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NET-TIME Version 2.00a Copyright (C), 1993, 1994, G.W. Mays 3314 Prince George San Antonio, Texas 78230 WHAT IS NET-TIME? NET-TIME is a package of programs which allow systems on your network to remain synchronized with respect to date and time. One system is used to continuously broadcast the date and time. Other systems may then receive these broadcasts. The programs which provide this service are DOS TSR's, typically less than 2K bytes in size. There is support for NetBIOS based networks as well as Novell Netware. SHAREWARE NOTICE NET-TIME is a "Shareware" product. It is the copyrighted work of G.W. Mays. It is not free; nor is it in the public domain. All rights to this product are retained by its author. You are free to try NET-TIME for 30 days in order to ascertain whether or not its functions are valuable to you and whether or not it performs to your satisfaction. After 30 days, you are expected to either register and pay for NET-TIME, or, discontinue your use of NET-TIME. Shareware authors trust in your integrity. Please don't let us down. You are encouraged to further disseminate NET-TIME to other interested parties. However, you must pass along the complete product. Please do not break the package into pieces. You may not sell this program to others. However, organizations that specialize in the distribution of shareware are allowed to charge a small fee for their efforts provided that the product fully retains its identity and integrity, and that their customers are made to understand the shareware nature of the contents. REGISTRATION Register your use of NET-TIME by printing out a copy of the ORDER.TXT file provided with the package (COPY ORDER.TXT PRN). Fill it out, make your check payable to G.W. Mays. Mail it to the address which appears at the top of the form. In return, you will receive a copy of the most recent version of the NET-TIME software and evaluation copies of RightTime (from Air Systems Technologies) and TimeSet (from Life Sciences Software). In addition, your name will be added to our mailing list so that you may be informed of any noteworthy changes and additions to NET-TIME. Favorable upgrade pricing for future versions of NET-TIME will be afforded to registered users. Your registration also entitles you to technical support. DISCLAIMER No software product is infalible. NET-TIME is no exception. Hence, we will not be responsible for damages that might result, either directly or indirectly, from the use of NET-TIME. We assume no responsibility for consequential damages arising from the use of our product. In addition, we disclaim, to the largest extent possible, any warranties of merchantability or suitability for a particular purpose. INSTALLATION NET-TIME is generally installed in its own subdirectory on your hard disk. Create a suitably named subdirectory to contain NET-TIME. Copy the "NETIMxxx.ZIP" file to that subdirectory. Place youreself in that subdir- ectory, and "unzip" it. The components of the NET-TIME product should "explode". Example: C: MD \NETTIME COPY A:\NETIMxxx.EXE C:\NETTIME CD \NETTIME NETIMxxx Examine the READ.ME file. It contains information pertinent to your use of NET-TIME. Changes to the documentation that are "late breaking" in nature, appear here. HOW TO USE Usually, NET-TIME is implemented with a single system on your network that is considered to be the "MASTER TIME STANDARD". That system should use the appropriate NET-TIME program to broadcast the date and time to the rest of your network. Other systems on your network which require coordin- ated date and time, should use the appropriate NET-TIME program to keep the system clock synchronized with the broadcaster. The NET-TIME program which is appropriate for your use depends upon the network operating system you employ. If your network is Novell, you will probably want to use the IPX versions of the NET-TIME programs. If your network is NetBIOS-based, then the NETBIOS versions of the the NET-TIME programs are in order. Programs: TIMESNDN Broadcast time via NetBIOS TIMERCVN Receive NetBIOS time broadcasts TIMESNDI Broadcast time via IPX TIMERCVI Receive IPX time broadcasts The NET-TIME programs are TSR's. Program sizes are various, but are typically less than 2K bytes when resident. All may be loaded high if your system supports the capability. Remember that NET-TIME requires the services provided by some of your network software; so be sure to load IPX (for Novell) or NetBIOS before NET-TIME. CONFIGURATION NET-TIME comes with a configuration utility named TIMECFG. Place yourself in the directory into which you installed NET-TIME and execute TIMECFG. Alter configuration values to suit your needs. Note that the default values will probably work in most circumstances. NET-TIME system parameters that are under your control are... NETBIOS NAME OF BROADCASTER. This is the NetBIOS name of the broadcast program. It may be 1 to 16 characters in length and should not contain embedded blanks. See the "gory" details of your NetBIOS to determine any restrictions that may apply. The default is "TIMESERVER". NETBIOS NAME OF RECEIVERS. This is the NetBIOS name of the programs which receive the broadcasts. The default is "TIMECLIENT". See the notes above. BROADCAST INTERVAL. This is the time interval between Date/Time broadcasts expressed in "ticks". There are 18.2 ticks per second. The default is 91 which translates to 5 seconds. IPX SOCKET. This is the IPX socket number expressed in hexadecimal. DO NOT BYTE-REVERSE THIS VALUE. Simply enter the socket number you wish to use; NET-TIME will perform the translation to non-Intel format as needed by IPX. (Sockets serve to identify the process which is using IPX services). The default is (hex) 4949. LAN ADAPTER NUMBER. This is the NetBIOS LAN Adapter Number. If you have a single network adapter, then this is generally set to zero. The default is 0. INITIAL WAIT TIME. In 2.00a, this parameter applies only to the the TIMERCVN program. It specifies the amount of time, in "ticks", that TIMERCVN will wait for a time broadcast during program initialization. Typically, this should be set to the same value as the BROADCAST INTERVAL. See "Notes on Program Initialization" in the section below. TIMECFG modifies the .COM files directly. By default, TIMECFG will look for the NET-TIME programs in the current directory. If the environment variable "NETTIME" is defined, it is assumed to specify the path to the NET-TIME