C. Pointers to other resources
There are Novell user groups all over the world. For more information, including a list of user groups, check out http://www.novell.com/corp/community/nui/index.html
While you're attending your local user group meeting, it couldn't hurt to mention how wonderful our mailing list is :)
[thx. John L. Stevens & Randy Richardson]
C.2 Official FTP sites for Novell files
Novell has designated several FTP sites around the world as "official" mirrors of the Novell FTP server. These sites are updated at least once a week from the server in Utah. The mirrored FTP sites are available through the Internet as well as through other mechanisms like JANET in the UK and BBS systems in the Netherlands. In addition to the files from ftp.novell.com these servers may contain other useful information for managers of Novell networks. This is a list of the mirrors, their URLs, IP addresses and directories.
BNUG FTP server ftp://bnug.harvard.edu *128.103.85.201*
University of Groningen ftp://ftp.rug.nl/networks/novell *129.125.4.15* This server is updated daily. It is also available via BITNET and BBS (indirect)
University of Salford ftp://ftp.salford.ac.uk/novell *146.87.255.21* Also available via JANET IP
Utah State University ftp://netlab2.usu.edu *129.123.1.44* For Netscapers: ftp://netlab2.usu.edu/sys/anonftp Dir: /sys/anonftp subdirectories follow novell FTP. Index is the top level directory in each. Also available via BITNET, SPAN, Gopher (gopher.usu.edu)
Lincoln University ftp://tui.lincoln.ac.nz/novell/novlib *138.75.90.4*
University of Alabama ftp://risc.ua.edu/pub/network/novlib *130.160.4.7* Also available via BITNET
National Research Council (Canada) ftp://novell.nrc.ca/netwire *132.246.160.4* (Actually mirrors nightly from Joe D.'s netlab2.usu.edu, thus Joe's WHATIS files, for example, are also on this mirror)
United Kingdom ftp://ftp.novell.co.uk/pub
United Kingdom ftp://ftp.mechnet.liv.ac.uk
[Thanks to Steven Carpenter for this info]
So how to find things on Novell's master FTP server (or on Netwire, Novell's Compuserve forum)? First obtain a copy of FORUM.DOS, packaged as either forum.zip or forum.exe typically in forum 01. That's a good summary but not always up to date nor explicit about filenames within archives. The Netwire archive changes daily.
A full listing of the contents of each archive file, via Pkunzip,is the set of text files WHATIS.xxx in the Netwire directory on netlab2.usu.edu. "xxx" is the name of the forum, 01 etc. That suite is regenerated every week or two. The time/date stamp is shown for each file within a .zip/.exe archive.
The Netwire archive contains over 1000 files totaling 100+MB, most are .zip/.exe collections. Thus if things were unpacked there would be tens of thousands of files. The archive is divided into forums with special purposes. Forum Novfiles contains hot items which will be moved to the numbered forums in due course. One is very unlikely to find files named RCONSOLE.NLM or similar in the archive as bare files; instead those will be within .zip/.exe archives of arbitrary filenames.
Most Netwire files are self-extracting archives, to be found with .EXE extensions.
For Rconsole, see netwire\novlib\04\rcnsle.exe, where the latest Rconsole material resides. Here is a cutout from netwire\whatis.04:
Searching ZIP: NOVLIB/04/RCNSLE.EXE Length Method Size Ratio Date Time Name ------ ------ ----- ----- ---- ---- ---- 9147 Implode 3052 67% 04-17-91 10:36 RCONSOLE.HLP 83391 Implode 45356 46% 06-19-91 13:15 RCONSOLE.EXE 3042 Implode 1451 53% 08-26-91 10:00 READ.ME ------ ------ --- ------- 95580 49859 48% 3
To be complete, "Netwire" is formally the Novell area of Compuserve. The Novell owned files are placed on ftp.novell.com for anonymous ftp access. That is mirrored by a small number of official sites.
