec can be a single file or name with the standard DOS wild characters (*?). For example 'C:\PROGRAMS\*.C'. If you are doing the receiving, then fill in the 'To Drive:\path'. Don't fill in any filespec. For example 'D:\PGMS'. You can fill in both fields if you wish, or you can leave the appropriate one blank for the other PC user to fill in (when not specifying a password). - Optionally a password can be filled if you wish to not bother anyone at the other PC (or for unmanned operation). In this case you must fill in all fields before sending the request. - When you have your request ready press F10 to send the request. If no password was entered, then a window will popup on the remote PC asking permission for the file-transfer and someone will have to acknowledge. When the request is acknowledged you will be notified by a message on your current LANTOOLS display and the file transferring will commence. You can watch the progress (this is foreground file transferring), or you can press ESC a couple times to get back to the DOS application you interrupted. When the file transfer completes a message will be displayed in the lower right of your screen. You can go to the Chit- Chat window to view the results of the file transfer. REMOTE CONTROL AND MONITOR F5 - This brings up the request for remote control or monitoring menu. You can take control of someone, or give control to someone. F5 is used to request a remote session. More than one remote session can be active at a time. F6 allows you to go into remote mode with the remote sessions you have established. To request or give remote control or monitoring: - Make sure you have a conversation established with the person you want to do remote operations with. This can be done by looking on the main menu. An 'X' must be on in both the 'A' and 'R' columns after the name(s) you wish to talk to. - From the main menu, press F5 for Remote Operations. - Press F7 to specify whether you will be doing remote MONITOR or CONTROL. Remote monitor allows you to view what is on someone's screen. Remote control allows you to view their screen and be able to enter keystrokes from your PC as if it were attached to their PC. - LANTOOLS assumes you are asking for remote ability of someone else's PC. If you wish to give remote ability to someone instead, press F8 to swap the direction. - Press F9 until the correct user name is displayed. F9 will scroll through the names selected for remote operations. - Optionally you can enter the other user's password to avoid needing someone to acknowledge your request. (No acknowledgment or password is needed if you give remote). If you don't enter a password then someone at the other end must reply to your request. - When you are ready, press F10 to send the request. When the reply is made a message will appear on the LANTOOLS menu that you are displaying. If you requested remote of someone and you see the reply, then from the LANTOOLS main menu you can enter remote control or monitor by pressing F6. You can establish multiple remote sessions. While in remote control or monitor of one PC you can switch to the next by pressing ALT-F9. ALT-F1 will return you to the LANTOOLS main menu. (Both of these hot keys can be changed in your individual configuration.) - While in remote control mode the name of the remote station is displayed in the lower right hand corner of your screen. - Remote control is accomplished by sending you a snapshot of anything that has changed on the remote screen since the last time something was sent to you. The screen is checked about 8 or 9 times per second. Only what has changed is sent, therefore, if nothing changed, then nothing is sent. - Keys that you type are sent to the remote workstation and placed into its keyboard buffer. Under normal typing speeds all the keys should go ok and you will see them echoed back to you. If a keystroke fails to make it you will not see the echo-back and after about 2 seconds you will here a beep. This will occur for any keys that don't make it. Under normal LAN loads this only occurs if you rake you hand across the keyboard. - If for any reason you believe that the screen is not accurate, you can refresh the screen image by pressing ALT-F1 then selecting the remote control option (F6) again. - To stop a remote session select the name on the main menu, press ENTER, then select the 'Remote Operations' option to disconnect the remote session. While in remote control or monitor you can only view character based screens, LANTOOLS does not at this time support graphics. Netbios trace The Netbios trace can be started by using the TSR LANTRACE. A netbios trace can be useful for software developers as assistance in debugging protocol or message formatting problems. Enter the following at the DOS prompt: >LANTRACE d:\path\filespec.ext /type You must enter the filename. A full filename is required including the drive, path, filename and extension. The reason for this is that the file is not left open. Instead it is opened, appended, and closed for each trace entry. This may seem expensive, but traces are expensive anyway. In this way we can assure that the trace will be able to be looked at even if your PC crashes. The type of trace can be P for a partial trace, or F for a full trace. A partial trace is a one line entry for each netbios call showing the address of the NCB, the command code, lsn, num, return code, buffer address, and length. A full trace includes a dump of the NCB and a dump of the message buffer. If the completion code of the NCB is FF then the completion of the NCB is pending (issued with the NOWAIT bit turned on). In this case we haven't traced much worth seeing. In order to assist a little, LANTOOLS keeps track of pending NCBs and periodically checks them for completion. When it is detected that they have completed, another trace entry is created. Using this method an application program could see the completion and mess up the NCB and/or message buffer before LANTOOLS can trace it. When debugging your own code, you may want to mark the NCB if you are going to change it right away, or create a way to delay messing it up. Run the DOS program you wish to trace. LANTRACE will capture the trace to the file specified. When you wish to deinstall LANTRACE, from the DOS prompt press ALT-F1. Then you can print or display the trace as needed. ADAPTER STATUS The status of your LAN card or another on the network can be displayed using the LANSTATS program: >LANSTATS netname A Popup window will be displayed. Each time you press ENTER the statistics for the card will be updated. Press ESC to quit the program. Information and Error messages The following messages are informational: MSG01-Call(s) completed ok A call has been completed to another LANTOOLS user. MSG02-Remote ability given You have given remote ability