Installing File and Print Services for NetWare

Windows 95 Professional

A Publication of The Cobb Group

Published July 1997

In the April 1997 issue, we showed you how you could easily manage a multi-platform network by setting up a Windows NT gateway to a Novell NetWare Server ("Creating an NT Gateway to a NetWare Server"). By doing so, you could manage all but a few specialized user accounts from your Windows NT Server. We also mentioned that this technique was effective only if your primary network logon was through the Microsoft Windows Network.

Fortunately, Microsoft has released a utility called File and Print Services for NetWare. This utility, which you can purchase from Microsoft for about $99, causes NetWare to see your Windows NT 3.51 Server as a NetWare 3.x Server. Therefore, you can manage the user accounts on the Windows NT Server with the same utilities you'd use to manage a NetWare Server.

In this article, we'll show you how to install File and Print Services for NetWare. As we do, we'll tell you about some pitfalls to watch out for. Then, we'll explain how to connect to the simulated NetWare server, and we'll explore your options for managing your user accounts on the server.

Installing File and Print Services for NetWare is a straightforward process. Begin by double-clicking the Network icon in Control Panel. Next, click the Add SoftwareÉ button, select Other from the Network Software dropdown list, and click Continue. At this point, Windows NT will ask you for the path to the files you're installing. Enter the path to the File and Print Services for NetWare CD's \I386 directory, and press [Enter]. For example, if your CD-ROM drive is D, you'd enter D:\I386.

When you see the Select OEM Option dialog box, shown in Figure A, select File and Print Services for NetWare and click OK. Windows NT will now install the necessary files.

Figure A Select File and Print Services for NetWare and click OK.

At this point, you'll see the Install File and Print Services for NetWare dialog box, shown in Figure B. As you can see, you'll have to enter the name of the directory that you want Windows NT to use as a SYS volume. You must also supply a name for your simulated NetWare server. (Don't worry, this step won't change your real NT Server's name!) Next, enter a password for NetWare's supervisor account, and select the radio button that corresponds to the way you want Windows NT to maintain the balance between memory usage and performance. When you've finished, click OK to continue.

Figure B Use the Install File and Print Services for NetWare dialog box to fill in the appropriate network information.

Once Windows NT has copied the necessary files, click OK to close the Network Settings dialog box. Now, Windows NT will ask you to reboot your computer. When you restart the computer, File and Print Services for NetWare will be ready for you to use.

On This Page

Pitfalls to watch out for
Connecting to the simulated NetWare server
Managing the NT Server accounts through SYSCON
Conclusion

Pitfalls to watch out for

Before you can connect a Windows 95 computer to the simulated NetWare server, you need to be aware of a couple of problems. First, we weren't able to connect to the server at all using Novell's Client32 for Windows 95. We could connect only by using Microsoft's Client for NetWare networks.

Second, the simulated NetWare server doesn't automatically recognize Windows NT's user accounts. To make NetWare recognize a Windows NT user account, open User Manager for Domains and double-click on the account you want NetWare to recognize. Next, select the Maintain NetWare Compatible Login check box. When you do, you'll see that Windows NT enables the NW Compat button, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C Select the Maintain NetWare Compatible Login check box to make the account visible to NetWare

Click the NW Compat button, which will open the NetWare Compatible Properties dialog box, shown in Figure D. Directly below the user name is an Object ID number, which represents the name that File and Print Services for NetWare assigns to the user's \MAIL subdirectory. (NetWare 3.x automatically assigns each user a \MAIL subdirectory in which it stores the user's login script and other information specific to the account. The name of the individual \MAIL subdirectory is always an eight-digit hexadecimal number.)

Figure D The NetWare Compatible Properties dialog box controls the account's NetWare-specific security issues.

The Limit Grace Logins panel of the NetWare Compatible Properties dialog box controls the number of grace logins you want to grant the user. This setting enables you to limit the number of times the user is allowed to log in after his or her password has expired. You should allow at least one grace login so that the user can have an opportunity to change the password when it expires.

