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[*]===========================================================[*] | | | NETLIST Concurrent search for NetBIOS network users, | | 1.3 extended network statistics | | June 1990 & other services | | | [*]===========================================================[*] Public domain software by Adam MIROWSKI MIROWSKI@FRECP12.BITNET ADAMAINT@FRECP12.BITNET developed at the Ecole Centrale de Paris FRANCE ======================= TABLE of CONTENTS ======================= INTRODUCTION ------------ NETLIST's purpose Prerequisites New version 1.3 features Version 1.2 features USER's GUIDE ------------ NETLIST's command line syntax Explanation of various fields and entities Creating users' database NETLIST.DEF, the configuration file Examples Starting and interrupting NETLIST Archive's contents Remarks -- Bugs APPENDICES ---------- NETSTART.COM Ideas for next releases Search's principles Connection's mechanism The author ============== INTRODUCTION ============== __________________ NETLIST's purpose NETLIST performs various tests on NetBIOS networks. NetBIOS protocols are mainly run on Token-Ring and PC Network hardware, but there are implementations over TCP/IP and AppleTalk. NETLIST can: -- show current network users, by quickly checking the presence of a list of selected users, doing up to 170 tests per second, -- scan a range of adapters by number, to show connected ones, -- give extensive information and usage statistics about any adapter on the network, -- give an explanation about NetBIOS return codes. User's list can be automatically created and later updated. Results can be automatically time-stamped and archived. NETLIST supports two simultaneous LAN adapters. _____________ Prerequisites Have a working NetBIOS driver ----------------------------- All tests are performed at the NetBIOS level of protocols, so in order to be detected or tested, the user must have an installed and working NetBIOS that could answer NETLIST. The machine on which NETLIST is run must have NetBIOS too. The NetBIOS layer will be active on a machine if one of the following network softwares is running: -- IBM PC-LAN (Microsoft Network, in MS-Windows 3.0 terminology) -- Da Vinci eMAIL -- Future Soft DynaComm -- Sun Microsystems TOPS (*) -- Novell NetWare (*) -- Microsoft/3Com LAN Manager and generally if any NetBIOS based software has been used since the boot. (*) Netware and TOPS aren't NetBIOS based networking softwares, but they can provide NetBIOS services if the respective drivers have been loaded. You will only be able to detect people who did that. TOPS' NetBIOS driver is TNETBIOS.EXE and should be loaded after ALAP and PSTACK. You should add the /... parameter on ALAP command line. Netware's driver is NETBIOS.EXE. It should be loaded after IPX.COM or after NET?.COM. IBM's dxmT0mod.sys NetBIOS driver isn't automatically activated on adapter opening, except when it opens the adapter itself. So you don't have an active NetBIOS layer if after the boot you only started: -- IBM PC-3270 emulation, -- IBM Token-Ring bridge program, -- IBM TCP/IP suite of programs, -- IBMTOKEN.COM (Brian Fisher's 'Ethernet' packet driver for TCP/IP over Token-Ring). However, running NETLIST will activate your NetBIOS layer after the start of the PC-3270 emulation or after the installation of IBMTOKEN.COM. NETLIST cannot however activate NetBIOS on remote adapters. To simply start the NetBIOS layer there is NETSTART.COM, that you could insert at the end of batch files used to launch non NetBIOS- based network applications. Have a database of users or an momentaneous access to network machines ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In order to detect the presence of a user or to test his adapter, you have to know either one of the network names declared by his NetBIOS network software (for exemple the name PC-LAN has been started with) or the permanent identification number of his adapter. Testing adapter numbers is better than testing names, because an adapter number will be present on the network as soon as NetBIOS is started, whereas network names can change and depend on the currently used software. The adapter number can be obtained with NETLIST either remotely, from an active name or locally, running NETLIST on the machine the adapter is installed in. To create users' database, run REGISTER.BAT from a diskette on each machine you want to register. You will be asked to input a few words to identify the current machine. See details below. ________________________ New version 1.3 features Describes remote adapters better... ----------------------------------- -- NETLIST shows whether PC-LAN is running on remote adapters. -- The /X option displays all the names found on adapters during a search or in a scan. -- Adapter status display has been adapted to new NetBIOS drivers. Now, it indicates the type of the adapter hardware. Various other fields have been changed. Is easier to use... ------------------- -- Configuration files set defaults. No more need for batch