to someone over your machine. MSG03-Asking for remote LANTOOLS is asking another LANTOOLS user for remote control or monitoring permission. If you specified a password, then LANTOOLS will respond, not the user. MSG04-Remote access accepted Remote control or monitor request was accepted by another LANTOOLS pc. You can now go to the main menu and selection F6. MSG05-Remote disconnected The user (or LANTOOLS) on the remote end disconnected your remote session. MSG08-Message(s) sent to you Another LANTOOLS user sent a chit-chat message. Go to the main menu and select F3 to view it. MSG09-Call from xxxxxxxxxx Another LANTOOLS user established a call to you. MSG10-No room - xxxxxxxxxx Too many calls are established. Someone tried to call you, but you can't handle it. Try hanging up some of your calls. MSG11-Hangup - xxxxxxxxxx Another LANTOOLS user hungup a call to you. MSG12-Status = ACTIVE MSG13-Status = ABORTED MSG14-Status = NOT ACTIVE MSG15-Status = SUSPENDED MSG16-File transfer pending You requested a file transfer, and are waiting for confirmation from the other pc. MSG17-File transfer accepted A file transfer request was accepted. MSG18-Wait for remote response After pressing F6 to go the the remote, a response hasn't come back yet. MSG20-File transfer complete All the files have been sent during a file transfer. The following messages are errors that have occurred: ERR00-Already installed You tried to install LANTOOLS a second time. ERR01-Could not open global configuration file xxxxxxxxxx During startup, you either didn't give a global configuration file, or the file name wasn't found. A global configuration file is only optional, it saves you having to type in names of other LANTOOLS users on your main menu. ERR02-Too many names in configuration file, max is xxxxxxxxxx The global configuration file specifies more than 105 names. ERR04-Please make calls first You tried to select a function (F3, F4, F5 or F6) from the main menu before having at least one call established. ERR05-Unknown sender nnn Someone sent a message to you, but LANTOOLS doesn't know who. This can be ignored, it should only happen if LANTOOLS has a logic error and hopefully I have fixed all of those. ERR06-Name not up on network You tried to call a user how doesn't have LANTOOLS started. ERR07-Adapter is not online Using LANSTATS, the adapter name you specified is not on the LAN at this time. ERR08-The name table on the card is full - try booting LANTOOLS attempts to add your name to the card in your PC at startup time. This message indicates that too many names have already been added to the card. ERR09-The network is not started You need to start the network before installing LANTOOLS. ERR10-Could not add name to the network card - try booting Probably the name you gave LANTOOLS is already being used on the network. Try a different name. ERR11-need conversation first You tried to do a function (F3, F4, F5, or F6) before having a call established to someone. ERR12-No remote session found You selected F6 to go to the remote session but you haven't used F5 to request the remote session. Or the remote session has been disconnected since you established it. ERR14-Need drive:\path\file For a file transfer, LANTOOLS must know the source drive, path, and file specification. For example, C:\BIN\*.COM ERR16-Please enter name or ALL On the chit-chat window, you need to press F9 to get a name displayed for who to send the message to. ERR18-Please enter a message In chit-chat, you pressed F10 to send the message, but you haven't entered the message text yet. ERR19-file transfer aborted The file transfer aborted. The user at the other end could have aborted it, the disk could be full, it could be trying to write to an existing file that is read-only. The chit-chat window will show what the last file being transmitted. ERR20-Please fill in your file On responding to a file transfer request, you must fill in file information for your end, if it hasn't already been filled in. ERR21-Need drive and path For file transfer you must specify the drive and path for the files. ERR22-file transfer suspended The disk could be full, or some other error. The chit-chat window will show the last file being transmitted. ERR23-file transferring already A file transfer is in progress, you can't do another at the same time. To stop and clean up a file transfer in progress that you don't want anymore, go to the main menu, select the name that the file transfer is going to, press enter. On the selection menu, select the file transfer option. ERR24-Exit to DOS for remote A remote user is sending you keys and you are in a LANTOOLS menu. ERR25-FT logic error This will only occur if I have any logic errors in the file transfer process. See if you can make this happen on demand and let me know. ERR26-FT block sequence error File transfer attempts to make sure that all blocks for each file are received in order and are correct. If LANTOOLS can't get back in synch after an error is detected, then you will get this message. ERR27-FT write - readonly file Tried to write to a readonly file that exists. ERR28-FT ToFile path not found The TO file path was not found. LANTOOLS does not create directories. ERR29-FT Output file open err LANTOOLS could not open a file, check to see if it already exists and is readonly. ERR30-FT Disk is full During file transfer the disk filled up. You can use remote control to clean up the disk, then go to the file transfer menu (F5) and press F8 to resume the aborted file transfer. ERR31-FT Write to file error An error occurred when writing a file. This would normally be an I/O error of some kind. ERR32-FT From file open error The file being read during a file transfer could not be opened. ERR33-FT User requested abort The user at one end or the other selected the option on the file transfer menu to abort. ERR34-FT in progress already You can not do more than one file transfer at a time. ERR35-FT user rejected request You requested a file transfer, but the user at the other end rejected your request, or if you specified a password, it was wrong. ERR46-file or dir not found For file transfer, the file specification was not found, please check spelling. ERR47-to file must be dir name You must specify a TO file path, not a file name. ERR49-None selected for FT No calls are established that allow file transfer. ERR50-None selected for Remote No calls are established that allow remote operations. ERR51-ERR51-Could not open configuration file xxxxxxxxx No individual configuration file exists for you. This is an optional file that you can create using the LANTCONF utility in order to specify your password, alternate hot keys, etc. ERR52-Configuration file xxxxxx is the wrong size The configuration file has been messed with, or it was generated from an older version os LANTOOLS.