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Category : Computer Networks

Question : Just curious... what is a "firewall", and what importance does it play in a company's network?

Answer : A "firewall" is intended to keep the good guys in, and the bad guys out. I suspect it is named after the so-called "firewall" in your car that sits between the engine and passenger compartment. The basic function of a computer network firewall is to filter all traffic into and out of a company's network to ensure that only wanted traffic gets through. The TCP/IP protocol used on the internet uses what are called "ports". Ports are addresses of sorts for programs and exist so that when requests come in from another system it will be known what type of service is being requested. For instance when viewing this web page you are hitting port 80 on the xpertsite.com web server wihch lets it know you want a web service (at which point the request is passed to the web server process). A firewall works by blocking ports based on rules configured by the firewall or security administrator. These rules set up which side of the firewall can do what with the other side. In a typical corporate firewall you generally allow most internal traffic access to the outside (internet), and block access from external machines that attempt to access your internal machines. Without a firewall internal machines could be besieged by unwanted traffic from would-be hackers or potentially have information stolen by thieves.
Rating : 5


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QAId : 51863
Asker : qwerty01
Subject : Firewalls
Private : No

Question : Hey Paul, I have a question about firewalls. I have a single-server network running Netware 3.12 & I am about to build a new server that will run 4.2. The company is getting a new DSL line & I am suppose to set up the firewall. What I don't understand is, if I set up a firewall box in front of the network, will the box be a node in the network? Will I have to worry about compatability with Netware? Does it matter what version of Netware I have? Finally, will I have to get an upgrade in firewall software when I upgrade the server?

Thanks for your help.

Answer : Yes, the firewall will be part of the network in that it must be able to talk to some kind of device on your network, be it a router or hub/switch. The software on the firewalling machine is responsible for blocking the unwanted accesses. Netware will not be affected in any event as the firewall will work on the TCP/IP protocol and only on traffic bound for the outside or coming from the outside in. Internal LAN traffic will not be affected by the addition of this system. This sounds like a small or medium-sized company. Since you are adding DSL might I suggest you take a look at my favorite for this type of install - Sygate. (http://www.sybergen.com) This software will need an NT Server from you (P120/64 MB or better is sufficient). Once you have the DSL line installed and the two NICs in the server (one with the IP address provided by your ISP and the other having a valid LAN segment address and connected to a hub/router port) you simple install Sygate and it will bridge the two segments (i.e. "route them") with a full NAT implementation and act as a natural firewall (as well as being configurable to be relatively highly secure). NAT is Network Address Translation and was created by Cisco. What it allows (and in this case Sygate implements) is the ability to take non-routable addresses (like 10.x.x.x or 192.68.x.x) from an internal LAN and translate requests for external internet services through one valid IP address (the one on the external NIC on the NT Server). It has the excellent benefit of rejecting any attempts at initiating communication from outside (unless you open some ports for specific purposes, like a web server, ftp, etc) machines on the internet. It will however allow your clients full access to the 'net at large (you can throttle back if need be to stop activities like ICQ, IRC, etc if desired) so their usage is not hindered. You also have the benefit of not having to touch the client machines at all - simply set their default gateway to the IP address of the internal NIC on the NT Server and all requests will be processed by this machine. No client apps need to be adjusted as they would in a proxy environment.

All of the above can also be done identically with a Cisco (or other brand) router that support NAT - simply look for one that has at least two addressable (not hub-style) Ethernet ports and plug one into the DSL and the other into the LAN.

I have this same type of Sygate environment for a cable modem installation and it's very fast and secure. You can check your security status both now and after installation of whichever you choose by visiting this site, which will attempt to probe your address for weakness:

https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

One thing to ensure with the Sygate install - remove the NetBIOS component entirely from the external NIC to get yourself secured. If you need help with this stage feel free to drop me a line at iqueue@home.com

Hope that helps!

Paul Doherty, CNA (3 & 4), CNE (4), MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
Rating : 5


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QAId : 52070
Asker : qwerty01
Subject : Firewalls
Private : No

Question : Thanks for your VERY informative answer. Instead of this being eight follow-up questions, I just have one. In your answer, you said I would need a WIN NT box for the software. How would I get this to communicate with my Netware network? The firewall box would be connected to the network through the hub.

Answer : As long as you have TCP/IP as a protocol on the Netware boxes they will have no trouble accessing the NT machine (though I can't think of a reason why they would need to). For the purposes of your LAN users their service with the Netware boxes will be unaffected regardless of whether they use TCP/IP or IPX.

Hope that's what you needed...
Paul Doherty
Rating : 5


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QAId : 52519
Asker : jsb102
Subject : network neighborhood
Private : No

Question : I have 2 computers networked by a netgear 10/100 hub, and 2 netgear 100mb cards. One machine is a win 98, and the other is a 95.
In network neighborhood, the 98 machine see's both computers. The 95 machines only see's itself. They are both configured with the same protocols.
If I go to the identification tab and change both computer name and workgroup on both machines and restart, both computers will see each other, and file and resource sharing works like it is supposed to. But when I restart/reboot the 98 machine and go into network neighborhood the 98 machine still see's both computers, and the 95 only see's itself. I can go through and change the Identifications of both computers, and they can see each other again.
Here is the trouble shooting allready done:
changed protocols
swapped nic cards
tried every port on the hub
swapped twisted pair cables
swapped to different PCI slots
reinstalled nic drivers
reinstalled operating systems
updated nic drivers
All with no different results. Ive even taken the 95 machine and hooked it up on a friends network with no problems, which makes me think that the 98 machine is where the problem is.
Ive had the network set up for around 3 months, and havent been able to figure this one out. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Jeff

Answer : Man you've run the gamut on this one! Only problem is, I believe you've run into one of the more kludgy aspects of the Windows peer-to-peer networking scheme. Namely that of browse masters. In a Windows world every machine has the potential to be a "browse master" which is the machine that controls what everyone else sees in their Network Neighborhood. If more than one machine is set to be the broswe master (or even set to be a potential one - the default) an election can be forced to determine which will become the broswe master. By default a Windows 95/98 machine gets a vote (of low value - usually "1") while an NT Server gets a high vote (I believe a "16"). thus in a network with an NT Server the master browser will always be the NT Server unless steps are taken to make it not so. There are two things you can do to stop this behavior:

1) You can disable the ability for the 95 machine to *ever* be a browse master, thereby relegating it to the status of a browser client.

Here's how:
a) Right-click on Network Neighborhood and choose Properties.
b) Double-click File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks.
c) Select Browse Master and choose Disabled using the drop down list on the right. Click OK to exit this window, and OK to exit the main Network window.
d) Choose YES when asked if you would like to reboot.

2) You can ignore this and share the root of each drive (share C:\ as "C", D:\ as "D", and so on) then go to your Network Neighborhood and in the address field at the top type "\\Win95machine_name" and hit ENTER at which point you should get connected to the machine whether it appears in the NN or not. When it does go to each of it's drives or other shares and right-click each in turn and map them to a drive letter on this machine *selecting reconnect at logon* so each time this machine comes up it will connect that share to that drive letter without a visit to the Network Neighborhood. This is the best method as you will always have access to the other machines shares by letter and will soon learn which letter goes with which share (rather than have to go to NN every time and map it then). I would still recommend that you set one machine to be Browse Master (say the 98 machine) and the other to be disabled for BM ability.

Paul Doherty, CNA (3 & 4), CNE (4), MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
Rating : 5
Rating : 5


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QAId : 52655
Asker : jsb102
Subject : Network Neighborhood
Private : Yes

Question : I just wanted to thank you for the answer you provided about my network. It solved the problem.
I have been through 6 MCSE classes already, and still have more to go. I must have been sleeping when we went over master browser. I thought it was only an issue with NT.
This has been a lesen well learned.
Thanks again!
Jeff

Answer : You're very welcome - I'm so glad I could be of assistance to you!

Paul


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QAId : 55553
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Network Management
Private : Yes

Question :
Dear Paul,
Could you please list and briefly explain tha main criteria of Management Information Base?
Thanks.
Question all the way from Malaysia.

Answer : I am not really qualified to comment on MIBs. While I know generally what they are, I have not had opportunity (or necessity) to work with them. Here are some informative links that may help, however:

http://whatis.com/mib.htm
http://x29.deja.com/=dnc/[ST_rn=ps]/getdoc.xp?AN=567700105&CONTEXT=947704164.830079028&hitnum=1

Good luck!

Paul Doherty
Rating : 2


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QAId : 58661
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : mcse cert
Private : No

Question : hi my name is rob and i have to ask a couple questions. what would be the best way to get in to the computer industry I have no clue and i have bacic knowledge of graphic operating systems [win] not much, but i hope to change that my friends suggest MCSE cert but first to take an A+ cert course or any other suggestions you have would be much appreciated or any other feilds that could be more lucritive or interesting


thanks
tkh1@mindspring.com

Answer : I would agree with your friends. If you don not have much experience an A+ would be a good way to get your feet wet and establish some credentials. If you have enough expertise now your best bet would be to get your foot in the door as a helpdesk phone support person. Doing this for 4-6 months would enable you to then apply for a desktop support position. Once there many companies are willing to let you move into a Jr Network Administrator position and/or help train you for one. At this point you can decide if the job is for you and either continue on with obtaining the MCSE/CNE type certifications or passing it by for something else. Either way you'll have a good grounding in IT.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5
Rating : 5


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QAId : 63608
Asker : nyre
Subject : Novell client 32
Private : Yes

Question : I have a win95 machine using client 32 (2.2) that will not run the container script or login or profile,,, it will only run the default script on a netware 4.1 network. The run scripts check box is checked so it should run them. Any ideas why the script would not run.
Email me at nyre@kiercorp.com

Answer : This problem can come about, believe it or not, when the container itself does not have the rights to read the container login script. Give the container rights to the login script and see if that doesn't solve the problem. (you can try creating a new test user afterwards inside that container to see if it gets executed for him too, to see if it's a problem with a single user account or with the container in general).

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 64363
Asker : everett60962
Subject : Netware 5 last user login name
Private : No

Question : We have a problem of users' accounts getting locked after their shift is over and others in the plant trying passwords. I want to know of a way that no one's name comes up in the login box after rebooting/logging on as a different user. Or maybe even a bogus name that would display a message after someone tries to enter a password.

