[comp.windows.ms] Windows 3.0 and PC-NFS?????

wnp@iiasa.AT (wolf paul) (08/24/90)

We are trying to install MS Windows 3.0 on one of our 386 machines
running DOS 4.01 and PC/NFS.

The "Networks" selection in the Windows Setup program does not list
PC/NFS; is there some way to install it anyway?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide!
-- 
Wolf N. Paul, IIASA, A - 2361 Laxenburg, Austria, Europe
PHONE: +43-2236-71521-465     FAX: +43-2236-71313      UUCP: uunet!iiasa.at!wnp
INTERNET: wnp%iiasa.at@uunet.uu.net      BITNET: tuvie!iiasa!wnp@awiuni01.BITNET
       * * * * Kurt Waldheim for President (of Mars, of course!) * * * *

ABishop@massey.ac.nz (A.G. Bishop) (08/27/90)

If you can find ANYTHING in the way of mainstream PC software that is
aware of PC-NFS I'd love to hear about it!

Please.


-- 
Tony Bishop				Computer Centre
A.G.Bishop@massey.ac.nz			Massey University
					Palmerston North, N.Z.

wnp@iiasa.AT (wolf paul) (08/27/90)

In article <926@massey.ac.nz> ABishop@massey.ac.nz (A.G. Bishop) writes:
>If you can find ANYTHING in the way of mainstream PC software that is
>aware of PC-NFS I'd love to hear about it!
>
>Please.

Well, not all software needs to be aware of it, just to tolerate it.

MKS toolkit is sufficiently aware to use the PC-NFS hostname as its
nodename (output by uname); things like WP5.1 and Lotus 123 seem to
work just fine on our PC-NFS network.

The problem with Windows 3.0 is that it insists on knowing about your
network, and doesn't seem to know about PC-NFS.



-- 
Wolf N. Paul, IIASA, A - 2361 Laxenburg, Austria, Europe
PHONE: +43-2236-71521-465     FAX: +43-2236-71313      UUCP: uunet!iiasa.at!wnp
INTERNET: wnp%iiasa.at@uunet.uu.net      BITNET: tuvie!iiasa!wnp@awiuni01.BITNET
       * * * * Kurt Waldheim for President (of Mars, of course!) * * * *

prk@planet.bt.co.uk (Peter Knight) (08/28/90)

wnp@iiasa.AT (wolf paul) writes:

>We are trying to install MS Windows 3.0 on one of our 386 machines
>running DOS 4.01 and PC/NFS.

>The "Networks" selection in the Windows Setup program does not list
>PC/NFS; is there some way to install it anyway?

>Thanks for any help anyone can provide!
>-- 
>Wolf N. Paul, IIASA, A - 2361 Laxenburg, Austria, Europe
>PHONE: +43-2236-71521-465     FAX: +43-2236-71313      UUCP: uunet!iiasa.at!wnp
>INTERNET: wnp%iiasa.at@uunet.uu.net      BITNET: tuvie!iiasa!wnp@awiuni01.BITNET
>       * * * * Kurt Waldheim for President (of Mars, of course!) * * * *

I run a similar set-up, except that I (still) use MS-DOS 3.21, (if it isn't
broke, why fix it?).  No, I cannot get Windows to cope with the PC-NFS 
networking software.

Peter Knight
BT Research
Opinions stated here are those of the author, etc, etc.

peter@ecc.tased.oz (08/28/90)

We have VAXe(n|s) and Acorn Archimedes U**x and RISC-OS boxes that run NFS, and
we'd like to get our PCs (which already use DEC's PCSA) in on the fun as well.

Does PC-NFS mean what it looks like; ie NFS for PCs. If so, is it PD,
shareware, commercial...? Where do I get it; FTP, down the street at Computers
Galore, or thin air?

Thank you, from the bottom of my 386SX.

-- 
Peter Mayne (Systems Object)               Peter@ECC.TasEd.Oz.Au
Elizabeth Computer Centre                +-----------------------------
Link Rd, Claremont                       |This brain intentionally left
Tasmania, 7011, Australia                |blank.

po@technet.uucp (Peter Onno) (08/28/90)

In <926@massey.ac.nz> ABishop@massey.ac.nz (A.G. Bishop) writes:

>If you can find ANYTHING in the way of mainstream PC software that is
>aware of PC-NFS I'd love to hear about it!