At last, many of the user-contributed files to NetWire (Compuserve) are now available via anonymous ftp from your favorite mirror of Netwire, including from ftp.novell.com. See directory netwire\novuser which has 12 subdirectories 01..12 (11 and 12 are empty right now).
File netwire\novuser\Index and text files netwire\novuser\whatis.xx (xx = 01..12) on netlab2 indicate the nature of each directory and the contents of each zip'd archive, respectively. A variety of archiving methods have been used by contributors, so don't expect PKUNZIP to work on all.
Here is the big picture of the novuser area (file Index):
User contributed material from Compuserve, Netwire\novuser NOVUSER Library Sections 1) New Uploads 2) Disk Drivers/Patches 3) LAN Drivers/Patches 4) Comm Drvs/Patches 5) Host/Unix Dvrs/Ptch 6) Printer Utils 7) Network (Sys) Utils 8) Client WS Utils 9) Management Tools 10) Text Files/Help 11) Job Postings 12) Classifieds
The following is a list of indices for novell software on ftp.novell.com and mirrors:
/netwire/novfiles/novfil.idx /netwire/novlib/01/forum.* (may be in /02/) /netwire/novlib/01/novchg.txt (may be in /02/) /netwire/novuser/01/taplib.exe /netwire/novuser/01/tapusr.exe /netwire/novuser/01/titles.exe On the netlab2.usu.edu only mirror, you can also find the following: /netwire/novuser/Index /netwire/novuser/whatis.* /netwire/versions/novlib04.ver /netwire/versions/novlib05.ver /netwire/versions/novlib06.ver
ftp.novell.com is being moved away from the netwire library concept. The managers of ftp.novell.com advise that users should familiarise themselves with the pub2 directory tree. Information for the pub2 tree can be found in /pub2/00DIR. Each subdirectory in /pub2 also has a 00DIR index file.
C.2.1 Official GOPHER site for Novell files and Information
Novell has established an excellent Gopher-based site. It is must faster than the www site and is located at:
The links on this site are just about everything a Netware support person could ever want or need. Explore!
Useful ftp sites, along with their Novell related directories include:
ftp://splicer2.cba.hawaii.edu/files/novell ftp://splicer2.cba.hawaii.edu/files/pegasus *128.171.17.2*
ftp://cc.usu.edu/slip ftp://cc.usu.edu/tcp-ip *129.123.1.1*
ftp://risc.ua.edu/pub/network/novlib ftp://risc.ua.edu/pub/network/pegasus ftp://risc.ua.edu/pub/network/misc ftp://risc.ua.edu/pub/network/tcpip *130.160.4.7*
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/etc/system/novell *128.252.135.4*
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/novell *131.246.9.95*
ftp://netlab.usu.edu/novell ftp://netlab.usu.edu/netwatch *129.123.1.11*
ftp://chaos.cc.ncsu.edu/share/pc/novell ftp://chaos.cc.ncsu.edu/share/pc/utils ftp://chaos.cc.ncsu.edu/share/pc/email ftp://chaos.cc.ncsu.edu/share/pc/net ftp://chaos.cc.ncsu.edu/share/pc/manage *152.1.19.23*
ftp://ftp.novell.de/pub/NetWire ftp://ftp.novell.de/pub/unix ftp://ftp.novell.de/pub/unixware ftp://ftp.novell.de/pub/drdos ftp://ftp.novell.de/pub/sjf-lwp *193.97.1.1*
[Thanks to Mark Burgess and David Silverstein for this info]
The following list of numbers was extracted from a list sent by Sarah Peterson of Novell to Larry Bradley, which he kindly posted to our mailing list. I have included in the FAQ because I believe it is of general interest. These numbers were accurate as of November 18, 1991.
