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- ID:LN Lantastic Network Operating System
- Quarterdeck Technical Note
- by Myke Keefe
-
- Artisoft
- Artisoft Plaza
- 575 E. River Road
- Tuscon, AZ 85704
- (602) 293-6363
-
- We have tested the starter package with DESQview versions 2.25
- and 2.26, The LAN starter kit consists of (2) 2mbps lan adapters
- and a system disk.
-
- Installation was rather easy, and the instructions in the manual
- are complete. If you are installing this system on a 386 and are
- using QEMM 4.23, you must exclude the Lan adapter ROM address
- space. These are documented in the Lan Adapter user manual on
- Pg. 6 (table 2). Default is D800-DFFF.
-
- LANBIOS.EXE is the program that activates the network
- adapter in your PC. It uses 1K and can be loaded high.
-
- REDIR.EXE is the networking software. Each PC has to run
- this to be on the network. It uses 11K and can be loaded
- high.
-
- SERVER.EXE is an additional program that enables the PC
- running it to be accessed as a file server rather than just
- as a workstation. It takes about 22K and in most cases can
- also be loaded high.
-
- Lantastic uses DOS SHARE.EXE to provide basic file protection and
- locking. Non-network versions of software can be run by only one
- user at a time.
-
- We find that with DESQview 2.25 you may want to try using an
- undocumented parameter, /DT. This tells DESQview to inform DOS
- when DESQview closes files. Generally, DESQview is able to run
- many programs without using DOS, and for the sake of speed we
- don't tell DOS when we close files. Network software that
- requires running SHARE.EXE may need /DT to keep things straight.
- This may help if you are experiencing lock-ups running DESQview
- on a Lantastic server.
-
- I have been able to run DESQview 2.26 from the workstation as
- well as from the server. But as a rule, each workstation
- should run DESQview locally or run it from a unique directory on
- the server.
-
- Since the servers in Lantastic are not dedicated, DESQview can
- be run on a PC designated as a server. If you do this, you must
- login to the server as the workstations do, to minimize
- degradation of performance of the network as a whole.
-
- There are also two other programs, net and net_mgr, which can be
- run on a DOS command line or as a network menu program if no
- parameters are given to them. This is the only part of Lantastic
- that could be run in a DESQview window, but is not recommended as
- it may cause lockups.
-
- The network drivers (lanbios.exe, redir.exe and server.exe) MUST
- be run before invoking DESQview.
-
- Also it has been noted that when running DESQview on the server and
- using the Lantastic print spooler, DESQview's "Manage Printer
- Contention" option should be set to [N].
-
- Copyright (C) 1990 by Quarterdeck Office Systems
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