files. -- User's database can be set up with a minimal effort. -- The /F option has a default argument (NETLIST.NAM). The /S option is more intelligent. -- Now when NETLIST doesn't find a name or an adapter number, it clearly indicates how it understood the given input string. -- Name and adapter number syntaxes are better checked. -- Now slash syntax for funny chars in names is used as often as possible, except when saving screen place is important. No slash is put in front of adapter numbers when there is no need for it. ...and more powerful! --------------------- -- Every command updates the specified or default namefile if /U option is specified. -- The /R [times] options asks to loop the test continuously or "times" times. -- The monitor option (/M) asks NETLIST to both: -- clear the screen and start displaying from the top, -- display received and transmitted frames instead of adapter numbers. -- Adaptative use of adapter resources will try to recover from errors which caused a premature end in the 1.2 version. -- NETLIST tries to find the right interrupt to use. You can impose an interrupt if needed. Some (small) 1.2 bugs have been fixed: -------------------------------------- -- Doesn't display inopportune messages anymore when used with 4DOS, the COMMAND.COM replacement. -- Missing newlines in /D option display. -- Missing fourth digit in the displayed adapter numbers' range (/S option). -- Number of available NCBs on remote adapters was +1 than what it should be. -- Wasn't correctly working from the root directory. ____________________ Version 1.2 features -- NETLIST can scan a given interval of adapter adresses. -- It can automatically update the network names and adapters' identifiers database, replacing NetBIOS names with adapter identifiers. -- NETLIST can display the full status of any given adapter and the status of all sessions on the local one. -- When NETLIST has to open the adapter, it warns about the additio- nal (10 second) delay and gives some feedback by displaying dots at 1/2 second intervals during the process. -- The parameters of the search (speed, precision) can be adjusted through command line switches. -- NETLIST gently stops on a Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break request, after cancelling all the outstanding polls. -- The result of each scan can be automatically archived to a file for later retrieval. -- NETLIST can wait for a while before returning to DOS. -- NETLIST can list NetBIOS error/reply codes with their meaning. -- NETLIST displays user friendly error messages, that should help the novice to compose a correct command line. ============== USER's GUIDE ============== [-----------------------------------------------] [ Notational conventions ] [-----------------------------------------------] [ [] designs an optional element ] [ { | | } asks to select one alternative ] [ ... represents any string ] [-----------------------------------------------] _____________________________ NETLIST's command line syntax NETLIST's command line syntax is basically: NETLIST [options] arguments "arguments" determine the function NETLIST performs, so there should be only one per run most of the time. Possible arguments (some look like options...) are: /H or /? Display help /F [NameFile] Search for adapters and names from namefile /S \FirstAdapterID {\CompleteLastAdapterID | IncompleteAdapterID} Scan this range of adapters NetworkName Display data about this network name * Display data about local adapter \AdapterID Display data about this adapter Available options are: /{0|1} Primary/secondary adapter /A ArchiveFile File where archive results /B NbOfBlocksToUse Speed of the search /D Set debug mode /E Display possible NetBIOS return codes /I Interactive update mode /L [[HH:]MM:]SS Wait after scan/search completion /M Select monitor mode /N [configfile] Use another config file or none /P HexIntNo Use this interruPt for NetBIOS comms /R [times] Repeat the test /T NbOfTicksToWaitForAnAnswer Precision of the search /U [updatefile] Update database /X Display all names Both upper case and lower case are accepted. Each option letter must be preceeded by a slash. Spaces are compulsory only after option argument (/R/M/X is valid, but not /R1/M/X). Some options may be not suitable for all functions. A description of arguments and options follows: ______ /H, /? Display a help screen. ______________ /F [NameFile] Test the presence of the NetBIOS names and adapter numbers listed in the NameFile database. If a name or adapter is present on the network, display one line of information about it. NameFile is a text file, a combination of two types of lines: NetworkName [Remark] [...] \12-digitHexadecimalAdapterID [Remark] [...] NETLIST lists all found names and adapters in the following way (a name always resides on an adapter): [MachineName] AdapterHEXid ConnectionTime Sessions/Names [P] [*][Remark] with a header and a footer giving the date/time of the test, used command line options and the time spend on the test. A "P" follows the names number if PC-LAN