Answer : I dug up the answer for you - here it is:

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?database_name=kb&type=HTML&docid=%03nF96669%3a948152860%3a%20%28%20gui%20login%20cleared%20username%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20productClass%20%3d%20%28%22NetWare%22%29%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20docGroup%20%3d%20%280%29%20%29%20%20%07%01%00&byte_count=6612

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 64776
Asker : jsb102
Subject : Appletalk
Private : No

Question : Its me again, but with a new question.
Me and a friend from school are setting up a network for a company with 12 computers. 10 of them are PCs, and the other 2 are MACs. We have already run all of the cat 5 cable and sucessfully have three of the pcs talking and sharing resources. Here is our challenge. We've only worked with networking pc's. We are both brand new to MACs. We do know that apple talk is going to be the protocol to install.
1. One mac already has a nic card installed. Is it a challenge to install nic's into macs?
2. Is there a network neighborhood Icon, or something similar on the macs? And if so, is appletalk a protocol on it?
3. Are the pc's and mac's going to be able to access each other without a NT server? Or will it be one way communication?
The PC's arent really going to need to access files on the mac's, but they do want the mac's to get files from the pc's. The mac's are used for video files, but the primary concerns for the macs is to access the internet. We have a DSL line coming in, which will be uplinked from our switch.
Thanks again for all your help.
Jeff

Answer : Appletalk will be unnecessary unless you just are into pain. :-) TCP/IP is fully implemented on both machines so that should be your first choice. Installing hardware into Macs is relatively painless as they (Apple) have much more of a stranglehold on hardware makers and plug and play works much better on Macs than on PCs. If you can handle installing a NIC into a PC (as you obviously have indicated) then this will be no problem. After install there should be a TCP/IP control applet in the Apple control panels (or whatever they are called - I forget) that will let you set the IP address, gateway, netmask and so on. Just set them to be on the same segment as the PCs (unless routed) and you're off. FTP may be the best way to share resources unless you can find a client in common. For instance where I work we used to install the Netware client onto Macs who needed to share files with PCs and thereby used the Netware servers as go-betweens for the Macs and PCs.

Once your internet connection of whatever type is installed the Macs can use it in the same way the PCs do - just point their default gateway to the routing device connected to the net and you're golden.

You're welcome for the help - I'm very happy to assist...

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 65153
Asker : jsb102
Subject : Macs again
Private : No

Question : Just a couple of quick questions. On the network I was telling you about with the 10 pc's and 2 mac's, what is the equivilent of network neighborhood on the mac's? Will the PC's be able to see the macs on the network? And vice/versa. Im not really into the pain of apple talk configurations, so TCP/IP is the way we are going to go.
Could you explain FTP to me. I've always just assumed it was somewhat of a internet site that you bought. I understand how it transfers, but our instructor talks as if it is a network protocol. If it is, how is it configured, or added into a network.

Answer : The equivalent of the Network Neighborhood for Macs is an AppleTalk "zone" where Macs set to the same zone can freely share space and devices. As long as you use TCP/IP as your primary (in fact it's all you'll need) protocol the machines can "see" each other, although you won't get the seamless sharing you're after (ala Network Neighborhood). If I remember correctly there are several programs out that do make things more transparent; one is called Timbuktu Pro.

FTP may technically be a "protocol" but that just clouds the issue. You and I think in terms of a protocol as being a method by which a network connection is utilized. FTP in this sense is more of a transfer utility and does not need to be added (it's part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols). Here's why it's more like a utility - without the file FTP.EXE you won't be able to use said functionality - so it's kind of pointless and confusing to refer to it solely as a protocol. There is no configuration - simply type "ftp 110.23.43.42" to ftp from the current machine to the machine at address 110.23.43.42. If you have name resolution (DNS or hosts file) you can use the registered machine name instead of the IP. I'mnot sure Macs have FTP serving ability out of the box, and I know Windows 95/98 don't so a freeware FTP server is in order if you intend to do this (hmmm Timbuktu isn't sounding so bad after all ;-). You can likely find what you need at either of these URLs:

http://www.stroud.com
http://www.winfiles.com

Have fun!
Paul Doherty


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QAId : 65156
Asker : jsb102
Subject : Macs again
Private : No

Question : Just a couple of quick questions. On the network I was telling you about with the 10 pc's and 2 mac's, what is the equivilent of network neighborhood on the mac's? Will the PC's be able to see the macs on the network? And vice/versa. Im not really into the pain of apple talk configurations, so TCP/IP is the way we are going to go.
Could you explain FTP to me. I've always just assumed it was somewhat of a internet site that you bought. I understand how it transfers, but our instructor talks as if it is a network protocol. If it is, how is it configured, or added into a network.
Thanks,
Your student in Seattle.
Jeff

Answer : The equivalent of the Network Neighborhood for Macs is an AppleTalk "zone" where Macs set to the same zone can freely share space and devices. As long as you use TCP/IP as your primary (in fact it's all you'll need) protocol the machines can "see" each other, although you won't get the seamless sharing you're after (ala Network Neighborhood). If I remember correctly there are several programs out that do make things more transparent; one is called Timbuktu Pro.

FTP may technically be a "protocol" but that just clouds the issue. You and I think in terms of a protocol as being a method by which a network connection is utilized. FTP in this sense is more of a transfer utility and does not need to be added (it's part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols). Here's why it's more like a utility - without the file FTP.EXE you won't be able to use said functionality - so it's kind of pointless and confusing to refer to it solely as a protocol. There is no configuration - simply type "ftp 110.23.43.42" to ftp from the current machine to the machine at address 110.23.43.42. If you have name resolution (DNS or hosts file) you can use the registered machine name instead of the IP. I'mnot sure Macs have FTP serving ability out of the box, and I know Windows 95/98 don't so a freeware FTP server is in order if you intend to do this (hmmm Timbuktu isn't sounding so bad after all ;-). You can likely find what you need at either of these URLs:

http://www.stroud.com
http://www.winfiles.com

Have fun!
Paul Doherty


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QAId : 71423
Asker : jsb102
Subject : Catagory5
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul,
Im trying to get a better transfer rate with my internet connection. Im going to run cat 5 from the telephone box into my house, rather than the cat 3 already installed. How can I hook up and RJ11 to the cat 5 cable so I can plug it into my modem?
Any Ideas?
Thanks, Jeff

Answer : You won't really see a benefit by using CAT 5 over CAT 3 (although the phone company doesn't even use CAT 3 - they use what's called "flat satin" which is a two-wire, no twist cable) with a phone connection. CAT 5's high number of twists is needed with the higher bandwidth demands of data transfer over Ethernet. But if you want to use it it surely won't hurt any. With the CAT 5 you will simply need to pick a pair of wires from the 4 pairs available and use them at both ends (at the phone company block outside your house, and at your RJ-11 wall plate inside). As a note the pair will occupy the middle two positions of the RJ-11 plug


(looking down on the end as it would be plugged into wall)

1 2 3 4
X X

'X's indicate where the pair of wires you chose to use should be in the RJ-11 plug.

Good luck!

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 83345
Asker : Than
Subject : this may seem stupid.
Private : No

Question : I am a first year student studying computer networking and repair. I was hoping you could help me out. How many diffrent types of parallel ports are there? I know this sounds easy. Also, do you know of any good websites that may answer any of my questions?

Thank you

Than Haslage

Answer : There are basically three categories of parallel ports - standard, ECP, and EPP.

The following URL describes each and their differences quite well so I won't repeat it here.

http://web-e6.zdnet.com/pcmag/pclabs/solution/hw1515a.htm

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4


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QAId : 102966
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Netware Client 3.2
Private : No

Question : Problem when upgrading from 3.01 or 3.1. When rebooting it saves the user id of the person who upgraded the client and does not go away even if someone else logs in.

This is for Win 95.

Thanks

Answer : You say 3.01 to 3.1, but the title says CLient v3.2 so I'm not sure which. I'd suggest you note the username being memorized, open regedit and do a find (CTRL-F) on that username to root it out and delete the contents of the registry key that contains that name (or put one in there that you want).

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 110807
Asker : hannibaldave
Subject : Network Setup
Private : No

Question : Thanks for the reply and thanks anyway, quite a few others from this xpertsite have given me plenty of assitance.

Answer : Ok - good deal...


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QAId : 162150
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Computer programming and networking
Private : Yes

Question : I am trying to decide on computer networking or computer programming for my major and I would like to find out some information about them.

Answer : Well you need to decide which you like better, or go with a general computer science and decide somewhere along the way. I do both and enjoy both. If you tend to enjoy people you'll like networking because you interact with people a lot (clients, users, etc). If you prefer working with ideas and have the mindset for it programming can be very rewarding too. My advice would be to start off your first two semesters (assuming you haven't started) and take at least 1 of each type of class - not for thr credits especially (although they'll at least act as electives no matter what major you go with) - but for the experience. you may find after one Pascal programming class it's really your thing, or maybe you'll decide the opposite is true and you really enjoy the Fundamentals of Networking and the technology around it.

Good luck, and go with what you feel!

Life is not a race, it's a journey - kick back and enjoy the ride...

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4


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QAId : 165214
Asker : ami.mero29352
Subject : getting "data stream 0" error on netware 3.2
Private : No

Question : ON a netware 3.2 1 vol sys 9gb,users gets errors "data stream 0" when accesing apps.
applications based on btrieve mostly.
I can't seem to find any referance articals about this prob.

Could turbo.nlm will help out in this case?!
Thanks

Answer : I found two hits specific to "data stream 0" errors on support.novell.com - hopefully they can give you some direction.

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?database_name=kb&type=HTML&docid=%03dF123377%3a950281088%3a%20%28%20%22data%20stream%200%22%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20productClass%20%3d%20%28%22NetWare%22%29%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20docGroup%20%3d%20%280%29%20%29%20%20%07%01%00&byte_count=5454


http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?database_name=kb&type=HTML&docid=%03aF861%3a950281088%3a%20%28%20%22data%20stream%200%22%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20productClass%20%3d%20%28%22NetWare%22%29%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20docGroup%20%3d%20%280%29%20%29%20%20%07%01%00&byte_count=3380

Paul Doherty
Rating : 3


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QAId : 165952
Asker : lbonk
Subject : NetWare 4.11 User Login Scirpt
Private : No

Question : Is there a way to make a user login script read-only? My situation stems from using a single account to login an etire lab. If one student modifies the user login script, it then affects the entire lab when they login.

Thanks!

Answer : Yes, make their login script be at the container level (where all their user IDs exist) and give them only read permission. That's all they need to run it, and won't be able to change it.

