On 22 Aug 97 09:20am, David Druffner wrote to All:
 DD> I am trying to put together a 2 user Novell Intranetware 4.11
 DD> network. I have a win95 system with a 32 bit card and a dos 286
 DD> sytem with a 16 bit card. The server is on the win95 system. I
 DD> am having a real hard time trying to get the dos system to
 DD> recognize the NIC and to communicate with the network. Booting
 DD> up the server, and then running lsl, the odi driver, and the
 DD> vlm on the dos workstation system doesn't seem to do anything.
 DD> The server isn't recognized. In addition, I have tried running
 DD> the diagnostics program on the workstation NIC and it reports
 DD> that the cable is faulty - but i have tried two different
 DD> cables, the latest being a Thin Ethernet Coaxial cable. I have
 DD> configured the NIC via software to specifiy the BNC Thin
 DD> Ethernet connection.
Check your cable with an ohmmeter.  If it is properly terminated you
should get a reading somewhere around 25-ohms - 28 ohms.  If you read
somewhere around 50-ohms then you've only got one end of the loop
terminated properly.  Resistance cuts itself in half when you add more
resisters.  If the reading is zero then you have a break in the cable
somewhere.  If your reading is higher than around 30-ohms but less than
50-ohms then you have termination on both ends but have an impedence
problem (mismatched types of cable, a short, etc.).  If you read well
over 50-ohms then you only have termination on one end of the loop but
have the same type of impedence problem as mentioned above.
 DD> I have also tried a "simple" Win 95 peer to peer connection, by
 DD> installing the microsoft network drivers on the Win95 system
 DD> and then downloading the dos client from microsoft and
 DD> installing that on the dos system. The win 95 system recongizes
 DD> itself in network neighborhood but does not recognize the dos
 DD> system. Any suggestions? Am I doing everything right? Is there
 DD> any step I am missing??
If you are sharing resources on the server then it stands to reason that
it will see itself in the Network Neighborhood.  It will always see
itself if its resourses are set as shared.
 DD> Questions:
 DD> 1) Is the dos system missing anything? Currently it is
 DD> configured this way: in autoexec.bat, it loads:
 DD> lsl.com
 DD> driver.com (driver of nic)
 DD> ipxodi.com
 DD> vlm
That is fine.
 DD> The net.cfg file specifies the correct irq and port being used
 DD> (irq 15, port addres 300)  and specifies the correct driver.
 DD> The workstation NIC is a DE -220 Series ISA Ethernet 16 bit
 DD> NIC. (This is my second card, the other one was a generic
 DD> ethernet ne2000 compatable card too and it didn't work either,
 DD> giving me other but similar problems.
If you are using IRQ 15 on your Netware server then that is a big
problem.  Netware uses IRQ 15 for some underlying communications so
Novell highly discourages the use of IRQ 15 for anything except
secondary hard drive support.  Also, an I/O of 300 is not too great,
either since it is a default dumping ground for many other devices.
 DD> I gather that after I run "server" on the server and it is in
 DD> console mode, I am supposed to be able to boot up the
 DD> workstation and chance to the "f:" driver. It won't do this.
Do a Step-By-Step confirmation of the client (Do an F8 during bootup)
and watch each line as it loads.  Two in particular are the NIC driver
to see if it actually can load.  Most will generate an error on the
screen if it cannot initialize the card.  Second, watch the VLM when it
loads.  If it pauses for several seconds, then goes on to the next
bootup command without reporting that it has attached to your server (it
should say, "Attached to Server {servername}") then it does not see your
server.  Recheck your cable based on the above meter checks.  If that
doesn't work, recheck the NIC, replace the NIC driver in case it is
corrupt and get off IRQ 15 and address 300.  Try using an IRQ of 10 or
11 and an I/O of 280.
 DD> 2) Is there any simple fail proof program I can run to at least
 DD> test the two cards and see if they are communicating?
If you are using the same type of card in both machines, most cards'
included diagnostics include a sender/receiver test to see if the cards
are sending and receiving packets.  Set one card up as a sender and the
other as a receiver.  Start the program on both machines within a couple
of seconds of each other and if everything is right they should see each
other and start processing packets.  You can stop them at anytime but
should let them run for a minute or two to see if any packet errors are
reported.  This could indicate a marginal cable problem or a transceiver
problem on one or both of the NICs.
Good Luck.
George
CNE4
... Although he isn't as good as he was two years ago, now he's even better!
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