Arachne and LAN (Local Area Network)

Introduction to network adapters

Arachne uses something called packet driver interface to get TCP/IP connectivity. In DOS, there are various standards to communicate with network adapter (eg. Ethernet card). For most common network adapters (eg. 3COM) there are available drivers providing directly the "packet driver interface"; these drivers are usually very small programs, and they require much less memory than utilities like Novell Netware client, etc. - typicaly less than 10 KB. The largest packet drivevr collection is available at www.crynwr.com - homepage of Crynwr Software, company which designed the packet driver concept for DOS.

If your card is shipped with ODI driver (required by DOS client for Novell Netware) you can use freeware utility called ODIPKT.COM. Arachne should be able to auto-install ODIPKT layer, but you must take care about your NET.CFG (see sample NET.CFG for 3c509 ODI driver). and STARTNET.BAT files and about command line arguments of ODIPKT (usually something like "ODIPKT 0 0x60"). Generally you should first ask some Novell Netware wizard to help you, if you have to use ODI driver.

If you are using NDIS interface, try to find some utility to convert NDIS interface to packet driver interface. For eample in Windows 9x DOS, if you have chance to assign second IP address to your PC, try NDIS3PKT driver available at www.danlan.com or DIS_PKT9 availablle on SIMTEL.

NCSA Telnet compatibility (packet driver+BOOTP)

Arachne will work on every computer in LAN, where NCSA (or Clarkson University - CUTE) Telnet works. These DOS telnets were often - not always - configured to get their IP addresses using BOOTP protocol.

This doesn't mean, that you need Telnet to run Arachne, as one user supposed! Imagine I am telling you that Arachne will work on every computer, where game Simcity 2000 works... (which is by the way true) Setup Arachne to use resident packet driver and configure via BOOTP. If you don't want to use graphical setup, the syntax of commands in ARACHNE.CFG is

Connection READY
IP_Address BOOTP
TCP_Config LANTCP.CFG

Note: There is Arachne Package (TELNET.APM) with copy of Clarkson university TELNET and FTP and sample CONFIG.TEL configuration file for them. If you are already using these programs on your LAN, or if you don't want to use Telnet client at all, you don't need TELNET.APM package.

DOSLYNX/WatTcp compatibility

If you are already running DOSLYNX (or other WatTcp applications) and have working DOSLYNX.CFG, try to update your ARACHNE.CFG with something like this:

Connection READY
IP_Address WATTCP
TCP_Config C:\DOSLYNX\DOSLYNX.CFG (or eg. C:\WATTCP\WATTCP.CFG)

Server installation

If you want to install Arachne on server (eg. drive S:), caching is strongly recommended (eg. NWCACHE S+). You will need some directory dedicated to each running copy of Arachne. If workstations have some local disk space available (eg. drive C:) and each user has his/her own home directory (eg. H:), try to setup Arachne local settings like this:

Cache path C:\CACHE\
Mail path H:
Download path A:\
Cache index C:\CACHE\cache.idx
History file H:history.lst
In this case, don't forget to create directory C:\CACHE! You can put commands (MKDIR C:\CACHE) and command for loading packet driver for example to AUTOEXEC.BAT, or to some login script. It's not good idea to put it to ARACHNE.BAT, as as it is recursive batch file (it calls itself when returning from external programs).

If the workstations use different SVGA cards, run Arachne always from local directory (eg. C:\ARACHNE) because Arachne always saves video card information (ARACHNE.PCK) in current directory. But make sure that each ARACHNE.PCK uses the same history file (eg. C:\ARACHNE\history.lst). On diskless workstations, configuring drive C: as ram disk and using it as Arachne working directory (while executable files are stored on the server - just update the PATH variable in AUTOEXEC.BAT...)

Note: Arachne can understand *.CNM files in Pegasus mail for DOS (typical on Novell networks) mail directory, but the replies must go through SMTP server.

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