Paul Doherty

Here's a URL on the subject from support.novell.com:

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?database_name=kb&type=HTML&docid=%03%81%0bF82609%3a950290504%3a%20%28%20make%20login%20script%20read%2donly%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20productClass%20%3d%20%28%22NetWare%22%20%22Novell%20Directory%20Services%22%29%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20docGroup%20%3d%20%280%29%20%29%20%20%07%01%00&byte_count=19872
Rating : 5


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QAId : 172316
Asker : jsb102@...
Subject : The Macs again
Private : No

Question : Hey Paul, I have some more questions for you about Macs. Last time I wrote you I was telling you about a computer network that we had set up that had 12 pc's and 2 macs. We have the pc's up and running no problem. Its the mac's that I dont quite understand, since the major focus of school has been on pc's and microsoft software. So here is the latest. Im trying to configure the macs to talk via tcp/ip. I spent at least and hour on it and never could get it set up. I threw my hands in the air and tried appletalk and got it. The thing is, we eventually need the macs and pc's to share resources, and connect to the internet, so we need tcp/ip.
After getting into the window for setting up tcp on the macs, there is a series of information boxes for IP addresses. There is no server so Im configuring addresses manually. Im assuming that I can give both machines just about any address I want as long as the first three octates are the same for both machines. The next box is the subnet mask which I set to 255.255.255.0. The next box is a router IP, which there is no router in this network so Ive left it blank. Is that a mistake? The next box is a name server address, and there is no server on this network so that is left blank.
Does that field need the other computers IP?
Next is the search domain box. I just threw something in their, the name of the domain on this network is vpi. So I type in vpi.com. Im not sure what is supposed to go in these fields, or if anything is supposed to in them. Could you help me out on these last 3 fields: Router IP, Name server, and Domain box. Thats where I get lost. And once I do get tcp installed on both mac's do I share resources out just the same as I would share it out for apple talk?
I appreciate any help you could give me in this. Im starting to pull out hair on this setup. Thanks again,
Jeff

Answer : One note - they are called "octets" - another name for a byte (8 bits)

The good thing about TCP/IP and Macs is that TCP/IP is the same no matter what system you're talking about. It's a protocol and no matter what platform is using it the same items of info need to be known. You've named most of them - now let's cover the ones you need help with:

You didn't say what you *couldn't* do with the Macs configured this way, and since your addressing sounds fines (IP address and netmask sound good as long as the same as the PCs).

***Gateway address/Router address*** - these mean the same thing. When you look at your topology from an overhead view you have waht amounts to a cable from each PC or Mac that terminates into a hub (also sometimes called a "concentrator"). All that a hub does (unless it's a different kind called a "switch" but we won't cover that here) is:

listen to all ports

send any signal received on any port out all the rest of the ports

That's it. This is what is termed an Ethernet broadcast domain. So-called broadcast since any traffic is seen by all machines on the network segment. Network Interface Cards (NICs) "listen" and when they hear a packet destined for them (determined by their MAC (Media Access Control) address - a unique number that is part of the PROM on the NIC - they pass it up the chain. If the packet isn't for them they drop it in the bitbucket (ignore it).

So now that you understand how the hub is making traffic available to your PCs and Macs (they both use Ethernet so the idea is the same) now you need to just put a couple more pieces in place for your Macs to be working like the PCs.

***Name Server*** - This is another way of saying "DNS" (Domain Name Service) and is the standard way of translating human-friendly names like "www.cnet.com" to the real IP addresses (in this case 216.200.247.130) used by TCP to send and receive data packets on the LAN and on the Internet. You *will* need this information on the Macs if you expect them to behave like normal clients. Without this information typing "www.cnet.com" and hitting enter in Netscape on that Mac will yield nothing but an error, even though TCP/IP may be working fine. So depending on how you have the PCs on the Internet, and assuming it is a network device (ISDN router, PC running Sygate, etc) of some kind you will set the Macs with the same name server information the PCs have. The numbers for the DNS servers would have come with your ISP account (usually a primary and a secondary (fallback) server are given). If you are usings these machines ONLY on a LAN and there is NO DNS server installed on the network these will necessarily have to be blank but this will make life harder for you. I'd suggest you turn a P133 or better with 64MB into an NT Server and put NT Server 4.0 on there (it comes with a DNS Server (and a WINS server, which may even be more important when it comes time to setup the sharing as WINS is to Windows sharing as DNS is to Internet addresses - namely it is by default what resolves Windows machine names into their IP addresses).

*** Domain box*** - This is pretty much superfluous in this size network as you likely do not have your own domain, and this basically just gives the machine a suffic to try to attach to anything you type if you don't fully qualify something you type. Like if you typed "www" alone and your domain box had "mydomain.com" in it, the TCP/IP stack could search for "www" AND "www.mydomain.com" before coming back with a failure message if both failed. My suggestion is if everything works with this empty ignore it (some ISPs route traffic with this so you may need to put their domain here (with whatever you want to call the machine in the HOST field).

Once you get all these things installed here are some good ways to test your functionality is to open a DOS prompt and attempt to ping the Macs by IP address.

Good luck!

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Hey Paul, thanks for all the help. Out of all the people I ask these questions to, your answers are the most complete.
Help me take this one step at a time, Macs are a big question mark for me.
The very first thing I would like to succeed at is getting the Mac's to talk through tcp.
Lets just say(for my benefit)that I only have 2 computers, and they are both macs. I did get them to talk through appletalk. This satisfies the company for the time being. If I could disable appletalk, and get them talking through tcp, it would be like a first baby step for me.
Since the is no DHCP, I will go in and give both machines and IP, and the 255.255.255.0 subnet mask. What else do these mac's need to share hard drives/files. Once they are configured with tcp, is the process of sharing the same as it is for appletalk. EX: clicking on a hard drive,file drop down, then sharing. Then going to the other machine, click on choosers, then apple share, and the resource, and so on. I guess what Im asking is, is sharing and accessing folders, files and drives the same process with tcp as it is with appletalk? If I could get this part working, the rest of the process is uderstandable. Let me know what you think.
Jeff

Answer : I don't see any reason to disable the Appletalk on the Macs if it is providing the service they need. You can have more than one protocol loaded. In fact it appears that unless you are running Mac OS 9 you will *have* to have Appletalk installed to shares between the Macs. Witness the following:

http://www2.mbpfx.com/gateway/gateway.html

And this:

http://www2.opendoor.com/shareway/UG/ShareWayIPHow.html

So it appears you will be stuck with Appletalk *and* TCP/IP on the Macs. Just get their TCP/IP working and leave the Appletalk as it is and see if you can get both working simultaneously (should be no problem - multiple protocols present no problem for PCs)

Paul Doherty


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 175446
Asker : tlj_t36171
Subject : Internet
Private : No

Question : What is the advantage and disadvatage of promoting goods and services using website as media???

Answer : Well here are some obvious ones that spring to mind:

ADVANTAGES:

Cheap access to large consumer base - lots of "eyeballs" can see your items/services for sale at a relatively very low cost. This includes people almost anywhere in the world (broad reach).

Consumer-driven - people who want your product can find you on their own schedule, not the TVs, radios, or newspapers.

Cheaper full sales pipeline. If you implement online sales you can reduce your cost of transacting sales by a large amount (no toll-free calls even).

You can see how many people are viewing your products, and in fact can set yourself up to receive feedback from viewers of your items that allow you to finetune your items, price, and website to you customers needs.


DISADVANTAGES:

Not everyone has access to the internet. This is a big one, but is getting smaller every day. Plus the majority of those with internet access are likely to be the ones with disposable income (to afford a computer and internet account monthly fees) so the people who see your site are good candidates for your message. But this is still a limiting factor.

Some people will never find you on the internet, even if they look. Some people are not good at finding things on the internet. It's a skill that takes time to develop.

Impersonal. Though no less impersonal than a sales catalog onlines sales are less personal than even a telephone call.

Media constraints. This becomes less each day. This constraint comes about from two things IMO - lack of tools to do the media desired, and lack of bandwidth to end-users to make it feasible. Both needs are being met and even within the confines of a 56k modem much can be done, so this is actually less of a concern than it could be.


I hope that was what you were after... do not use this material verbatim in any school reports please, as that is plagiarism and dishonest. :-)

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 203643
Asker : jsb102
Subject : Master Browser
Private : No

Question : Could you give me a rundown on what happens with selecting a master browser. Im having a hard time getting my computers to see each other on the network. Here is what is happening. I have 2 computers networked through a hub. One is a 98 machine, the other is a 95. By default, the are both set to automatic in the master browser feild. The 98 machine will see both computers. The 95 machine only see's itself. If I disable the master browser on the 98, and restart, the 95 machine will still only see itself in network neighborhood, the 98 will see the 95 network neiborhood, and you can click on find a computer and find the 98. This is not true for the 95, it wont find the 98 when you click on find a computer. The 98 machine I keep diabled and the 95 enabled for master browser. If I change the name of the 98, and restart, they will both see each other in network neighborhood.......until I shut down the 98 and restart. Then it goes back to the same with the 95 seeing only itself, and the 98 seeing the 95 in network neighborhood. It seem the 95 machine wont hold the list of computers. It will also say the the computer name is not accessable when I do click on the 98 in network neighborhood. If I disable the master browser in the 95, and enable it on the 98 and restart, the 98 always see's both, but the 95 will only see itself. I've tried many different combinations of different settings on the master browser, and have done everything to troubleshoot these computers from the nic's, wires, drivers, renaming machines and so on. The protocols being used are: client for microsoft network(not logging into a domain),NetBeui, TCP/IP, and file and print sharing. I had them seeing each other for a long time by changing browser status, but I had to reinstall the 98 OS a week ago, and havent been able to get these machines seeing each other yet. Any ideas??????? Also, Ive install other networks with the same operating systems and never having this problem.........Does it have something to do with the fact that there is only 2 computers on this network??????? Thanks for the help.
Jeff
Answer from FAQ : 52519
network neighborhood
1/10/00
Didn't we cover this topic already my friend? See my FAQ above where I answered this question for you a few weeks back. In a peer-to-peer network such as yours with no server present it may be better to simply share the root of each machine's disks (C:\ as "C", D:\ as "D", etc), go to each machine and map drive letters I: and J: to the other machine's "C" and "D" drives (setting to reconnect at logon) and be done with it. Why do you want to incur the effort and the time penalty (for the network lookup) by digging through the network neighborhood when you can already have their drive mapped just like it's a local disk?

