Using File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks

If you want to use File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks:

• The computer must use Client for NetWare Networks, rather than Novell-supplied client software.
• Only user-level security (not share-level security) is available.
• The service cannot run on the same computer as SMB-based File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks.
• For pass-through validation when user-level security is enabled, there must be a Windows_Passthru account (with no password) on the NetWare server that is used as the security provider.

A computer configured with File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks uses the NCP file-sharing protocol to share resources with MS-DOS – based Novell NetWare computers, computers running Windows NT, and computers that have Client for NetWare Networks installed.

File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks supports long filenames and is Plug and Play-aware. This new implementation differs from peer resource sharing in Windows for Workgroups in two fundamental ways:

• File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks uses the NCP protocol instead of the SMB protocol. This means that any NetWare-compatible client (Client for NetWare Networks, NETX, or VLM) can connect to a computer running File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks.
• File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks uses user-level security. Access to a shared resource is based on the user's identity instead of on a password associated with that resource. The user database for verifying user identity is the bindery on a specified NetWare server.

This feature means that hundreds of NetWare users can, for example, access a shared CD-ROM using a single NetWare server connection. Also, trustee or other access rights can be defined per-directory for a shared CD-ROM.

When File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks is running on a computer, how that peer server appears to users browsing on the network depends on how the peer server advertises itself:

• For another computer running Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks, the resources on the peer server appear exactly as any shared resources on the network. If the peer server is using Workgroup Advertising, it appears in a workgroup. A peer server using Service Advertising Protocol (SAP, the NetWare broadcasting protocol) Advertising will not appear in a workgroup, but it will appear in the Entire Network list.
• For a computer running NETX or VLM, any shared directories on a peer server that uses SAP advertising appear the same as volumes on any server. Any shared printers will appear as print queues. Most NetWare administrative commands work as expected, including RIGHTS, FILER, SYSCON, MAP, SLIST, VOLINFO, PCONSOLE, and CAPTURE. If the peer server is not using SAP Advertising, then users running NETX or VLM cannot see or connect to the peer server when browsing the network.

Sharing Resources on a NetWare Network: An Example

During the beta test phase for Windows 95, one NetWare system administrator found the peer resource sharing service to be an administrative lifesaver. A vice president at the company had CD-ROM hardware problems just when he needed immediate access to a tax program that was available only on compact disc.

The quick-thinking administrator installed File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks on a computer that had a CD-ROM drive. After making sure the vice president was assigned access rights, the administrator mapped a drive on the vice president's computer to access the shared CD-ROM.

The Windows 95 peer resource sharing service allowed the administrator to provide an immediate software solution to a hardware problem that would have taken much longer to solve.