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-
-
- QuickLink Documentation
- (C) Copyright Daniel Doman 1986, 1987, 1988
- 166 East 96th Street
- New York, N.Y. 10128
-
- QuickLink is copyrighted by, and is the sole property of Daniel B.
- Doman. You are hereby granted a single user license to use QuickLink. You
- may not modify QuickLink, resell, or otherwise charge for its use without
- violating this license.
-
-
- What QuickLink Is
-
- QuickLink is a network mapping utility. It sets and resets network
- device redirection. All network operating systems supply similar utilities, but
- they are usually not as fast, and flexible, and the utilities from one network
- operating system cannot work on another network operating system.
- QuickLink can work in just about any local area network. It has been
- tested under IBM, Novell, Vines, 3Com, Waterloo, and Network-OS. Most
- network mapping utilities can map one item at a time, but QuickLink can
- perform several operations from one command line. You can map both
- directories and shared printers from the same command line.
- QuickLink has been designed to be as small and fast as possible. There
- is scant online help. It is intended for the experienced network user. The
- command line syntax is necessarily terse. This documentaion does not
- attempt to teach local area network theory. It assumes that you already
- understand basic operations.
-
-
- How To Use QuickLink
-
- Compound Commands
-
- You can give multiple commands to QuickLink by separating each
- command with a semicolon. You can string as many commands together as
- DOS will permit on a command line.
-
-
- Linking
-
- The basic syntax of all network redirection is "map this local `thing' to
- that network 'thing'. The local `thing' is the name of a local device such as
- a drive letter or a printer device such as LPT1: or PRN. The network
- `thing' is the sharename created by such and such a network server. The
- verb to redirect something varies from one network manufacturer to
- another. Some say "MAP", some say "USE" and others say "LINK". They all
- mean the same thing. An example of IBM mapping syntax is shown below:
-
- Net Use E: \\NETSRVR\PROGRAMS
- Net Use F: \\NETSRVR\DATA
- Net Use PRN \\NETSRVR\PRINTER1
- Net Use
-
- The Equivalent QuickLink syntax is below
-
- QL E: \\NETSRVR\PROGRAMS; F: \\NETSRVR\DATA; PRN \\NETSRVR\PRINTER1; -L
-
-
- Most network utilities will complain if you try to link a network
- sharename to a local device which is already linked to something. If the
- local name that you are linking the network sharename to is already linked
- to something, QuickLink will automatically delete it.
- QuickLink can link both directory and printer sharenames on the same
- command line. Some networks such as 3Com and Novell require separate
- utilities to map printers and directory sharenames.
- Each network utility has slightly different syntax, but QuickLink uses
- the same syntax on all networks.
-
-
-
- Passwords
-
- If a sharename has a password, you must supply the password on your
- command line. QuickLink will simply return an error if the password is
- missing or incorrect. It is also an error to give a password where none was
- required. Below is an example of linking to a network sharename with a
- password.
-
-
- QL F: \\NETSERVER\SECRET Yomomma
-
-
-
- Listing Current Links
-
- To list current redirection (mapping), you give QuickLink a "-L" on the
- command line. If you feel more comfortable spelling out -LIST you can, but
- QuickLink only cares about the first letter. The command above might thus
- look like:
-
-
- QL E: \\NETSRVR\PROGRAMS; F: \\NETSRVR\DATA; PRN \\NETSRVR\PRINTER1; -L
-
-
-
-
- Deleting Links
-
- Deleting a network Link is easy. Just give the local device name and
- then a "/d" for delete. For example:
-
- QL D: /D; PRN /d; E: /d; LPT1 /d
-
- QuickLink will not complain if you delete redirection from a local device
- that was not in fact redirected. The net result will be the same - the local
- device is no longer redirected. An older version of QuickLink used an
- exclamation point instead of the "/d" switch, and this version of QuickLink
- accepts that syntax as well. For example:
-
- QL D: !; PRN !; E: !; LPT1 !
-
-
- Deleting All Links
-
-
- You can delete all active network links by giving an asterisk for the
- local device name. Below is an example..
-
- QL * /d
-
- Mapping To A Novell Network
-
- Most people do not realize that Novell networks maintain IBM compatible
- sharenames. Sometimes the sharenames are not obvious. You can get a better
- feel for the sharenames that Novell uses if you LIST your current links
- after logging in. The shared printers on a Novell server are typically called
- PTR0, PTR1, and so forth.
- Once you understand the IBM style sharenames that the Novell server
- has generated, you can use QuickLink instead of the more cumbersome Novell
- utilities.
- The syntax to see your current network links is below:
-
- QL -L
-
-
-
- Mapping To A Vines Network
-
-
- Banyan Vines networks maintain IBM style sharenames and redirection
- tables. The naming conventions are the same as Vines "StreetTalk" names.
- The trick in discerning the IBM style name is the same as for a Novell
- network. Link to some drives and printers, and then LIST your links to see
- what the IBM style sharenames are.
-
-
-
- Mapping To A 3Com Network
-
- 3Com networks use a naming scheme that is almost identical to the IBM
- style. One 3Com oddity that QuickLink demonstrates is that there is no real
- security in a 3Com network. You can continue to link to network sharenames
- even AFTER logging OFF of the 3Com network! What is really frightening is
- that you can link to objects that you should not be able to access. Enough
- said about this!
-
-
-
- Making QuickLink Quiet
-
- If you want to put QuickLink into "quiet" mode, just redirect its output
- to NUL. For example:
-
- QL d: \\NETSERVER\FILES; PRN \\NETSERVER\NETPRN >NUL
-
-