DEPARTMENT/GROUP TOLL-FREE REGULAR
After Market Products (AMP) 800-346-7177 801-568-8856
Anthem/Eagle (Ethernet) 800-733-2453 408-453-1200
API Development/Austin 800-RED-WORD 512-794-1795
Authorized Reseller Information 800-828-3362
Contract Inquires/AMP 800-346-7177 801-568-8856
Corporate Headquarters 800-453-1267 801-429-7000
Customer Success Portfolios 800-UPDATE1 801-429-5155
Developer Assistance 800-729-4357
Reseller Authorization 800-828-3362
LANalyzer Products 800-243-8526 408-473-8324
Literature Orders 800-UPDATE1 801-429-5155
NetWare Users International 800-228-4NUI
Novell Education 800-233-3382
Novell Education FaxBack 801-429-5363
OURS Program 800-237-OURS
Professional Developers Program (PDP) 800-RED-WORD 512-794-1795
Piracy 800-PIRATES 801-429-7600
Product Information 800-NETWARE 801-429-5155
Promotional Products 800-526-4483
RMA 800-NETWARE
Technical Marketing Support 800-733-9673
Technical Support 800-NETWARE 801-429-5588
Technical Support/PDP 800-SAY-HELP 512-794-1795
Upgrades/Updates 800-UPDATE1 801-429-5155
Warranty Registration 800-458-7773
Novell BBS 801-429-3030
[Thx L.C.H.]
The quality of technical books is very uneven, it's nice to have someone you trust recommend a book so that one don't waste time and money on a poorly edited piece of trash that simply regurgitates the manual. Over the years, listers have recommended the following:
Books about NetWare
Thomas and Hughes, "The Four Principles of NDS Design"
Books about TCP/IP
For a gentle intro to TCP/IP, try Douglas Comer, "Internetworking with TCP/IP", vol 1 2nd edition, ISBN For a VERY detailed book, try W. Richard Stevens, "TCP/IP Illustrated", vol 1 ISBN 0-201-63346-9 Seriously, buy both of the above books, read Comer first and then Stevens. Jeff Doyle, "CCIE Professional Development: Routing TCP/IP" Vol I, ISBN: 1-57870-041-8
Books about DNS
This is THE book on DNS. It is rather Unix centric, but is an excellent roadmap for understanding DNS on any platform. Albitz & Liu, "DNS and BIND", 2nd edition ISBN 1-56592-236-0
Books about networking h/w and protocols
Andrew Tanenbaum, "Computer Networks" Rich Seifert, "Gigabit Ethernet" ISBN 0-201-18553-9 For an excellent discussion of switching and the spanning tree algorithm, try Kennedy Clark et al, "Cisco LAN Switching "
[Thx Joe D., Hansang Bae, and probably many more]
I have found the following links to be useful, I hope that you do, too.
You can search the FAQ at http://netlab1.usu.edu/cgi-bin/texis/webinator/search/.
There is a searcheable archive of the mailing list at http://lsv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?S1=novell.
Novell maintains a site which periodically adds case studies, tips,
etc. about some of their products.
info about ZEN - http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/zenworks/
info about GroupWise - http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/gwmag/
info about NDS - http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/nds/
Novell maintains an online version of most of their documentation at http://www.novell.com/documentation/
You can search the knowledge base at http://support.novell.com/search/kb_index.htm
Novell's AppNotes (an excellent monthly periodical with in depth explanations on a variety of subjects) can be found at http://developer.novell.com/research/appnotes.htm
Programmers may be interested in Novell's monthly DeveloperNotes at http://developer.novell.com/research/devnotes.htm
The Ethernet Page is an outstanding technical reference, located at http://wwwhost.ots.utexas.edu/ethernet/
You can find a database matching MAC addresses to a particular vendor at http://www.cavebear.com/CaveBear/Ethernet/
C.7 NetWare Free, Patching, Patches and Version FAQs locations
A list of freeware NLMs is located at:
A FAQ on patching a Netware server is located at:
A FAQ on NLM patches is located at:
And an NLM version FAQ is located at:
[Thx G.J.S.]
There is a NetWare CD-ROM containing 2,141 Public Domain/Free/Shareware programs and a database of 450 commercial add-ons available from EMS Professional Shareware, 4505 Buckhurst Ct., Olney MD 20832-1830, (301) 924-3594, Fax (301) 963-2708, ems@wdn.com.