Stop hurting yourself my friend... you aren't missing something - Windows is... :-)

Paul Doherty


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 207328
Asker : jsb102
Subject : here is the challenge
Private : Yes

Question : I do understand what your saying about sharing the root of the drives, and I agree that it is not that important to see each computer in network nieghborhood. But when I share a drive on the 98, then go to the 95 and try to map a network drive, an error comes up saying the computer share name you typed in could not be found. Retype it and try again. It wont even recognize the 98 shared resource, or the name of the computer. This is what has me stumped.
By the way, sorry for asking the same question, it didnt even dawn on me about looking into the previously asked questions.
Let me know what you think.
Jeff

Answer : Now that's a horse of a different color (so to speak). From either machine you should be able to open the Network Neighborhood and in the address field type

\\othermachinename

and hit ENTER and get a list of the shares on that machine. Then right-click the share and select "Map Network Drive". A shorter alternative to this procedure is to simply right-click the Network Neighborhood icon and select Map from there but this is a better way to affirm the machine's name is accessible.

If you can not do this successfully one of two things is happening:

1) You are not using the machine's NetBIOS name - the name you should be using in the address field is the name that appears under the Identification tab when you right-click the Network Neighborhood and select Properties.

2) The machines do not share a common protocol and thus are not speaking to each other. The only one you actually need is TCP/IP since I assume these machines are also doing internet stuff. If not IPX can be used as the sole protocol for LAN-based machines. NetBeui is not required.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : I have verified that everything in network properties is is absolutely perfect, so many times in fact, I know every service and protocols by heart, including their properties for each of the sevices and protocols.
The only thing I can come up with is that the 95 machine may not be holding the password list for each machine. You see, the 95 only recognizes the 98 after Ive changed the 98's computer name and restarted.
So, the 95 see's the 98, but only until the 98 is shut down and restarted. Then it dissapears again until I change the 98 name again.
This is the last question I will ask on this subject. Im getting as tired of it as you are, if not more....hahaha.
Jeff

Answer : It doesn't matter whether it sees it in NN or not, if you type the other computers name (and both have the same WORKGROUP listed in their Identification tab of Network control panel) you should get a list of shares whether they machine shows up in NN or not. As I said if you can't do this check the areas I've suggested (starting with the name of the workgroup they are both in - needs to be identical).

Paul Doherty


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 257906
Asker : detello
Subject : e-mail between workstations
Private : No

Question : We are a CPA firm with 9 workstations running WIN98 SE with a file server running Novell 3.12. How can we use Outlook or Outlook Express to sent and retrieve messages to each other like regular internet e-mail??? I think I have seen this before on a NT system.


Thank you.

Answer : I think I have found you a solution:

http://www.netcplus.com/smartserver.htm

This email server can handle both intranet (LAN) and internet mail with Outlook Express amongt other clients.

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 259782
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : adding a printer to a PSERVER
Private : No

Question : hi,

I am completely new to Novell and Netware ver 4.0. My company uses Netware v 4.0 in DOS mode. The company purchased an HP deskjet 952 series and want to connect it to the server. I'm supposed to establish this connection. I have a B.SC in CS but not in networking.

I downloaded the printer driver from the HP site but I have no clue how to mount it on the server nor how to add the printer to the server. Please give me "assembly like" instructions on how to do this because I have zero knowledge about networking.

Thank you very much.

Mona Y.

Need More Information : Netware 4.0 in DOS mode? I'm not sure what you mean by that - can you clarify? Do you have access to any Windows 95 or 98 machines on the network? If so you can run nwadmin.exe from the server to get into Netware Administrator which is the GUI admin tool for Netware servers. From there you will need to create a printer object, a print server object and a print queue. No drivers are installed to the Netware server itself - the client machines will format the print jobs for the printer with their drivers.

Let me know about the above questions and also whether you can run nwadmin.exe from:

Server:/sys:public

Paul Doherty

Answer : Oops - fat-fingered that one -

that is

Server/sys:public

FUQuestion : Paul,

The client machines have GUI interface,windows 95/98, but the server machine is operating using DOS interface. Does this answer your question? Are you saying that I can use one of the client machines to set up the printer using GUI? If so, please clarify.

Answer : That's exactly what I am saying - you do ALL the admin of a Netware 4 and up machine from the client boxes. You will almost never need to go to the server itself with an NDS version of Netware. And even when you do need to get at the server you can do so with the RCONSOLE utility (once configured on the server - need to add RCONSOLE.NLM and RSPX.NLM (I think) to the autoexec.ncf in SYS:SYSTEM).


Paul Doherty


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 282767
Asker : devishanta
Subject : Pascal programming.
Private : Yes

Question : Hi paul,
I have a program to write.However i would like to see professional's version of it.Can i see an a suggested program that you would write??
Question:
Calculate the number of days between two given dates:
eg.26/4/1999 - 14/5/1999
OR
12/5/1999-31/5/2000
((ideas:1.no. of days in each month.
2.Is it a leap year.
3.consider no. of days in the START and END of months.
Must use arrays.))

PLEASE TRY IT..and e-mail to me at:
devishanta@hotmail.com
THANKING YOU IN ADVANCE.

Answer : It sounds like you want me to do your homework for you - plus this is not a programming forum (question asked in Computer Networking). However, I am not unsympathetic to your plight. Here are some resources that may assist you in your programming quest:


General algorithm:

http://x26.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=175314903&CONTEXT=952439071.1633419297&hitnum=3


Continuation of the one above:

http://x26.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=175408677&search=thread&CONTEXT=952439406.1635188763&HIT_CONTEXT=952439071.1633419297&HIT_NUM=3&hitnum=4


Actual Pascal source code example:

http://x26.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=117384443&CONTEXT=952439071.1633419297&hitnum=5


The main search page of these hits (with others):

http://www.deja.com/dnquery.xp?QRY=algorithm+number+days+between+dates+leap+year+365&ST=MS&svcclass=dnserver&DBS=2


Have fun,
Paul Doherty


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 303266
Asker : jorgefusaro
Subject : ISS setup
Private : No

Question : Thanks for the previous answer.
The steps were very useful to create the ISP. Now, I checked on the T1, what do I do from there. Is there any book or website that may detail these?

Answer : Here's a few:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471314994/o/qid=952729106/sr=2-1/102-0177395-0948837

Paul Doherty


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 353966
Asker : junne
Subject : Networking
Private : No

Question : (Scenario for Flght Dynamics) As you plan redundancy, take into account that the business accounting group performs a daily reconciliation of accounting information each night at 5:00 p.m. They also perform a weekly closing each Friday night, and a month-end closing on the last working day of each month. Each closing must be accurate to the penny and completed before the accounting system can be started the next working day. The human resources group runs a payroll on the second to last working day of each month. They are legally obligated to have a payroll out on time.

Question - What type of fault tolerance do you recommend for Flight Dynamics' business and human resources server?

Need More Information : Are you referring to backups or disk redundancy/fault tolerance?

In either case I don't see how the departments needs would change the answer (unless IT budget is a huge concern). The only issue in the question you've posed is timing of backups so they don't interfere with the client's activities.

The only answer for fault tolerance is "the best you can afford" which usually means RAID 5 arrays for disks, with DLT tape backups also.

If there is something else you were looking for here, please let me know (why I used a clarification instead of an normal answer).

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : As far as fault tolerance, IE. disk mirroring, disk striping, and since they are using Windows NT, what would you suggest as far as redundancy and yes, tape back-up?

-junne-

Answer : As I said RAID 5 for disks is always preferable for your redunancy (and I'm talking *hardware* RAID, not software). It's faster *and* more secure than running disks alone.

As far as tape backup goes look at ArcServe for NT, and use it's scheduling ability to run backups whenever you please to avoid interfering with client activity.

Paul Doherty


Rating : 5


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 360572
Asker : nesto
Subject : Computer Network
Private : No

Question : Is Computer Networking going to grow in 4-5 years or stay the same?

Answer : The addition of the internet to the popular consciousness has only helped to spur the already burgeoning market for LAN and WAN products. I can't help but feel the trend will continue - the market for these products is far from saturated.

Paul Doherty


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 368223
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Laptop for video editing
Private : Yes

Question :
Hello everyone,

i am planing on buying Sony Laptop, Vaio F430 with added RAM and GB to be used mainly for video editing.
Does Vaio F430 can do video editing and how many minutes of video it can edit?
What its limitations and problems?
does anyone used Vaio for editing resones?

Thank U greatly

Answer : Yes the F430 has an IEEE 1394 (Firewire) interface for DV editing, but notebooks have some inherent limitations that make them less attractive for DV editing.

RAM is more expensive.

DISKs are smaller and more expensive.

CPU upgrades are usually not possible.

I would suspect that people who do DV avoid notebooks where possible - if you have reason to need one just be ware of the limits of upgradability and you'll be all right.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 375715
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : NW4.2 ARP broadcast flood to ISP
Private : No

Question : I have a Netware for Small Business 4.2 server connected to a cable modem service to provide Internet access to 8 clients. The ISP shut down our service the other day and claims our connection sent a flood of ARP broadcasts that knocked out several of their routers. I am using NAT translation and 10.255.255.255 addresses on the LAN, so I don't think the clients could have produced this activity (btw they are all Win9x). Do you have any idea what could cause my server to produce an ARP flood like this?

Answer : The clients could never produce this activity - SAP broadcasts come from IPX/SPX service-providing devices. In this case that is the server. Look for a way to disable SAP broadcasts on the outbound NIC to keep these internal inside your LAN. How the ISP expects that you are flooding them with SAP broadcasts when these are usually IPX protocol packets is beyond me, unless Small Business Server encapsulates them inside IP packets. In any event do check your configuration and turn off *all* services on the outbound NIC, not just SAPs.

Paul Doherty


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 380886
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : important
Private : No

Question : how to configure the ras services in windows nt 4.0?

Answer : Here is the full info on how to configure it...

http://www.syncon.net/techsupport/knowledge/nt.htm


Paul Doherty


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 430588
Asker : patrick16
Subject : Home Network
Private : No

Question : I have two comps:1)p3 733, win98se, netcard
2)p2 233, win95b, netcard

I want to be able to connect the two comps so that 1) I'll be able to utilize files on both
2) I'll be able to make use of dsl for access to the internet
3) Be able to play games Ie: quake1,2,3 between the two

is this possible? What do i need and how do i do it? thanx for your time I really appreciate it.

Answer : Yes you can do all this with the addition of only one item - one more network card for your Windows 98 SE machine.