is running on the remote adapter. * is put at the beginning of the remark's field when the test has been done by network name rather than by adapter number. If NameFile isn't specified, the default NETLIST.NAM file is taken. NameFile is looked for in the current directory or in the direc- tory in which NETLIST.EXE resides. PATH environnement variable isn't used, in order to avoid side effects. The exact format of each field of the input file and of the displayed results is discussed in a separate section below. ___________________________________________________________________ /S \FirstAdapterID {\CompleteLastAdapterID | IncompleteAdapterID} Test the presence of the given range of adapter numbers. The first four digits must be the same in both numbers. To indicate the last adapter to test, writing only the end of its number is enough. For example, instead of: /S \10005A037500 \10005A0375FF you could simply put /S \10005A037500 FF on the command line. Control-Break and Control-C will safely interrupt the scan. Useful options: /T /B /U ___________ NetworkName Displays the NetBIOS status of the network adapter which has declared this network name. See the section below for an explanation of NetworkName formats. Useful options: /T ____ * Displays the status of the local adapter at the NetBIOS level and the status of all NetBIOS sessions. __________ \AdapterID Displays the status of the given adapter. For local adapters displays also the status of all its sessions. See the section below for an explanation of the \AdapterID format. Useful options: /T. ______ /{0|1} Select either the primary (/0) or the secondary adapter (/1) for the current command, when you have more than one. When you select a non-existent adapter, you could receive a rather technical error diagnosis. _______________ /A ArchiveFile Specifies the archive file to which the output of any command should be appended for a later retrieval. You could use the "NETLIST.LOG" name. Everything that appears on the screen (excepted error messages and copyrights) will be registered there. A separation line (79 '=') is inserted before any new log. In a future version, the format of this output could be different from the one seen on the screen, so that statistics could be more easily performed on it later. ___________________ /B NbOfBlocksToUse Specifies the number of polls to perform simultaneously. Valid only with /S or /F. [ A poll is associated with a NetBIOS Control ] [ Block (called Message Control Block in the Token- ] [ Ring Technical Reference Manual), so that is where ] [ the name of this option comes from. ] By default, NETLIST performs as many simultaneous polls as it can with the available memory and adapter configuration, so this option can only be used to limit used resources. In order to increase the number of simultaneous polls, you should modify NetBIOS's configuration: increase the number of outstanding NetBIOS control blocks that it should allow. If you use IBM's drivers ("LAN Adapter Support Program"), the default value is 12 (of which 11 can be used for the simultaneous polls) and you should add or modify the C=number parameter on the DEVICE = [disk:][dir]dxmT0mod.SYS [...] line in your CONFIG.SYS file, then reboot the system. That will increase the memory the driver will take. The maximum value is about 255. The more simultaneous polls, the quicker a list or range of adapters will be searched, BUT -- NETLIST has an internal overhead in handling the polls. This overhead will become significant with a high number of blocks. -- You won't be able to ask for more simultaneous polls than the number of response buffers that can fit in your RAM. -- NetBIOS is internally limited and will prevent you from reaching very high search speeds (see the "Search's principles" section below). If Blocks is higher than the available maximum, it will be adjusted and a warning will be issued. ____ /D Do the search in the Debug mode. Valid only for /S and /F modes. Display one line for each tested adapter, even those not present on the network. This will simply copy the information from NameFile for adapters or network names which didn't answered. There will be no connection time nor session/names data in those lines. ____ /E Display possible return values for NetBIOS commands, along with their meaning. The meaning is mostly suitable for PC Network adapters. Related options: None ____ /I Interactive mode: Ask for a description string for an adapter which doesn't have one yet in the current database. Save this description in the remark-field of the namefile database. Spaces will be replaced with underscores (_). Valid only if the update (/U) mode has been selected. Without the /I option, a question mark (?) will be put instead of the remark. The first of adapter's NetBIOS names will always be written as the third field, except if there is no NetBIOS names in the adapter. _____________________________ /L [[Hours:]Minutes:]Seconds The deLay (counted from the start of the program) to wait before returning to DOS. To be used when