We have limited experience running off an HP 9000/375 with FTP Software,
Inc.  PC/TCP Plus Interdrive.  One nice thing about this arrangement is
that you can load the kernel and the ID TSR with WINSTART.BAT for Windows
3.0 in enhanced mode and thus preserve base memory for the greedy
applications.  Disadvantage:  network drives are only visible to Windows
applications.  If more general access is required, you're stuck with losing
some base memory until the enhanced-version memory managers come along.

No endorsement by my company is intended; this is a personal impression.

Peter Onno (po@technet.uunet)
M/A-COM, Inc.
5 Omni Way
Chelmsford  MA 01824
Tel: 617-272-3000 X7361

steve@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Steve Mitchell) (08/30/90)

We're also trying to run Windows 3.0 on an AT/386.  The PC has only
NFS-networked disks, file served off a Sun 3/60 by Beame & Whiteside's
NFS running on top of Excelan's LAN Workplace for DOS.  We load the
network software into real memory, and things seem to work -- at least
for a while.  But eventually when an application (even Notepad) goes
looking for a file, or tries to save a file, Windows gets lost in
space: the little hourglass icon comes up, and stays there as long as
anyone is willing to wait.  Alternatively, a message box comes up
announcing a System Error: Attempting to write to Drive A with Retry
and Cancel buttons.  Of course, there is no activity on drive A when
this happens, and if you're lucky hitting the cancel button crashes
Windows.  If you're unlucky, hitting either button does nothing, and
you have to reboot the machine.  In either case, Windows is corrupted
and we have to reinstall it from floppies.

Anybody have an idea of what is happening here, and  what we can do
about it?
-- 
		-  Steve Mitchell	steve@cps.altadena.ca.us
					grian!steve@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov
					ames!elroy!grian!steve
"God is licht, an in him there is nae mirkness ava." -- 1 John 1:5

beame@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Carl Beame) (08/30/90)

In article <1990Aug30.001504.21331@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us> steve@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Steve Mitchell) writes:
>
>We're also trying to run Windows 3.0 on an AT/386.  The PC has only
>NFS-networked disks, file served off a Sun 3/60 by Beame & Whiteside's
>NFS running on top of Excelan's LAN Workplace for DOS.  We load the
>network software into real memory, and things seem to work -- at least
>for a while.  But eventually when an application (even Notepad) goes
>looking for a file, or tries to save a file, Windows gets lost in
>space: the little hourglass icon comes up, and stays there as long as
>anyone is willing to wait.  Alternatively, a message box comes up
>announcing a System Error: Attempting to write to Drive A with Retry
>and Cancel buttons.  Of course, there is no activity on drive A when
>this happens, and if you're lucky hitting the cancel button crashes
>Windows.  If you're unlucky, hitting either button does nothing, and
>you have to reboot the machine.  In either case, Windows is corrupted
>and we have to reinstall it from floppies.
>
>Anybody have an idea of what is happening here, and  what we can do
>about it?
>-- 
>		-  Steve Mitchell	steve@cps.altadena.ca.us
>					grian!steve@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov
>					ames!elroy!grian!steve
>"God is licht, an in him there is nae mirkness ava." -- 1 John 1:5

	There are several generic "fixes" which need to be looked at 
when running any network under windows.

	1) Many ethernet adaptors use shared memory. This memory MUST be
	   listed in the EMMexclude line in system.ini. (The Excelan card
	   uses shared memory).

	2) When running windows in protected mode, hardware interrupts to
	   real code are delayed and the PC is not as fast in removing 
	   packets from the adaptors. With BWNFS, it is sometimes required
	   to reduce the read size when running Windows 3.0 to 2048 from
	   4096 (or 8192 for the Excelan Card).

	3) This is not generic, but you should be running BWNFS V2.10 for
	   windows support. Set the network to 100 % MS-NET compatible.

- Carl Beame
Beame & Whiteside Software Ltd.
(416) 648-6556
Beame@McMaster.CA

milne@ics.uci.edu (Alastair Milne) (08/31/90)

In <852@iiasa.UUCP> wnp@iiasa.AT (wolf paul) writes:

>We are trying to install MS Windows 3.0 on one of our 386 machines
>running DOS 4.01 and PC/NFS.
>The "Networks" selection in the Windows Setup program does not list
>PC/NFS; is there some way to install it anyway?

   What DOS 4.01 may or may not do is outside my knowledge.  I am sticking
   with 3.3 until I'm sure DOS 4 doesn't add more bugs than it fixes.

