Win95 Notes...

Sambar Server Documentation

Windows95 Notes...

With some modifications, the Windows95 OSR2 release can be used as an internet server. However, Windows NT (Service Pack 3) is highly recommended over Windows95 if you plan on running the Sambar Server for prolonged periods or are expecting a high volumn of traffic. In particular, Sambar Server Proxy strenuously exercises the TCP/IP stack and can become unstable and/or crash after prolonged use (an upgrade to Windows 98 is recommended).

Get the Windows 95 Kernel 32 update. This update to Kernel 32 for Windows 95 resolves memory leaks which occur when using applications that require continuous opening and closing of sockets.
Get the latest TCP/IP stack. The default TCP/IP stack that ships with Windows95 has numerous memory leaks. In addition, the Sambar Server was modified in the 4.3 release to require Winsock2.

Updated Winsock 2

Is your machine on a LAN ?

Password Update [includes fixes for MANY network bugs]

Increase the simultaneous TCP/IP socket count if you are expecting heavy Traffic.


	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP
	

		
		"MaxConnections"=256

Note: On Windows95 the MaxConnections argument should be a DWORD, on Windows98 the argument should be a String.

Automatic Restart

Due to the numerous memory leaks in Windows95, James Burton suggests the following technique for running the Sambar Server unattended on a Windows95 machine for prolonged periods:

I set up a restart shortcut and set a cron to trigger it once a day at about 3 in the morning (I use "Cron the Clock Daemon" by Software Engineering Inc.).

Then I use the Tweak UI from Microsoft and set it up to automatically perform the windows login. I also set it to "never" autorun scandisk so as to avoid scandisk running and interupting the restart in the event that there was a power failure. I check the machine in person about every 2-3 weeks and do an actual power down when I am out on the client site doing other support work. I got the restart shortcut tip from: http://tvland.maxinet.com/relling/rae-rs1.htm

Restart Windows with a Shortcut

You can restart Win95 by holding the shift key while you select Restart from the Shutdown dialog box or you can make a shortcut.

Make a copy, on your Desktop, of the "MS-DOS Prompt" shortcut in your Windows\Start Menu\Programs directory Right click on the icon and choose "Properties" Click on the "Program" tab Modify the "Cmd line" entry to read; %COMSPEC% /C

[I had to uncheck "close on exit" on the program tab to get it to work right - James]

If you want to assign a Hot Key, enter it on the "Shortcut key" line before continuing Click on the "Advanced" button Check "MS-DOS mode" and uncheck "Warn before entering DOS mode" Click "OK" Change the icon, if you wish, and click "OK" Rename the shortcut "Restart" If you want a copy on your Start Menu, simply drag and drop the shortcut on the Start button When you use the Restart shortcut, you may see an error message in DOS mode stating that a DOS program is still running and you need to exit the program. This error can be caused by an entry, such as attempting to load a real mode mouse driver in the DOSSTART.BAT, located in your Windows directory. DOSSTART.BAT always runs before the DOS prompt appears when exiting to DOS, so you'll need to correct any problems it causes, or simply delete DOSSTART.BAT if you don't need it.

Lastly, James offers this piece of startup information: If you set a screensaver password, and then add a shortcut to the appropriate .scr file to your startup group it will automatically put you into a screensaver protected running state when the machine reboots. This can be bypassed during boot, but is enough to stop most users from messing with a dedicated web/proxy server machine.