running a loop with the /R option or in a batch file. Related options: /A /R ____ /M Clear the screen before displaying results. Display received and transmitted NetBIOS packets instead of adapter numbers. Useful when continuously monitoring a list of nodes or a specific name/adapter. If the list is more than 19 entries long, in the repeat mode (/R) legends will be suppressed in following screen updates. This command clears the unused portion of the screen. It supports the /X option, but only when the display of additional names doesn't take more than one line, ie up to about 5-6 additional, non PCLAN names. Related options: /R /L ________________ /N [coNfigfile] Don't use the settings of the NETLIST.DEF configuration file. If there is an argument for /N, use it as the new configuration file instead of NETLIST.DEF. coNfigfile is first looked for in the current directory, then in NETLIST's directory. If NETLIST doesn't find coNfigfile, it stops with an error message. Put in a configuration file, /N will void it. The coNfigfile parameter is only valid on the command line. The default config file will always be read, except when the /N option is the first option on the command line. ____________ /P HexIntNo Force NETLIST to use the HexIntNo interrupt to communicate with NetBIOS. NETLIST will not call any other interrupts when the /P option is specified. HexIntNo is the 2-digit hexadecimal number of the interrupt, NOT followed by an 'H' nor preceeded by anything, not quoted in IBM fashion... Just 2 hexadecimal digits! Interrupts below 28H are rejected. Remark: Without the /P option NETLIST will test for the installation of an application-level networking software and use either the 2AH or the 5CH interrupt depending on the responses and errors it gets. ___________ /R [times] Repeat the test "times" times or continuously if no "times" argument is given. Related options: /F /S /L /A ______________________________ /T NbOfTicksToWaitForAnAnswer Adjust the timeout for commands that poll remote adapters. Specifies the number of clock ticks an adapter is given to respond within. 3 is the default value. 99 is the maximum. [1 tick = 1/18.2 of a second] This parameter can only decrease the default 3 second NetBIOS time-out, so there will be generally no effect in giving values greater than 50. _______________ /U [updatefile] This option will update the user's database (NameFile) with the the results of the current test. If the database doesn't exist, it will be started in NETLIST's directory. The update will be of 3 kinds: -- If the search is made from a NameFile, entries beginning with a "Name" will be turned into "\HexadecimalAdapterID" entries; -- If a by-AdapterID scan is done, NameFile will be either updated or created with the adapter IDs effectively found; -- If a status display is asked for a local (*) or remote adapter, NETLIST will add its data to the configuration file if this adapter isn't already mentioned there. The update process will preserve any fields of the NameFile other than the NetworkName or \AdapterID field. A temporary NETLIST.$$$ file will be used during the modifi- cation process and must be writable in the NameFile directory (ie the directory must be writable -- non-writable directories exist on file servers even if they don't exist on the local machine; if you know how to make a local directory read-only let me know! -- and the NETLIST.$$$ should not be read-only if it exists). When using the /U option, the namefile will be updated even if you interrupt the scan/search with a Control-Break. If an "updatefile" is indicated, discovered adapters (in a /S scan) or users known only by name (in a /F search) will be recorded into, with their adapter number. An existing "updatefile" will be appended. The format of "updatefile" is: \AdapterID NetworkName Date Spaces in dates are replaced with underscores. If there is no NetworkName, the corresponding field will be blank or the remark will be put there instead (in a /F search). Related options: /I (interactive update) ____ /X Display all the names found on adapters in a /F search or in a /S scan. Only non PC-LAN names will be displayed. __________________________________________ Explanation of various fields and entities ___________ NetworkName You communicate on a NetBIOS network by using names. The NetBIOS software maintains a table of names that his adapter is known by. These names are provided to the NetBIOS program by the application program. NetworkName is a NetBIOS name on the adapter to test. It can be the PC-LAN name, or any other name defined to NetBIOS by the software run on adapter's machine. NetworkNames are limited to 16 characters, the maximal length of NetBIOS network names. They will be internally padded with blanks up to 16 characters if they have less than that. It is case-sensitive. PC-LAN converts the name on the NET START command line to uppercase before declaring it on the network, so when you search for one, type it in uppercase. To look for names that contain non-displayable characters, write those