You will be using Win98SE's feature called ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) for this setup. The Win98 machine will have one of it's network cards going to the cable modem and the other going to:

1) The other PC directly via a cross-over cable (switch wires 1&2 and 3&6)

2) A network hub (this is the preferred method, and also sets you up for more machines later). Here is an inexpesinve hub:

http://www.us.buy.com/comp/product.asp?sku=10014722

Once the machines are configured this way you will set the Win95 machine's default gateway (under Control Panel/Network/TCPIP configuration screens) to the IP address of the internal NIC (Network Interface Card) on the 98 machine. Here's a diagram of what the layout would look like:


DSL modem
(ethernet port)
_______|
_______|
External NIC of 98 box IP 24.4.61.234, subnet mask 255.0.0.0
_____ 98 box ______
Internal NIC of 98 box IP 10.0.0.1, subnet mask 255.0.0.0
_______|
_______|
NIC of 95 machine - IP 10.0.0.2, subnet mask 255.0.0.0
______ 95 box _____


The places you see vertical bars (pipe character "|") is ethernet cabling.

I arbitrarily assigned an IP address (24.4.61.234) to your DSL modem's ethernet - this address will be gotten in a dynamic fashion so you don't really need to concern yourself with this. The addresses for the inside machines should be "non-routable" addresses and the 10.x.x.x network was set aside by the InterNIC for internal addresses and is intended for this purpose.

With this configuration both machines can hit the net at the same time and can play games both with each other on the internal LAN and together or separately on the internet!

For some nice diagrams and help with the minutia here is a good web site covering the installation of ICS on Win98SE:

http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/network/win98se/intro.htm

Good luck and enjoy your net connection!

Paul Doherty


Rating : 5


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 441168
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Keyboard languages
Private : Yes

Question : How do I change the keyboard language from french to english at the DOS prompt?

Answer : Have you tried the keyboard control panel, languages tab? Or have you tried issuing a:

KEYB FR

from a DOS prompt?


Also you may have some luck with modifying your boot files to add support (the country number used is the country code):


CONFIG.SYS file:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
COUNTRY=034,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\COUNTRY.SYS
(EGA,,1)


AUTOEXEC.BAT file:

@ECHO OFF
PATH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\WINDOWS
PROMPT $p$g
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
MODE CON CODEPAGE PREPARE=((850) C:\DOS\EGA.CPI)
MODE CON CODEPAGE SELECT=850
KEYB FR,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\KEYBOARD.SYS

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 448495
Asker : gbs01
Subject : NETWORKING SCO UNIX 3.2 TO WIN98.
Private : No

Question : I NEED TO BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE FILES ON MY SCO UNIX V3.2 SYSTEM FROM MY WINDOWS 98 PC.
(BOTH COMPUTERS ARE IN THE SAME ROOM)
---------------------------------------
CURRENTLY I HAVE INSTALLED NETGEAR NICS IN BOTH MACHINES & WIRED THEM UP TO A 4 PORT HUB. I HAVE INSTALLED THE SOFTWARE FOR THE PC.
---------------------------------------
QUESTION: WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE?
---------------------------------------
I WOULD APPRECIATE HEARING YOUR ACTUAL INSTALLATION STEPS USING UNIX & WIN98.
-------------------------------------
1)WHAT NICS DID YOU USE?
2)ONCE COMPLETED , HOW EASY IT IS TO GET A FILE FROM UNIX? IS IT AS EASY AS USING EXPLORER?
3)HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO TRANSFER A FILE?

-------------------------------------
CURRENTLY I HAVE UNIX V3.2 & THE PC CONNECTED VIA A SERIAL CABLE ON COM1 OF THE PC. THEN I USE A PROGRAM CALLED QMODEM TO "LOG-IN" TO UNIX . SINCE I'M DIRECTLY CONNECTED I ALWAYS HAVE A LOG-IN ON MY WIN98 PC. USING THE QMODEM EMULATOR I CAN SEND & RECEIVE FILES. BUT IT IS VERY SLOW! IT TAKES ABOUT 1 HOUR TO TRANSFER A 2 MEG FILE!

THUS THE NEED FOR ETHERNET .
THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP.
J. ALEXANDER

Answer : >I NEED TO BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE FILES ON MY >SCO UNIX V3.2 SYSTEM FROM MY WINDOWS 98 PC.

The easiest way to send or receive file from the Unix machine is to use FTP. You likely already have it installed as a server on the UNIX machine. Just type

ftp 10.1.1.1 (UNIX machine IP)

and login with your id/password.

Another alternative is to use NFS (Network File System), a SUN innovation that is now widely utilized. NFS allows you to "export" a filesystem branch of your UNIX machine which then makes it available for others to access on the network. There are NFS apps available for both NT and 95/98. Here are some:

http://winfiles.cnet.com/apps/98/net-misc.html

Paul Doherty




----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 453868
Asker : lewens
Subject : help
Private : No

Question : In Windows NT how do a set the computer so the client cannot change the desktop.Thank you

Lewens@mailcity.com

Answer : I'm assuming this is a Windows NT workstation - you can use poledit.exe either in your installed copy of NT or on the NT CD (do a "find" on it for poledit*).

Another alternative is to use a 3rd-party app to do this function for you. Here are some mentions I found in a newsgroup posting:

"PC Magazine, http://www.pcmag.com , has a nifty free
program in its software library called IconLock v1.1 (dated 09-24-99) which can freeze desktop icons-- keep them from being moved or
deleted-- as well as lock all the desktop files, folders, the
taskbar, and several other functions. This feature has password
protection, so the kiddies, or anyone else other than yourself, can't change the options on a whim.

Once installed, all you have to do is click on the right mouse button and the pop-up menu will have IconLock in there with the usual
desktop items.

There are also programs like Icon Police and LockIt at the Ziff-Davis website http://www5.zdnet.com/. Those programs may also do what you
want."


Paul Doherty
Rating : 4
End :


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 460120
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Networking
Private : No

Question : Hi,
i am planning to do a course on Networking. What exactly is networking?What are its potentials? Thanks for you answer and I really appreciate it.

Answer : Networking in a general sense is taking stand-alone computers and allowing them to communicate quickly and easily with each other. The typical example would be 10 desktops and a server (a networking concept in itself) at a small business. WIthout a network the 10 desktop users would have to walk their files around on floppy to share them ("sneakernet" :-) and would have to share a few printers by taking the files they need to print to one of the users who has a physically-attached printer and interrupting them to get a printout. Also all users will be responsible (or not) for making any backups needed for their data. With a network you can use a server to store individual as well as group access document areas for easy use and easy backup (since backing the server up gets both of these types of files). Printers can be shared on the network and put physically where convenient so you can print without interrupting other's work. In addition a network opens you up to group shared internet access as well, giving you the ability to perform FTP, web, and any other internet activity seamlessly.

Paul Doherty


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 460138
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Networking
Private : No

Question : Hi,
i am planning to do a course on Networking. What exactly is networking?What are its potentials? Thanks for you answer and I really appreciate it.

Answer : Networking in a general sense is taking stand-alone computers and allowing them to communicate quickly and easily with each other. The typical example would be 10 desktops and a server (a networking concept in itself) at a small business. WIthout a network the 10 desktop users would have to walk their files around on floppy to share them ("sneakernet" :-) and would have to share a few printers by taking the files they need to print to one of the users who has a physically-attached printer and interrupting them to get a printout. Also all users will be responsible (or not) for making any backups needed for their data. With a network you can use a server to store individual as well as group access document areas for easy use and easy backup (since backing the server up gets both of these types of files). Printers can be shared on the network and put physically where convenient so you can print without interrupting other's work. In addition a network opens you up to group shared internet access as well, giving you the ability to perform FTP, web, and any other internet activity seamlessly.

Paul Doherty


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 470477
Asker : paka85632
Subject : NT-Netscape Profiles problem
Private : No

Question : I am running NT 4 i have Netscape 4.6. The admin can launch netscape, but users are adked everytime to create a profile, users cant create a profile, tried to reinstall netscape and NT but it does not seem to help

thanks

Answer : Were you logged in as administrator when you installed Netscape? I would suggest doing an Add/Remove on Netscape (back up your bookmark.htm first if you have one you care about), and then removing it
s install directory. Then log in as a normal user and install it again and see if your user profile can be built properly then.

Also get Netscape 4.72 - the latest version that is available from http://www.netscape.com

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 472350
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Windows 2000 Problems
Private : No

Question : What is Windows 2000 problems ?

Need More Information : Are you asking what problems you can expect using Windows 2000? If so you can expect to not be able to play as many games, or as fast as under Windows 98. You may also have trouble for a while getting drivers for all your devices though this is improving quickly. Windows 2000 is really an upgrade to NT4 so unless you were a fan of NT4 you may want to wait for the new Windows ME (Millenium Edition) - I know it's a lame name, I didn't make it up. This is the logical progression for Windows 98 users and will be the best choice for home and power gamers.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : We are round 800 staff in a university, Currently we use Windows98 and Windows NT Workstation for client, Winsows NT Server for server side. My questions what problems we may face if we upgrad server or client to Windows 2000 ?

Answer : You won't have problems either way (upgrading server, workstations, or both). The only realy area of concern is if you decide to deal heavily with the new Active Directory. Even there you won't cause trouble for the clients but you could have trouble if you try linking multiple domains with it.

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 474095
Asker : knasin
Subject : lan setup
Private : No

Question : Me and my friend are trying to set up a lan so we can play games with each other. I got a ethernet card, and he has a network card... we plugged a Berk-tek wire to each end of the computers. We set up the protocal NetBeui between the comps.. and right clicked on our c: drives and clicked on share. Now he has access to my c: drive through his network neigborhood, but when I click on my entire its says "unable to browse network"... so how does that work that he has access to my files but i dont have access to his. How do i set it up so his comp shows up in my network neigborhood. Plus how can we set this up so we can play lan games against each other? Do we need to install ipx ptotocals?

Answer : Make one of your machines the browse master and disable browse master ability on the other.

1) Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.


2) Double-click Network, click "File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks" on the Configuration tab, and then click Properties.


3) In the Property box, click Browse Master, click Enabled in the Value box, click OK, and then click OK.


4) Click Yes when you are prompted to restart your computer.


Once you do this you should be able to see him in the Network Neighborhood - if he doesn't immediately show up try typing

\\machinename

where "machinename" is his machine's name as shown in the network control panel, Identification tab.

