Category : Alternate Operating Systems - Quarterdeck DesqView, CP/M, etc
Archive   : QTEC9306.ZIP
Filename : LANTASTI.TEC

ID:LN LANtastic Network Operating System
Quarterdeck Technical Note #213
by Myke Keefe
last revision: 30 January 1992

Artisoft
Artisoft Plaza
575 E. River Road
Tucson, AZ 85704
(602) 293-6363

We have tested the LANtastic starter package with DESQview versions 2.2, 2.3
and QEMM-386 versions 4.2-5.1. The LAN starter kit consists of two 2 Mbps LAN
adapters, cable, & terminators and a system disk with version 3.02 of
LANtastic NOS.

Installation was rather easy, and the instructions in the manual are complete.
If you are installing this system on a 386 and are using QEMM-386 or other
memory manager, you must exclude the LAN adapter ROM address space, D800-DFFF.
See page 196 of the LANtastic NOS user guide for more information.

The new 10MB Ethernet adapters do not use any ROM or RAM addresses so no
exclusions are necessary.

LANBIOS.EXE is the program that activates the network
adapter in your PC. It uses 2K and can be loaded high.

REDIR.EXE is the networking software. Each PC node on the
network must run this. It uses 11K and can be loaded high.

SERVER.EXE is an additional program that enables the PC
running it to be accessed as a file server in addition to
being a workstation. It takes about 30-50 K and in most
cases can also be loaded high.

LANtastic uses DOS's SHARE.EXE to provide basic file protection and locking.
Non-network versions of software can be run by only one user at a time. Some
users have suggested:

SHARE /F:4096 /L:200
in AUTOEXEC.BAT.


RUNNING DESQview on LANtastic NOS

DESQview should be run from a local disk or from a unique directory on the
server. Initial installation of DV will take 350-400K of disk space.

You may want to try using the DESQview parameter, /DT (DOS Terminate). This
tells DESQview to pass any calls to terminate a program directly to DOS,
instead of having DESQview itself perform the termination. Some DOS utilities
(such as SHARE.EXE) and networks may not be able to keep track of programs if
DOS doesn't see terminations.

The network drivers (LANBIOS.EXE, REDIR.EXE) should be run before invoking
DESQview. Loading them in a DV window is difficult at best, and will severely
degrade the performance of the network.

NET and Lanpup can be run in DESQview to access network features like Mail and
Chat. If you use Lanpup, you should run it in Stand Alone mode (/S) inside of
DESQview, not before it or else multitasking will stop while LANPUP messages
remain on the screen.

NET uses around 20K and LANPUP uses about 5K and both write directly to the
screen. The "Writes directly to screen" option should be set to Y for these
programs to prevent bleed through.


DESQview on a LANtastic Server

In order to use DV and LANtastic together you may save yourself some work by
not installing the server option of LANtastic. There is a conflict that MAY
or MAY NOT show itself if the SERVER program has been loaded.

Even though the servers in LANtastic are not dedicated, DESQview should not be
run on a PC designated as a server with LANtastic NOS versions 3.02 and
earlier. Programs run in DESQview are allowed to access DOS but the LANtastic
Server wants exclusive access to DOS at certian times and will attempt to
prevent access to DOS. It is this condition that may cause problems.

Symptoms include computer lock-up, access denied, or computer re-boots. It
most readily shows up when running 2 or more applications under DV that access
data/programs across the net. (Working locally seems to work ok.)

If you must be set up as a SERVER, and are experiencing these problems you can
work around this by setting the SHARE CPU WHEN IN FOREGROUND to N and RUNS IN
BACKGROUND to N in Change Program for applications that access DOS in a manner
that causes crashes.

For more information about Changing a Program's information, please see
chapter 7 of the DV Manual and the grey DV upgrade pamplet.

This will allow you to switch between programs, but will not run these
programs in background.

Another option is to setup your LANtastic Network with a PC dedicated as a
server and only run DV on a non-server.

Quarterdeck is currently investigating to see if a modified version of
server.exe will be able to tell DV not to multi-task during critical
operations performed by the server.

************************************************************************
*This technical note may be copied and distributed freely as long as it*
*is distributed in its entirety and it is not distributed for profit. *
* Copyright (C) 1991-2 by Quarterdeck Office Systems *
************************ E N D O F F I L E *************************