characters in hexadecimal and preceed each of them with a \ in the NetworkName. To insert \'s into a NetworkName, double them. To test a name with embedded blanks, surround it with quotes. For example, the NetworkName MIROWSKI\03 would be understood as a name with 8 letters (M,I, etc.) followed by the char whose ASCII code is 3, then padded with blanks up to 16 characters. You could also write the above name as \\\4DI\52OWS\4BI\03 The NetworkName "MIROWSKI \03" would be understand as containing 8 letters, then 7 blanks and finally the char whose ASCII code is 3. As the total is already 16, no padding will be done. You CANNOT write \03 as \3. If you run NETLIST from a batch file, for example WHO.BAT: @ECHO OFF NETLIST some-parms %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 you cannot give the command WHO /N "name \somehex" to see "name \somehex" status, because DOS passes "name and \somehex as separate arguments (%1 and %2). You must call NETLIST directly. __________ \AdapterID Every adapter has an internal name by which it is always known on the network. That is a 6 byte number, which can be handled through a 12-digit hexadecimal representation. It can be obtained by running NETLIST with a NetworkName or * argument. In the first case NETLIST will display the number of the adapter NetworkName resides on. In the second one, NETLIST will give the number of your own adapter. As NetworkNames and AdapterIDs are handled by the same routine, the latter must be preceeded with a back-slash (\) in order to be distinguished from the former. On all the Token-Ring adapters I have seen so far, numbers began with 10005A... Mine is 10005A037592. So when I poll for my own adapter status, I do either NETLIST * or NETLIST \10005A037592 The display from those two commands aren't exactly the same, because no sessions are usually attached to the adapter number whereas all are to the star name. ___________ MachineName MachineName is the first of the NetBIOS network names found on any adapter. It is always the PC-LAN name if PC-LAN is running. It can be blank if search has been done by adapter number and the adapter has no names defined. ______________ ConnectionTime ConnectionTime is the time since the start of the NetBIOS layer, which is usually the same as the time since the adapter's opening. ConnectionTime is expressed in days, hours and minutes. ________ Sessions Sessions is the number of pending NetBIOS sessions, i.e CALL- Pending, LISTEN-Pending, Established, Abnormally Ended, HANG- UP-Pending or HANG-UP-Complete. In practice, it means that servers will show a number of ses- sions superior to the established ones because they LISTEN for incoming calls. PC-LAN servers will always have at least 2 pen- ding sessions (LISTENING). For PC-LAN users, the number of sessions will be number of servers they are connected to. If you use, for example, the \\S1\PUBLIC disk, the \\S1\LASER printer, the \\SERVER\PUBLIC and \\SERVER\NCR disks, you will have only two sessions. _____ Names Names is the number of names the adapter has declared to the net. People with 3 or more names usually have PC-LAN running, which is indicated by the "P" letter following the "Names" number. ______ Remark Remarks help to identify an adapter when search is done by adapter number and the connected machine has no network name. Only the first 22 characters are displayed and only till the first space. In order to put white spaces in remarks, you should replace them with underscores (_). Those will be substituted with spaces before they go to the display. Remarks are preceded by an asterisk when search has been done by name. This enables you to progressively complete the list of adapter numbers, starting from PC-LAN names. To make it automagically, use the /U option. ________________________ Creating users' database If you have access to all the machines you want to put into the database, put NETLIST.EXE on a diskette, no other file with it and run it on all those machines with the following command line: NETLIST /N/U/I/A NETLIST.LOG * NETLIST will prompt you for a description of the adapter, and will add a line to NETLIST.NAM, creating it at the first time. The line will be: \AdapterID your_remark first_of_network_names If there are no names defined in the adapter, there will be no "name" field. The whole operation will be logged to the NETLIST.LOG file. You will thus obtain a complete database of all parameters of the adapters on your network, at the NetBIOS level. If you don't want to enter anything manually, just drop the /I option: NETLIST /N/U/ANETLIST.LOG * NETLIST will put a question mark (?) as the remark field. You can edit the "namefile" later manually. Please remark that running NETLIST on all machines from the same, non write-protected diskette is inherently dangerous, because if one of the machines has a virus, you could infect the others. There should be no hard disk accesses if you start NETLIST from a diskette. If you don't have a physical access to the machines you wan't to put into the list, you can either try to