Paul Doherty

Rating : 5


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QAId : 475350
Asker : mbarros45
Subject : Remote management of NT services
Private : No

Question : How would I go about writing a batch program that will stop and restart a service running on a remote machine? I want to use a monitor such as WhatsUp or IPSentry etc. so that if it ever detects that the service is down it will page/email/ and run a batch to restart it. Can you help with this one?

Answer : Assuming those programs can detect a service being up or down you can start or stop services quite easily with the following syntax:

net stop service_name
net start service_name

where in both cases "service_name" is the name as it appears in the Services control panel. For instance:

net stop "DHCP Client"
net start "DHCP Client"

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 479783
Asker : threewolfs
Subject : unix/nt connection
Private : No

Question : I have a client running a unix system I installed. They also have an NT network installed by someone else. I want to connect the two servers so as to transfer files easily.

I'll need to add a network card to the unix box and then I suppose cable it to the NT network's hub. Other than that I'm clueless.

I have connected Windows stations to NT servers a few times, but never a Unix box. My unix clients have always been serial devices.

Can you give me a thumbnail overview of what I need to do on each end of the connection?

Thanks a lot!

Answer : You will want to get NFS (Network File System) installed on both systems. NFS allows UNIX machines to offer up parts of their filesystems as mountable locations for other NFS-speaking machines (usually UNIX). Most UNIX systems support NFS out of the box, for the NT Server you will want to get an NFS gateway most likely. An NFS gateway will allow NT clients to access the NFS share points on the UNIX machine as if they were NT native shares with no additional software. NFS Maestro Gateway is one I remember being nice:

http://winfiles.cnet.com/apps/nt/servers-misc.html

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5


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QAId : 482424
Asker : markjw16606
Subject : placement of dns servers
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul,

I would like to know what your thoughts are about placing one dns in front of a firewall and another behind the firewall in a dmz zone. the firewall is a border manager server using nat.
three cards are in the border manager, one for the public side, one for the private side lan, and another for the dmz zone.

Thanks
Mark

Need More Information : Firewalls are not my specialty but I use the simpler ones occasionally. What do you see as your primary consideration here?
End :

FUQuestion : I am wondering if dns servers are usually placed out in the open-where hackers might want to see if they could have access to the file system. if the dns server becomes unavailable then the companies access to the internet via web browsers and mail coming in is unavailable. are dns servers usually placed within a protected zone or are they placed directly on the internet?

Answer : They are usually kept inside to my knowledge, since their goal is to provide service to internal clients. There is no reason to have it outside the firewall (doesn't provide any additional functionality) and it only opens it up (as you said) to attack. You can always have the DNS server send requests it can't resolve on to a higher-level DNS server on the net too.

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 488354
Asker : matt19519
Subject : Using ARP to learn about other networks
Private : No

Question : Cisco teach that when device A issues an ARP request for a device B which is on a LAN other than A's, router Z which knows this network address will reply.

The router Z replies with it's own MAC addresss rather than that of device B.

Why is it then that if I don't configure a default gateway in the IP stack of A, it never finds any local routers or remote device B?

Answer : I would say it's because, in the case of MS, arp is not handled well. Even in the instance where default gateway is set poorly the Windows machine will not improve it's situation. For example if the default gateway of a Windows machine points to an internal routing machine, but the packet is destined for an ISP connection, the internal routing machine is forced to forward the packet to the serial device and tells the Windows machine about the more direct route but Windows generally ignores it and continues to send to the default gateway with the end result being a functional, but inefficient, situation.


Here is also a document from Cisco on how the arp process functions:

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software/ios100/rpcg/74920.htm#xtocid95389

Paul Doherty
Rating : 3.7
Rating : 3.7


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QAId : 496273
Asker : ashaka_thakore
Subject : Shortest path routing algorithm
Private : No

Question : hello

please explain me how to write a shortest path routing algorithm.
please guide me to implement its logic.
for ex.
if the routing table is as below :
A B C D E F
A 0 1 1 2 - -
B 1 0 1 - 1 -
C 1 1 0 1 3 -
D 2 - 1 0 - 1
E - 1 3 - 0 1
F - - - 1 1 0
here 0 indicates zero distance, '-' indicates no connection.
please write me what logic should i use, to get shortest path from A to F.

thank you
ash

Answer : I am not personally a routing expert but here are several algorithms:

http://queryserver.dataware.com/qserver/QServer.exe/general.ini?DTqb1=shortest+path+routing+algorithm&DTqo1=AND&DTnt=10&DTQSClus=1&DTQSTo1=15&DTQSon2=1&DTQSon11=1&DTQSon3=1&DTQSon4=1&DTQSon5=1&DTQSon6=1&DTQSon7=1&DTQSon8=1&DTQSon9=1&DTQSon10=1&DT=3%3A1%3A0%3A0&DTQSname1=ALL&DTQSname2=Northern+Light&DTQSname3=Excite&DTQSname4=HotBot&DTQSname5=Infoseek&DTQSname6=Lycos&DTQSname7=Magellan&DTQSname8=AltaVista&DTQSname9=WebCrawler&DTQSname10=Yahoo&DTQSname11=DejaNews&DTQSon1=0

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : hello

Thanks a lot for you invaluable answer.
Please do write me the address of websites useful for internetworking related subjects. for your reference i have written my syllabus.

Media Access Protocols
IP Philosophy
TCP/IP protocol review. Addressing. Sliding window mechanisms.
Routing IP datagrams. Table management. Dynamic routing control.
Domain Addressing. Sockets and distributed applications.
World Wide Web: protocols and architecture.
Multicast. Video-on-demand : intelligent caching versus reservation protcols.
IP Version 6
RSVP and packet priority ordering, interactive services
IP Security
Mobile IP
Reserved Services & Scalability

Please do answer.

thank you

yours sincerely
ashy

Answer : I suggest that you simply point your web browser to:


http://queryserver.dataware.com/general.html

and pop a couple of those terms in for each search and press ENTER and you'll have more good hits than you know what to do with... :-)

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 514836
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : NT 2000
Private : No

Question : Could you do a basic comparison of NT and Linux for me? Also, do you think that NT server 2000 will scale to compete against Mainframes, UNIX?
Thanks.

Answer : NT and Linux are similar in many ways:

-They both can share files and printers with clients

-They both can multitask applications

-They both can provide client-server applications to clients.


The similarities end about there. Things that are different:

-Configuration of NT occurs via the registry database which is stored in binary (but is human-readable with the right tools). Linux uses UNIX-style text files for almost all configuration settings. Some administrators prefer this method since it allows text-processing tools to be used on configurations and automated changes can easily be done. Others prefer the GUI admin tools of NT, which can make configuring things like DHCP and DNS much simpler.

-Command-line tools on Linux are better, having been "borrowed" from the UNIX ones developed over the last 25 years. UNIX shells allow full scripting support which allow for functions very near (except for lack of compilation) what you think of needing an EXE for in DOS. Windows can have some of this added on, but out of the box does not support as many command-line functions, and requires dedicated tools to perform some of these functions.

-Application support (both support and available titles) is much better in Windows. In Linux you have far fewer choices and many are unpolished at best, and downright ugly/unusable at worst.

That is a high overview of some of the key differences... hope this helped you.

Paul Doherty

Rating : 5


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QAId : 517986
Asker : lewens
Subject : NT
Private : No

Question : Hi, You guys gave me this answer before and I lost the print out. How do I let a client have Administrator permissions on a workstation. I remember I had to go to command prompt and type in a time and something else. Can you help? Thankyou Lyndsey

lewens@mailcity.com

Answer : If the NT Workstation is part of a domain (you didn't specify) you add them to the local Adminstrators group with User Manager for Domains:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q231/4/22.ASP?LNG=ENG&SA=ALLKB&FR=0

Paul Doherty


Rating : 3


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QAId : 526446
Asker : Brouck
Subject : Netware dos boot disk
Private : No

Question : I'm familiar with NT but I have a win95 laptop that boots into the Netware5 side of the network and I need to create a dos network boot disk so that I can boot this laptop onto the network off the A drive and then download a Ghost image onto the hard drive. What utility in Netware 5 will help me create this disk?
Thanks

Answer : Here's a link to the download of the latest client for DOS - if you need help setting it up let me know but it's quite easy. the main items you will need:

autoexec.bat that launches startnet.bat
\nwclient dir with lsl.com, MLID (NIC driver), ipxodi.com(?), and vlm.exe

Once this is installed just configure a floppy to launch it off the hard disk (or build it all on floppy - there's room) and once at a DOS prompt with the client loaded:

go to the "login" disk, usually F: and login

F:
login server
(id & password)
map n server/sys:whatever

and copy the image you need or ghost from there...

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Thank you. You mentioned a link to download the latest client fot dos. Do you mean a web site? If so what would that be?
Thanks

Answer : Oops... heheh I forgot to put it in there!

Here it is:

http://webapps.novell.com/cgi-bin/custom/corp/esd/vrtlbox.pl?NOVELL_PID=87000286.01b

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 542478
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Setting up internet sharing without a proxie
Private : No

Question : Hi!
I have been struggling with setting up my home network so that the internet can be shared amongst the three computers. The network is functioning, and I can share files between computers but I can not share the internet connection. I have a cable modem, so I should have more than enough bandwidth to support three computers. I know that the Gateway in the Networking control panel can be set up so that it will share an internet connection, but I dont know how to do it. I have tried a number of different proxies (Including ICS that comes with Win 98) but I have found them all lacking in one way or another. So how do I do this without a proxy?

Heres my current set up.

Computer 1)
This computer has two NICs - one for the local network (3Com 10/100), and one for the cable modem (NE2000 10).

The NIC for the Local network is set up as follows:

IP = 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0
WINS Configuration = Disabled.
Gateway = NULL - What to enter here?
DNS = set to the defaults provided by Comcast for the cable modem. (I dont want to divulge the details publicly)

The NIC for the Cable Modem is set up as follows:

IP = my static IP provided by Comcast (24.xx.xx.xx)
Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0
WINS = Disabled
Gateway = the IP for Comcasts gateway (24.xx.yy.yy)
DNS - Same as above - Comcast defaults.

So I guess what I need to know is what do I need to set up the other machines as to recognize the internet connection? I have really racked my brain on this with no luck.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Answer : The subnet mask for the IP leading to the cable modem should be 255.0.0.0 but other than that your config is fine.

ICS should work fine and BTW ICS and it's ilk are not proxies, they are NAT (Network Address Translation). You will much prefer NAT to proxies as they are transparent. Proxies require reconfiguration of your net apps.