Finally, the Concurrent Connections panel lets you specify how many concurrent connections each user is permitted—that is, the number of workstations the user can use simultaneously to connect to the server. In a high-security environment, you'll probably want to set this number to 1. However, multiple connections are handy if the user has one machine running a computer-intensive application and wants to work on another machine until the process is finished.

It's important to keep in mind that the items you control in this dialog box apply only to users logging in from NetWare clients. For example, if you limited a user's concurrent connections to 2 and that user logged in from a NetWare Server, he or she would be allowed to use only two concurrent connections. However, if the same user logged in from an NT Server, he or she wouldn't be affected by this limit. Rather, that user would be limited only by whatever limitations you placed on the NT side of the account. As you can see, by using File and Print Services for NetWare, the server functions as a Windows NT Server and a NetWare Server simultaneously.

When you've finished configuring the NetWare side of the account, click OK, then click OK again to close the User Properties dialog box. At this point, Windows NT will ask you to create a password for the NetWare side of the account. You can use the same password as the user's Windows NT password, or you can make it something different. While it may seem odd to assign a different password for NetWare and NT, doing so would be useful if you wanted to limit the user to accessing only the NetWare side of the server.

Connecting to the simulated NetWare server

At this point, move to a Windows 95 workstation and select Entire Network from Network Neighborhood. You should see the server name you just assigned to the simulated NetWare server listed among the NetWare Servers, as shown in Figure E.

Figure E The Windows NT Server's NetWare name (Taz_fpnw) now appears in the list of NetWare Servers.

Next, double-click on your simulated NetWare server and log on as Supervisor, using the password you supplied earlier. You'll now see the SYS volume, which is really an alias that points to the directory you created earlier. NetWare clients will be able to see only those files and directories that reside within that directory and its subdirectories.

Double-click on the SYS volume to display all the standard default NetWare directories, as shown in Figure F. These directories function as they would in a true NetWare environment, with the exception of the SYSTEM directory, which is empty. In a NetWare environment, the SYSTEM directory normally contains your NLM files and a few utilities specific to troubleshooting NetWare volumes. Since these files aren't necessary on an NT Server, Microsoft doesn't include them.

Figure F File and Print Services for NetWare automatically creates the standard NetWare directories within the simulated SYS volume.

Managing the NT Server accounts through SYSCON

You can use NetWare's SYSCON utility to easily manage the accounts on the NT Server. To do so, open SYSCON on your Windows 95 workstation and select Change Current Server. If you don't see the simulated NetWare server on the list of servers, press the [Insert] key. When you do, you'll see a list of other file servers on your network. Select the simulated NetWare server from the list and then press [Enter].

When SYSCON prompts you for a user name and password, enter Supervisor as the user name and enter the password you created earlier. The simulated NetWare server will appear on the list of servers you're currently logged on to. Select the simulated server from the list and press [Enter]. You now have full administrative privileges to the simulated NetWare server. You can use the User Information list box on SYSCON's main window to edit the user accounts, as shown in Figure G.

Figure G Use SYSCON's User Information list box to edit the user's account information.

It's important to remember that SYSCON controls the security of the account on the NetWare Server only. You'll still have to control access to NT's resources through the User Manager for Domains utility.

Conclusion

In this article, we've shown you how to install File and Print Services for NetWare on an NT Server, and we've pointed out some pitfalls to watch out for. We also explained how NT maintains the balance between NetWare security and NT security. Along the way, we showed you how you can edit aspects of the NetWare side of NT's security.

The article entitled "Using File and Print Services for NetWare" was originally published in Windows 95 Professional, July 1997. Copyright © 1997, The Cobb Group, 9420 Bunson Parkway, Louisville, KY 40220. All rights reserved. For subscription information, call the Cobb Group at 1-800-223-8720.

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