   But I have Windows 3 running on a PS/2 model 80 with PC-NFS 3.0.1.
   I didn't bother actually telling it about the network, I just let 
   PC-NFS install at boot-up as usual, then run Window on top of it.
   If you look at the system setup, it will say there's no network.
   But then run File Manager, and sure enough, your remote drives not 
   only appear but are marked with the NET drive icon.  And they are 
   fully usable -- or at least, I've encountered no restriction so far.
   I should note that I'm running with a WD8003E/A ethernet card, with
   the NFS-NDIS driver and the 3+Open LAN Manager, rather than WD8003E.SYS.

   It's a thing a like a lot about PC-NFS: it integrates well enough into
   DOS's file system that programs never need to realise they are using
   a net drive.

   What does irritate me a lot is that when File Manager starts up, 
   it issues an alert for every drive between the last mounted net drive,
   and the last drive letter available.  I tried reducing LASTDRIVE, 
   but it didn't change anything, so I don't know where Windows 3 is getting
   its information.

   However, previous postings about telnet and ftp I found to be quite 
   correct: they are *very* sensitive under Windows 3.  I tried them from
   DOS prompt, where they should be running in their own virtual machines,
   but I don't recall whether that made them reliable.

   Besides, why would I want to run a file transer program in a specially
   run environment which *prevents* me from seeing any of my directory
   windows (i.e. DOS Prompt)?  A Window 3 front end for ftp is required, 
   I think.


   Alastair Milne

milne@ics.uci.edu (Alastair Milne) (08/31/90)

In <26DC8A1E.18344@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca> beame@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Carl Beame) writes:


>	1) Many ethernet adaptors use shared memory. This memory MUST be
>	   listed in the EMMexclude line in system.ini. (The Excelan card
>	   uses shared memory).

    Oops!  Re my last posting, this raises a good point.  Yes, I have
    indicated in my CONFIG.SYS memory areas that must be left alone for 
    the WD8003E/A adapter to work.  In other situations, I've found that 
    permitting this area to be overwritten is one of the surest ways of 
    causing bizarre crashes of all descriptions.

    And I don't bother with EMS under windows, or anywhere else for that 
    matter.  An incredible nuisance to configure, and it seldom solves the
    problems I wanted it for anyway.

>	2) When running windows in protected mode, hardware interrupts to
>	   real code are delayed and the PC is not as fast in removing 
>	   packets from the adaptors. With BWNFS, it is sometimes required
>	   to reduce the read size when running Windows 3.0 to 2048 from
>	   4096 (or 8192 for the Excelan Card).

    Another good point.  How do the various ethernet cards compare for
    memory-communications speed?  The WD card double-ports a region of 
    memory, making its access very fast.  What about Excelan, or
    Ungermann-Bass, or 3Com?  If they're using CPU ports, they we have a 
    different story.

    I have no benchmarks for PC-NFS file access with or without Windows 3,
    but my impression is that Windows slows everything down anyway.
    Frankly, a number of aspects of Window 3 make me appreciate the 
    Mac's Multifinder all the more!  It seems much smoother and easier to
    handle.
    (But I'm willing to keep trying, especially if it will gain me the use of
    physical memory I have on the 80.)


    Alastair Milne

geoff@hinode.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top) (08/31/90)

If you wish to use Windows 3.0 and PC-NFS, I recommend that you run
DOS 3.x. There is at least one place in Windows where the system
issues a different sequence of DOS calls for the two versions, and
the DOS 4.x sequence relies upon an undocumented side-effect
which the PC-NFS redirector doesn't (yet) emulate correctly.
(And yes, I have told Microsoft, and they were apologetic, but....)

Obviously we'll fix this, but for now DOS 3.x is the best bet.

As for the extra drives, the stuff about using the "/dNN" switch has
been hacked to death in these groups.

Geoff

-- Geoff Arnold, PC-NFS architect, Sun Microsystems. (geoff@East.Sun.COM)   --
   *** "Now is no time to speculate or hypothecate, but rather a time ***
   *** for action, or at least not a time to rule it out, though not  ***
   *** necessarily a time to rule it in, either." - George Bush       ***

leoh@hardy.hdw.csd.harris.com (Leo Hinds) (09/01/90)

In article <26DE184C.28496@ics.uci.edu> milne@ics.uci.edu (Alastair Milne) writes:

>   			<text deleted>
>   But then run File Manager, and sure enough, your remote drives not 
>   only appear but are marked with the NET drive icon.  And they are 
>   fully usable -- or at least, I've encountered no restriction so far.