To get ICS setup go in steps. First get both NICs configured in the 98 SE machine (you've already done that). Then from that machine make you can open a DOS prompt and ping both an internal IP address (192.168.0.2 for instance) and the gateway for ComCast. No way will ICS work if you can't do this so no sense trying. If you can successfully ping both then move onto adding ICS into the mix, verify that the 98 SE can still hit both segments and then try from another machine to ping first the internal NIC on the 98 SE and then the far NIC and *then* the gateway address.

The wiring should go:

From cable modem to external NIC on 98 SE
Internally through ICS to internal NIC
From internal NIC to *normal* port on the hub (not the uplink port)
All other PCs are plugged into the same type of port as the internal NIC on the 98 SE
All PCs (besides the ICS) have their default gateways set to 192.168.0.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and all DNS info setup the same as on the 98 SE machine.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Thanks for the speedy response! I changed the subnet mask as you suggested - still no internet at the other machines. Is it possible to get sharing without a proxy or a NAT? I tried ICS and it was too slow - even after adjusting the MTU up to cable modem settings. Thanks again!

Answer : So you got ICS working but didn't like it?

The only other way to do it without NAT (ICS, etc) is to wire the cable modem directly to the hub (the same as the PCs) but to the *uplink port* and with a crossover cable. Then you would have to pay your ISP for additional IP addresses for each of your PCs and assign these IPs to them. At that point ALL your PCs are directly connected to the internet. I *do *not* recommend this for two reasons:

1) It costs more money
2) All machines are open to attack

If you don't care about #1, #2 can be taken care of by downloading and installing this nice free firewall app on each PC:

http://www.zonealarm.com

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 543254
Asker : dmgirardot
Subject : HELP: Network speed fine in one direction, way too slow in the other
Private : No

Question : I have a pair PCs networked together with a crossover cable. The cable is CAT5. The NICs are Dlink 10/100Mbps. I'm testing network speed with netcps and am very puzzled at the results.

When I run netcps -s on machine 1 I get an average of 0.1 MBps. When I run netcps -s on machine 2 I get the 7 MBps or so you would expect. When I run netcps from machine 1 TO machine 1 (loopback) I get about 4.7 MBps.

These results are very puzzling. Can you help me out? Both machines are configured the same, although one is a K62-500 running Win98se (machine 2) and another is a Celeron 433 running Win98 (machine 1).

File & Printer Sharing _is_ enabled on both machines. I turned off all other progs before testing.

Answer : It sounds like Machine 1 has it's ethernet card set for full-duplex operation and is colliding the majority of the time with the ACKs being sent back from the other machine. Check in your Network control panel and see if your adapter has the option to switch between Full/Half duplex.


Is this behavior consistent even with a straight file copy (as opposed to netcps)?

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Paul,

Thanks for the timely response. This behavior is consistent with a straight file copy. (Takes FOREVER unless I copy from machine 2 to machine 1.)

Both machines were set to auto negotiate. I tried setting both to full duplex/100 with the same results. Should I set one to half duplex?

-- David

Rating : 4

Answer : Set both to half-duplex and see what you get in terms of speed and consistency.

Paul Doherty
End :


----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 547207
Asker : perezd@...
Subject : blue screens
Private : No

Question : My network seems to be experiencing blue screens of death every few days. The message we get at the desktops is
An exception OE has occurred at 0028:c1197b4e in VXD mstcp(01) + 000041ae. This was called from 0028:00049560 in VXD ndis (01)+ 00008660.
We are an all windows based shop NT 4.0 at the servers win 9.X at the workstations. Any time this happens all the desktops have to be restarted.

Any help would really be greatly appreiceated.

To contact me my email is perezd@mail.mcvts.net

Answer : I can't give you a definitive answer as I have not seen this one before. Obviously both 'mstcp' and 'ndis' are network-related but if all the workstations (how many are we talking about here?) have to be rebooted (why is that?) after this occurs on only one of them I'd point to the PDC (head NT Server) as a source of the problem.

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 572960
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : WinNT Administrator Password
Private : No

Question :
HI! Pauldoherty :
I forgot my administrator password; what
should i do? please help!

Answer : Go to http://www.ntinternals.com and download their hacking tools - they may be able to get or reset your administrator password for you.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

Answer : Oops... make that http://www.sysinternals.com


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QAId : 579939
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Microsoft Network Client - Adapter Upgrade
Private : Yes

Question : I am making a disk for use with the Microsoft Network Client. This client has a list of adapters but the list is very limited. I have seen a website which shows you how to update this list but it is so very complicated. I have tried, and tried, and tried time again to get this thing to work but I can not find what it is asking for.

http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/Doscl3up.htm

It says that I have to copy a section of the Oemsetup file (NetCard) for my adapter and paste it in a section of a file. Well, I have looked on the NT Server and found the Oemsetup file, but I don't see the NetCard section. I don't know what section to copy and paste.

I am using the 3Com Fast Etherlink XL NIC (3C0905B-TX) and the Oemsetup file can be found in the \I386\Drvlib.nic\3c90x folder.

I don't know what to copy or paste. I don't see a NetCard section. Is there another way to do this? Or is there something I am missing?

Answer : I think you misunderstood the web page. The file you will be adding your net card info to is not in the Windows NT Server - it's in the floppies you download from the top of that web page - click that link, downloading the associated floppy images, put those images to some floppies and *then* follow the steps using those floppies and the ones that came with your network card. When you're all done with the changes you'll be ready to install the MS network for DOS access from those install floppies.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5
End :


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QAId : 599906
Asker : tri_fit
Subject : Yahoo e-mail
Private : No

Question : Hello Paul...Yahoo e-mail service with message "due to scheduled maintainence the site will be unavailable for a few hours"...That was 4 days ago. Any idea what is going on with that? I can still access their home page but no access to their e-mail site. Thanks....tri_fit

Answer : Well one of two things is going on:

1) The site really *is* down

2) Your browser is loading the page from cache, not from the server. Try holding the left key while you click the Refresh or Reload button - this will force the browser to ignore any hits on the cache and load the page from the remote site. If it still says it's down see item #1 above. :-)

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 611862
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : DNS monitoring
Private : No

Question : I am working on a monitoring Unix script for some sites. Our DNS tables change constantly.

What I want to know from an expert, is from a script (perl,ksh,sh) what is the best/easiest command I can use to check weather a DNS is setup correctly for a domain name.

This script is run every 10 minutes from cron and I would put the command in the script and if the assert doesnt check, it would send me an email/page/wake me up.

nslookup?ping?. It would be run from Solaris machines(2.6).

Thanks in advance

Need More Information : What is to you are trying to confirm? That the DNS server is still runnning? That is can resolve a certain hostname? What is it that you expect (or fear) is going to change?

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Im sorry Paul, let me be more specific.

We have had problems (either on our side, or the target side) where the lookup for a domain name: www.foo.com will not resolve to a valid ip address.

So what I want to do every 10 minutes is validate that a domain name www.foo.com, resolves to a valid ip address.

I know nslookup does this kind of lookup. But the output that comes back from nslookup is complicated to parse inside of my shell script. So I was wondering if there was a different command I could run instead to accomplish this.

Answer : Well a ping output to a text file (/tmp/pingout) and then parsed for the string "unknown host" should let you know whether the name was resolved or not. You will likely need to include a cache-flushing mechanism to ensure the name/address doesn't get stored and result in a successful ping when the site is actually down.

Here are some ping results that illustrate what I mentioned above:

A good address...
# ping www.foo.com
foo.com is alive

A bad one...
# ping www.fooonyou.com
ping: unknown host www.fooonyou.com

:-)

Paul Doherty
Rating : 3


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QAId : 621136
Asker : DURAN_charles
Subject : TCPIP calculator
Private : No

Question : Do you know where I can get a copy of the TCPIP calculator?

Answer : Here's one:

http://www.lancert.com.au/demo/IPCalculatorDemo.exe

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5


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QAId : 623340
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Two Adapters in NT
Private : Yes

Question : Can you tell me how to install 2 NIC adapters so NT can recognize it?

I have the NICs and the drivers, but only one is being recognized now.

Answer : After the first gets added just enter the Netowkr control panel and, from the adapter tab, click Add to add the next one. If both NICs are of the same type you will have to supply the MAC address from each NIC to uniquely identify it. You can get the MAC address by running

ipconfig /all

from a DOS prompt. The MAC address will be the long hexadecimal number like this:

00-08-C7-5A-86-23

Paul Doherty

Answer : After the first gets added just enter the Netowkr control panel and, from the adapter tab, click Add to add the next one. If both NICs are of the same type you will have to supply the MAC address from each NIC to uniquely identify it. You can get the MAC address by running

ipconfig /all

from a DOS prompt. The MAC address will be the long hexadecimal number like this:

00-08-C7-5A-86-23

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

FUQuestion : You know you are the best. Thanks.
End :


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QAId : 639132
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : client server network
Private : No

Question : I am trying to establish a client-server network using WindowsNT Workstation 4.0 (service pack 5) on a Compaq Presario 5441 (AMD K-6 475MHz, 196 MB Ram) and Windows NT Server 4.0( service Pack 5) on a DELL XPS T500 ( Intel Pentium III 500MHZ, 128 MB RAM) . I established an account for the client ( Compaq ) using server manager tool on the server (DELL). In addition, I made the client join the domain by using the network applet. Both client and server are on the same domain (domain 1). My problem arises when I try to log onto the domain from the client, using an administrator account that exists on both the client and server. I receive an error message that states “ the system cannot log you on to this domain, because the systems computer account in its primary domain is missing or the passwords on that account is incorrect.” Also, when I double click on the client computer in server manager, I receive the error “ trust relationship between workstation & primary domain failed.” I have created the computer account on the server and made the client join the domain several times, but I still have the same problem. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank You.

Answer : Remove the computer acct from the Server Manager, then with the DOMAIN administrator account password go to the workstation and join it to the domain by putting in the domain name in all applicable areas (both in the "workgroup" field and also in the security method (select user controlled share access and put the domain name as the controlling authority). There is no need to manually add an entry to server manager if you know the administrator password for the domain.

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 4


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QAId : 643242
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : internal/external communication among 2000+employees in computer firm
Private : Yes

Question : A computer firm that began with 8 employees ahs grown to 4000+ in 4 years. In order to increase efficiency/profitability of the company, channels of internal/external communication among employees must be updated. Any recommendations? Please understand that my background in in accounting.

