TITLE: NWL v1.1 - New Features and Enhancements DOCUMENT ID: TID1200397 DOCUMENT REVISION: 3 DATE: 11Apr95 ALERT STATUS: Yellow README FOR: NA NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION: NETWARE LITE V1.1 ABSTRACT: NA --------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL. NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEAN 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ISSUE: NETWARE LITE v1.1 - SUMMARY OF NEW FEATURES AND ENHANCEMENTS NetWare Lite v1.1 has been developed primarily as a maintenance release. NetWare Lite v1.1 increases the stability, compatibility, and performance of NetWare Lite, as well as adding some enhancements and new features. The following is a summary of the new features and enhancements. Note: For complete information concerning any of the features or enhancements summarized in this document, please see the README files on the NetWare Lite v1.1 diskette. NLCACHE The primary new feature of NetWare Lite v1.1 is a NetWare Lite disk cache called NLCACHE. This cache can be configured to use conventional, extended, or expanded memory and can be enabled and disabled from the DOS command line. NLCACHE dramatically increases the performance of NetWare Lite. Due to the length of the information, please download document 1200398 from Novell's FaxBack Service or TID1200398 from the NSE Pro or Compuserve for more information on how to set up NLCache. ***** WARNING ***** If you choose to use another cache program in place of NLCache, you MUST turn off the deferred rights feature of the cache to avoid possible fragmentation or corruption of data! Note: Do not run two caching programs simultaneously. IPXSYNC NetWare Lite v1.1 ships with a utility called IPXSYNC. Until now, if two workstations, A and B for example, mapped drives to each other in their STARTNET.BAT files, machine A would fail to map drives to machine B because machine B had not yet loaded the network software. (Turning on two or more machines at precisely the same time is almost impossible.) This problem is solved by the IPXSYNC utility. This synchronization utility can be placed in the STARTNET.BAT file to make a Lite workstation pause until all necessary servers have booted and loaded the network software. The IPXSYNC utility works from within the STARTNET.BAT file. It should be run from the STARTNET.BAT file after the server and client but before the drives are mapped and the printers are captured. The syntax is the following: IPXSYNC . Replace with any string that is to be broadcast over the network. Replace with the number of computers that have to broadcast that message before the batch file can continue. Example: There is a network with three computers (all setup as servers and clients) and they all have drives mapped to each other. The network supervisor can put the IPXSYNC utility in the STARTNET.BAT file to ensure all the computers are up and the network is loaded before the drive mappings are attempted. The supervisor should put the line "IPXSYNC Ralph 2" into each STARTNET.BAT file after SERVER.EXE and CLIENT.EXE are loaded. Each computer, when turned on, will wait for the string "Ralph" to be returned from the other two machines before continuing on to map the drives. The user can press any key to terminate the process before the operation is complete, but this will cause the drives not to be mapped because the network was not completely operational at the time. NET SAVE NetWare Lite v1.1 ships with a new utility called NET SAVE that will save all active drive mappings and port captures on a workstation. The NET SAVE utility is not required but is provided as a convenient way to set up the network environment. At the DOS prompt, type NET SAVE. The mapped drives, captured ports, and DOS environment variables are saved in a file called NLLOGIN.BAT that the user can add to the STARTNET.BAT file. The next time the STARTNET.BAT is executed, the saved drive mappings and port captures will be in effect. The NET SAVE utility is not required but is provided as a convenient way for a network administrator to set up the network environment. NOTIFY NetWare Lite v1.1 ships with a feature called NOTIFY that gives the user the option to be notified when a print job is completed. This feature is useful when the network printer is in a different room than the user who is submitting the print job. The notify feature is activated by placing a "n=y" parameter in the NET CAPTURE statement. The default setting of the notify feature is no. After receiving the message, a user can delete the message by pressing + at the same time. AUTO REATTACH NetWare Lite v1.1 has an AUTO REATTACH feature. Occasionally, a network board momentarily loses its connection with other network boards in the network. For example, a workstation on the network is rebooted. Under NetWare Lite v1.0, when a connection was interrupted, the DOS error message, "General failure reading device NWLite--Abort, Retry, Fail" would be displayed and the user would be required to press "Retry" to reestablish the network connection. NetWare Lite v1.1 automatically attempts to reconnect to the network when a connection is lost. This reattach attempt is transparent to the user provided that the workstation has come back online when the reattach attempt is made. Otherwise, the above-mentioned DOS error message is displayed to alert the user that the connection is no longer available. NET SLIST NetWare Lite v1.1 ships with an enhanced NET SLIST command that will show all available Lite servers without requiring the user to be logged into the network. This feature is helpful to users who wish to know if a particular server is available before continuing with a log in attempt. DYNAMIC UPDATE OF PRINT SCREEN The print job screen in the NET utility of NetWare Lite v1.1 is dynamically updated. This is useful to network supervisors who wish to monitor printing activity in real time on the network. NET SEND AND NET RECEIVE In contrast to NetWare Lite v1.0, NetWare Lite v1.1 messages, which appear on the screen as a result of the NET SEND command or as a result of a completed print job notification, do not suspend the operation of NetWare Lite v1.1 servers. Furthermore, the NET RECEIVE feature allows a user to configure the workstation to cause messages resulting from a NET SEND command to "time out" after a set amount of time. These enhancements are useful to users who wish to run batch processes while away from their workstations without NetWare Lite messages permanently halting those batch processes. To use the NET RECEIVE command, type the following from the command line: NET RECEIVE Replace (0 to 1500) with the number of seconds that you wish the messages to remain on the screen. If you enter 0 (Net Receive 0), the message will remain on the screen until + keys are pressed simultaneously. Note: If you do not use the NET RECEIVE command, the default setting will require a user to press + simultaneously to clear the message from the screen. Note: These enhancements do not apply to Native NetWare broadcasts (NetWare v3.11, for example). If the NetWare Lite network is part of a Native NetWare network, broadcasts from Native NetWare will still suspend both foreground and background processes on the workstation until the message is cleared from the screen. MEMORY ENHANCEMENTS The NetWare Lite v1.1 version of SERVER.EXE can be loaded into high memory in contrast to v1.0. CLIENT.EXE, LSL, IPXODI A, and the board driver, can also be loaded into high memory. SERVER.EXE'S default size is approximately 10 KB smaller in NetWare Lite v1.1 than the default size of SERVER.EXE in the v1.0. Both of these enhancements allow additional conventional memory to be available for other applications. The NetWare Lite v1.1 version of SERVER.EXE and CLIENT.EXE can be unloaded from conventional memory (they cannot be unloaded from high memory), by typing the commands SERVER U or CLIENT U. Note: CLIENT.EXE must be unloaded before SERVER.EXE. LARGER PRINT JOB PACKET SIZE NetWare Lite v1.1 uses a larger print-job packet size that results in significantly faster printing than v1.0. NET COMMANDS USE THE DOS ERROR LEVEL In NetWare Lite v1.1, all Net commands issued from the command line (NET MAP) set a DOS Errorlevel of zero upon successful completion and non-zero for an unsuccessful completion. This is helpful for verifying that the command completed successfully in a batch file before moving on. COMMANDS ARE MORE LIKE NATIVE NETWARE The NET WHOAMI command replaces the NET INFO command. The NET USERLIST command replaces the NET ULIST command. Also, you can type NET MAP F:= instead of NET MAP F: if you are used to using native NetWare mapping commands. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Any trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Consult your product manuals for complete trademark information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------