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 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