Though this is true under FM, whenever I try and use the setup/add new 
applications it does not seem to know about ALL my nfs drives ... just the 
first one (E).  The next nfs drive (F) is ignored, as well as G, H, & P.

leoh@hdw.csd.harris.com         	Leo Hinds       	(305)973-5229
Gfx ... gfx ... :-) whfg orpnhfr V "ebg"grq zl fvtangher svyr lbh guvax V nz n
creireg ?!!!!!!? ... znlor arkg gvzr

pilger@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Eric Pilger) (09/03/90)

In article <852@iiasa.UUCP> wnp@iiasa.UUCP (wolf paul) writes:
>The "Networks" selection in the Windows Setup program does not list
>PC/NFS; is there some way to install it anyway?
>


Don't install it for a network.  It will work anyway.  You can even
follow the instructions for making it available over a network.

You'll have to use lpt#.os2 for printing to work.  You may also want
to pare down the number of excess drives with "/d#" as a switch to
pcnfs.sys (# is something like 6, for 6 additional virtual drives.)
(I believe the "/d" is right, I don't have my configuration right
here.)

					Eric Pilger
					NASA Infrared Telescope Facility

pilger@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Eric Pilger) (09/03/90)

In article <926@massey.ac.nz> ABishop@massey.ac.nz (A.G. Bishop) writes:
>If you can find ANYTHING in the way of mainstream PC software that is
>aware of PC-NFS I'd love to hear about it!

I successfully installed Paradox as "other network."  It doesn't know
about PC-NFS specifically, but it does know about DOS networking.
PC-NFS appears to do a proper job of supporting DOS networking because
everything SEEMS to work just fine.  I haven't tested it rigorously,
but the basic support is obviously there (record locking, even the
name of who did the locking.)

If PC-NFS is doing a proper job of supporting DOS networking, then my
guess is that any mainstream PC software that is aware of DOS
networking will be indirectly aware of PC-NFS.

				   Eric Pilger
				   NASA Infrared Telescope Facility

sullivan@rupert.misemi (Mike Sullivan infotech) (09/06/90)

In article <926@massey.ac.nz> ABishop@massey.ac.nz (A.G. Bishop) writes:
>If you can find ANYTHING in the way of mainstream PC software that is
>aware of PC-NFS I'd love to hear about it!

Well, we have (finally, I think) gotten Lotus 1-2-3 Rel 2.2 Network to
work correctly. The "tricks":

1. Initialize and copy 1-2-3 as per instructions. We used Drive S:
mounted to a system directory, readable to the pcuser community, with
the subdirectory s:\123 (and s:\123\allways) instead of \LOTUS\123R22.
(use the /MS or Must Share option in the NET USE S: \\.... command).
Set the permissions of SINGLE.LBR to read/write/execute (make a backup).

2. create the license directory as per instructions (MUST be 
s:\lotshare\123.v22) and initiatize the COUNT. This directory must
be read/write/execute to the user community. 

3. Create the user directories (we mount the user's home directories 
as drive H:\ and make a subdirectory h:\123 and H:\123\files).
Copy the config files to the user account -- you can use the Lotus 
NEWUSER batch file.

4. Add the PERSONAL directory to the path. In our case, it's H:\123.
Start the INSTALL program from the system directory, specifying the
user's setup file (S:\123>  INSTALL H:\123\123). Then change to the 
ALLWAYS subdirectory and run AWSETUP - specify H:\123 as the user 
directory.

5. to start 1-2-3, CD to the system directory (S:\123) and type 123.
Everything seems to work from there. As for the count routines, keep 
track of the file creation dates in \lotshare\123.v22 (in_use.###). 
If users abort the Lotus program (like MAYBE pc-nfs hangs or something
:-) ), the count will be out of sync with reality. The files are easiest
to fix from Unix......

Since I suffered for a long period of time over this one,I hope it will
help one of you. We are half-way thru installation of 83 pc-nfs copies
on a net with over 60 Sun workstations running off 4 file servers. We
also use WordPerfect 5.1 (net killer!) and Harvard Graphics.

Mike Sullivan, Mgr. Information Technology, Mitel Corp.
!uunet!mitel!sullivan     sullivan@mitel.com

-- 
 -- Mike Sullivan, x3570 --           -- Information Technology Group --
 Effective use of available technology for better information management.