Need More Information : That is way too vaugue for me to even begin to comment. What are you trying to do? What do you have in place for this function now? How does it not meet your needs? Details...

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : I couldn't agree with you more. I have this vague homework assignment, and I don't want to assume anything but, let's say that the only forms of communication in operation currently are telephones and meetings. I'm not looking for specific costs, but maybe some high-tech options (palm pilots, wireless phones etc) to present to my "senior-level management crew". At this point, I imagine the company is in complete chaos with archaic means of communication or none at all.

Thanks for your help.

Answer : If all employees can be assumed to have PCs then the following come immediately to mind:

1) LAN-based email system

2) Internet-based email

3) PDAs (Palm Pilots, perhaps with wireless messaging - Palm VII)

I hope this helps...

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 648160
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Mapping Drives
Private : Yes

Question : I am new to networking and just hooked both computers together with network cards, cat 5 cable, and a hub. Is there any way after I map the drives to keep them from disappearing after I restart my computer?

Answer : Sure - to map them right-click on Network Neighborhood and select "Map Network Drive" - pick a drive letter, type in the path to the share ex - \\servername\sharename and then check the box that says "Reconnect at Logon" and the mapping will be reinstated each time you login.

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 651910
Asker : idster
Subject : Win2k and win98 networking.
Private : Yes

Question : Hello.
I have a desktop running Windows 2000 Professional edition and a laptop running Windows 98 OEM release. I am trying to connect the two computers together for internet access. My ISP is @home (cable access).
What I have done is buy a NIC for my desktop and another one for the laptop so we can share internet access, with the desktop being the host.
Now this worked when I was running Windows 98 on my desktop. All I had to do was set up the desktop as a proxy with WinProxy 2.0. But this was easily done under the previous features, since I knew how to set up the TCP/IP properties and the two computers could see each other even before I set up the proxy. Now I'd like to do the same thing for the new O.S., but since I'm fairly new to it, I don't know how to make it work. I've been doing some research and read some things about NAT, but am not sure how to set it up. Could you please point me to a site, or send me detailed instructions on how to set this up? (I have already tried timhiggins.com but those instructions weren't thorough enough for my limited networking capabilities.)
Thank you in advance.

Answer : ICS exists on both Win98SE and Win2K. Install a second NIC (the first going to the cable modem) into the desktop computer and turn on ICS. Here's the appropriate page from the URL you provided:

http://www.timhiggins.com/ppd/ics.htm

Doing it this way is far prefereable to a proxy since proxies stop most apps and require others to be reconfigured. NAT (what ICS does) is transparent. Just set the notebooks' default gateway to the address of the second NIC you added to the desktop (use 10.1.1.1 for the second NIC on the Win2K box and 10.1.1.2 on the NIX in the laptop - subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 (fake class C)).

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 696435
Asker : AlanMcBurney
Subject : Printer problem
Private : Yes

Question : I am having a problem with one of my computers on the company network. There seems to be a comunication error between the computer and printer, the printer is a HP 850C. When I try to delete the printer from the control panel it tells me that the default printer (being the 850C) has been deleted and it is now making the HP 850C the default printer. This all seems very strange! I am using HP Jetadmin to create jetdirect ports but any time I try to delete the port so as I can re-create it, it wont let me do it. It usually trows up Dr. Watson and throws me out. I have configured the TCP/IP address correctly but am running out of ideas.
Any suggestions.

Need More Information : Is the printer connected directly to the PC? Is so, why are you using JetAdmin?

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Sorry paul,
the printer is connected on a network via network cables and connects into a jetdirect box, hence the need for the port. The computer is a NT 4.0 workstation.

Answer : Why not just create *another* port with JetAdmin the way you want it and ignore the other one? Then create another version of the printer connection (object) and set it to be the default. Then maybe you will be able to delete the old printer and port.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 3


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QAId : 729011
Asker : mike106
Subject : upgrade netware 4.11 to 5.0
Private : No

Question : Is there a utility that can be used to migrate from a novell 4.11 box to a new box that will have 5.0 (without going through a lengthy process)?

Do you have any instructions that I can follow?

Are there problem areas to watch for?

Thanks

Answer : Here is some docs on using migrate.exe from Novell for upgrades:

http://www.novell.com/documentation/lg/nw51/docui/index.html#../setupenu/data/hufaj5je.html

http://www.novell.com/documentation/lg/nw4/docui/index.html#../iw2gts/upgrdenu/data/hran73aq.html

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue


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QAId : 745807
Asker : dspransy@...
Subject : RConsole Abends?
Private : No

Question : We have been having abends recently and a consultant that we hire for some things thinks that running rconsole can be a problem and crash servers. Have you ever heard of this? The server in question is a 3.12 server. Thanks!

Answer : No - if the version of Netware is patched up to date there is no reason you can't use rconsole for administration. I would think that any fault he/she may believe exists must surely have long ago (on Netware 3.12) been reported and fixed. Check:

http://support.novell.com

Advanced Search

and put in the terms

rconsole netware 3.12

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5


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QAId : 748926
Asker : danielg456
Subject : IBM TO MAC
Private : No

Question : What steps would I take to network my IBM(s) clone Pentium w/ win98, to my MAC(s) w/ OS/8.

Answer : Very simple - just get an ethernet hub (4 or 8-port will do nicely - depends on growth) and plug them all into it. Then give them IP addresses from the same range (giving each machine a unique number). My favorite for internal LANs is:

10.1.1.1
10.1.1.2
...
10.1.1.254

Any addresses in this range are good for internal LANs because they were pre-allocated by the InterNIC to be non-routable addresses.

Use a subnet mask of 255.0.0.0 and you have your LAN.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5


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QAId : 749699
Asker : danielg456
Subject : just to let you know
Private : No

Question : Man, you are an ACE. Your quick and experienced response is EXTREMELY appreciated. TOP SCORE
thanx

Answer : Thank you for the very kind words, sir. It's nice to be appreciated!

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5


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QAId : 751625
Asker : KarimR
Subject : Strange Windows NT Server 4.0 Problem
Private : No

Question : Greetings,
I am running Windows NT Server 4.0 with IIS4. Right after I installed a 3Comm NIC the computer froze a little then rebooted. When it came to the logon prompt it froze a little again and rebooted again. This cycle of automatic rebooting continues until I turn off the computer.

I was wondering if there is something I can do to return the computer to an operational condition.

Otherwise is there a way to uninstall Windows NT entirely for maybe Windows 98.

Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Karim

Answer : Well it seems you have a pretty good idea of the culprit here - the NIC or it's drivers (or the installation method). Try removing the NIC from the machine and booting. If it makes it in you can remove it from the NT configuration (Network control panel) and then try adding it again (try another slot). make sure you are using the latest drivers for your OS rev from the manufacturer's site. Another place to find them is here:

http://winfiles.cnet.com/drivers/network.html

You can always remove the NT installation by the following:

fdisk and remove the partitions - if any are NTFS use delpart to remove them - http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/cgi-bin/search?form=lycosnet&query=delpart.exe&filetype=All+files

After removing the partitions you can recreate a new one(s) with fdisk. Also perform an

fdisk /mbr

to remove the boot block from NT. You may need to put the fdisk and format commands on a floppy and boot from the floppy.

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 5


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QAId : 755416
Asker : erdahl
Subject : socket connection
Private : No

Question : I uninstalled netscape 6 and reinstalled windows 98 over the top of current win98, and then received the following error message "unable to create network socket connection" Couldn't connect to the net using my cable modem or my dial up. Ended up formatting the HD and reinstalling win98 to solve the problem. Was there an easier way ??. Thanks, Jim.

Answer : Well since you wiped over it I guess we'll never know, eh? :-)

It might have been as simple as removing all the networking devices (Dial-Up Adapter and Ethernet card) from your Network control panel, rebooting and adding them back in (along with the TCP/IP protocol).

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4

FUQuestion : Thanks Paul, I did what you said, but am unsure if I rebooted after the network removal. AS you said, we'll never know unless it happens again. Jim.

Answer : No question asked...

Paul Doherty


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QAId : 755420
Asker : light0819
Subject : network cable
Private : No

Question : What is the "official" and correct color sequence for a Cat5 wire, when wiring a PC patch cable?

ie. White/Orange, Orange...

Thanks

Answer : As you likely already know it really doesn't make any difference as long as you are consistent at both ends. But here you go with diagrams:

http://yoda.uvi.edu/InfoTech/rj45.htm

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com


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QAId : 768700
Asker : reysen
Subject : Windows 2000 or Novell
Private : No

Question : Our company has been working on a peer to peer Windows 9X environment. We have a feeling that alot of the problems we have been having are caused by working in this peer to peer environment and for that reason and others (such as security) have decided to switch to a dedicated server environment. The big question is Novell or Windows 2000? I have heard extensive and passionate opinions on both ends and was wondering your feelings on the matter and why.

Thank you so much

Answer : Well I am certified in both Microsoft and Novell but I must say that I tend to side with Netware for larger installations and Windows NT for smaller ones. Netware is a far better directory service-enabled OS. Win2k just being out and being a 1.0 release of a directory service for MS can not compare to Netware's 7-9 years in the market as a directory service.

So if you have only the one site and have less than 25 users I'd say go with NT; if you are larger go with Netware.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Thank you so much for your quick repsonse. I wanted to clarify why you would choose NT for less than 25 people. Is is just because NT is easier to administrate in a smaller group or is is just a better product in a smaller environment ? Thank you

Answer : NT runs quite well (and fast) with a small load, and as you mentioned, is easier to administrate (and doesn't require a separate client - technically neither does Netware but if you want full functionality i'd suggest you use Novell's client).

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5


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QAId : 788404
Asker : jsims08
Subject : ATMHelpr will not load.
Private : No

Question : A computer in our department displays the following error message when it boots up.

"The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load: ATMhelpr"

We are running Windows NT 4.0 workstation. What do I need to do to correct this problem? Thanks for your help.

Answer : It sounds like a helper app for Adobe Type Manager - try looking in the Services control panel - you may be able to disable this service (perhaps it was left in services after an uninstall of ATM?) and still run OK.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5


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QAId : 805921
Asker : tnakanis10564
Subject : System Time
Private : No

Question : Hi

I am looking for the way to synchronize all network client's system time. In other words, I have to go to each network client's computer to adjust its time. My firm's network is NT 4.0, Win 98 and NT 4.0 Server environment. And I have about 50 workstations to adjust their system time. I want to adjust all