programs. USE WITH OTHER PROGRAMS Providing a single source for network date and time is a double-edged sword. While it serves to provide uniformity and is relatively fault-tolerent, this source will also proliferate bad information to all of its clients if it comes from a tainted or questionable origin. We suggest that you employ the services of RightTime, from Air System Technoligies of Dallas, Texas, and TimeSet, from Life Sciences Software of Stanwood, Washington. Both are valuable products in their own right. Working together, and in conjunction with NET-TIME, you can expect a highly accurate and reliable network time source. RightTime is a software product which adaptively regulates the accuracy of the clock within the PC you use to broadcast the date and time. Without RightTime, PC's tend to "drift" slightly each day with respect to their timekeeping. TimeSet is a software product which automates access to dial-up time sources such as NIST in Boulder, Colorado, and the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. This simplifies the process of obtaining and setting accurate time on your PC. Both products are available on better bulletin boards everywhere. If you have difficulty locating either of them from your usual sources, try the Air System Technologies BBS at (214) 869-2780. CONFIGURING A BRIDGE The NetBIOS version of NET-TIME may be used to form a "time bridge". Given a system with two (or more) LAN adapters connected to different networks, you may execute TIMERCVN to receive the date/time broadcasts from a specific adapter (and thereby from a specific network). You may then execute TIMESNDN (or several copies of same) to rebroadcast date/time on other adapters. IBM's NetBIOS (NETBEUI or TOKRUEI) supports only two LAN adapters numbered 0 and 1. Hence, only a trivial bridge is possible under these circumstances; receiving broadcasts on one of the adapters and rebroadcasting same on the other. Performance Technology's NetBIOS is not constrained to two LAN adapters. In fact, the author has configured a bridge in the PT PowerLan environment with five adapters. In this case, one copy of TIMERCVN receives date/time from adapter 0; four copies of TIMESNDN execute concurrently to rebroadcast date/time via the other four LAN adapters. COMMAND LINE OPTIONS Various parameters may be specified on the command line when the NET-TIME programs are executed. The allowable options depend upon the program in question. Note that the parameters under your contol via the command line are the same as those that are manipulable by way of the TIMECFG program. Specifically... TIMESNDI -- Broadcast time via IPX /S=hexsocket IPX socket. A 4 digit hexadecimal value. DO NOT BYTE-REVERSE. Default: 4949 hex. /I=interval Broadcast interval in "ticks". A 1 to 4 digit decimal value. There are 18.2 ticks per second. Default: 91. TIMERCVI -- Receive IPX time broadcasts /S=hexsocket IPX socket. A 4 digit hexadecimal value. DO NOT BYTE-REVERSE. Default: 4949 hex. TIMESNDN -- Broadcast time via NetBIOS /I=interval Broadcast interval in "ticks". A 1 to 4 digit decimal value. There are 18.2 ticks per second. Default: 91. /A=adapter# LAN adapter number. A 1 digit decimal value (0 to 9). Default: 0. /F=send_nbname NetBIOS name from which the broadcasts are sent. Default: TIMESERVER. /T=recv_nbname NetBIOS name to which the broadcasts are sent. Default: TIMECLIENT. TIMERCVN -- Receive NetBIOS time broadcasts /A=adapter# LAN adapter number. A 1 digit decimal value (0 to 9). Default: 0. /N=recv_nbname NetBIOS name to which the broadcasts are sent. Default: TIMECLIENT. /I=init_wait Wait time in ticks for initial broadcast. The option letters (A, I, F, etc.) are case insensitive. Also, the use of the equal sign (=) is optional. In addition to the options specific to the individual programs, each program responds to the following: ALL PROGRAMS /H or /? Help. Displays a brief description of the options the program recognizes. /U Unload. Don't get excited. It's not implemented yet. I had to leave something for the next release. NOTES ON PROGRAM INITIALIZATION The program initialization logic of TIMERCVN version 2.00a has been enhanced. Behavior of the program at initialization largely depends upon the setting of the INITIAL WAIT TIME parameter, which may be set via TIMECFG or by way of the command line (/I=...). If INITWAIT is set to zero, TIMERCVN does not attempt to capture a date/time broadcast while it is initializing; it simply prepares to receive such a broadcast and remains resident. If INITWAIT is non-zero, TIMERCVN will delay for the period specified in an attempt to capture a date/time broadcast. During this delay, four outcomes are possible: (1) a broadcast is received, (2) the ESC key is struck, (3) another key is struck, or (4) no broadcast is received within the INITWAIT interval. In the first instance, TIMERCVN's behavior is rather obvious, it displays the date and time and proceeds to terminate and stay resident. If the ESC key is struck, TIMERCVN will cease its attempts to capture a date/time broadcast, and, it will terminate WITHOUT remaining resident. Entering a key other than ESC, will result in cessation of attempts to capture a date/time broadcast, but TIMERCVN will remain resident. If however, attempts to capture a date/time broadcast "time out", TIMERCVN will simply display the "No broadcaster detected" message and remain resident. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR I am always interested in improving and correcting NET-TIME. If you have a question or problem, or (uh-ungh) a bug, then please let me know. I will make every effort to make things right. In addition, since the variety of network platforms upon which NET-TIME functions is an important component of its value, I am open to adding support for alternative network transport mechanisms. If you are in posession of the pertinent programming details for a platform not currently supported, I would appreciate the opportunity to extend NET-TIME to meet your needs. You may contact me in several ways. I prefer to receive mail via the Exec-PC BBS (414-789-4210) under the name "George Mays". Also, I check my mail every few days on Compuserve; my userid is 72300,503. I am considering adding a phone line and answering machine if the need becomes clear and present. Please understand that while I have high hopes for NET-TIME, it does not have a significant enough following at this point to justify a large investment in support resources.