scan a range of adapter numbers at a hour when there are lots of people on the net, or try to get network names people use (for example their own name for PC-LAN connections), put them into the NETLIST.NAM file (or any other file you will have to specify after /F) and do: NETLIST /F /U /T1 NETLIST will scan the list and replace names with adapter numbers if the name is present on the network. If you want to do a scan, test adapter IDs starting with 10005A0, 10005A1 and 10005A2. At our site, all Token-Ring adapters have a number starting with one of those sequences. Configure then your network driver so that it accepts a high number of command blocks (simultaneous polls), for example 100. See the description of the /B option to see how to do it with standard IBM drivers. There is no sense in allowing more blocks. Reboot your machine and issue for example: NETLIST /S \10005A100000 FFFFF /T1 /U /I The scan should take less than two hours. There is one million of adresses to test, at a rate of about 170 per second. If you loose your patience before the end, make a Ctrl-Break. This will end the scan while preserving any already acquired data. The number of adapters effectively tested will be shown on the last line. Don't specify the /D option! The search would be 20 times longer. Remark: The REGISTER.BAT file in the archive can be used to make up the database. ___________________ Configuration files All the options can be put into a configuration file and split freely over several lines. Everything following the # and ; chars till the end of the line will be ignored. The bigger the file, the slower NETLIST startup will be. ________ Examples With the following namefile, derived from my local database: [NETLIST.OLD] SERVEUR CTI-Server S1 S1-Server S3 S3-Server GLOBAL Mail-server MIROWSKI Adam_Mirowski and the: NETLIST /N/F/T1 /B 10 /0/UNETLIST.UPD /a NETLIST.LOG command, I got today: [NETLIST.LOG] =============================================================================== Tue Jun 12 12:05:06 1990 NETLIST 1.3 NetBIOS network users are now =============================================================================== Name Adapter ID For Sess/Names Remarks =============================================================================== SERVEUR 10005A0616B4 4days 1:55 5/3 P *CTI-Server S1 10005A1CCC3E 18days 1:09 8/3 P *S1-Server S3 10005A266F6F 18days 1:12 5/3 P *S3-Server GLOBAL 10005A1C8CF8 6days23:01 0/1 *Mail-server MIROWSKI 10005A037592 3:39 2/3 P *Adam Mirowski =============================================================================== 5 users present, 5 tested (5 by name). 1 ticks/name, 10 blocks, 1 secs. Updating users' database...OK. The created "updatefile" was: [NETLIST.UPD] \10005A0616B4 SERVEUR Tue_Jun_12_12:05:07_1990 \10005A1CCC3E S1 Tue_Jun_12_12:05:07_1990 \10005A266F6F S3 Tue_Jun_12_12:05:07_1990 \10005A1C8CF8 GLOBAL Tue_Jun_12_12:05:07_1990 \10005A037592 MIROWSKI Tue_Jun_12_12:05:07_1990 Namefile has been updated into: [NETLIST.NAM] \10005A0616B4 CTI-Server \10005A1CCC3E S1-Server \10005A266F6F S3-Server \10005A1C8CF8 Mail-server \10005A037592 Adam_Mirowski Remarks: 1) Any comments can be inserted in the "namefile". 2) One poll updates only one line in the "namefile". 3) If lines appear duplicated after the update, as in the above example, they will stay there (to preserve remarks, for example). With NETLIST /N/a NETLIST.LOG * I got: [NETLIST.LOG] =============================================================================== Tue Jun 12 12:05:55 1990 NETLIST 1.3 Status of * ============================================================================/0= Adapter identifier 10005A037592 Primary release level 2 Reporting period 3:40 Last self-test OK (00H) Max. session data frame size 1028 Token-Ring adapter, NetBIOS v2.2 --------------- No errors -------------- Successfully Tx frames 6476 Successfully Rx frames 3716 Available NCBs 12 Pending sessions 2 Reset-configured NCBs 12 Reset-configured sessions 16 Load-time-configured NCBs 12 Load-time-configured sessions 16 Name Num Type State ------------------ --- ------ ---------------- MIROWSKI 2 Unique Registered MIROWSKI \03 3 Unique Registered MIROWSKI \00 4 Unique Registered ----------- 2 active sessions ---------- Pending Rx-(Broadcast)-Datagram 0 Pending Receive-Any 0 Num Session state Local-name Num Remote-name Num Rec Snd --- ---------------- ---------------- --- ---------------- --- --- --- 1 Established MIROWSKI * 4 S1 2 0 0 2 Established MIROWSKI * 4 SERVEUR 2 0 0 _________________________________ Starting and interrupting NETLIST NETLIST opens the adapter if necessary when it starts. When doing this, it displays the copyright notice and warns of the additional 10 second delay. During the opening process it displays a dot every half second to give some feedback and ends with an Ok. This display cannot be removed. When NETLIST receives the Control-C or Control-Break request, it informs the user that it has been accepted and tries to stop as quickly as it can. It will interrupt the input stream of network names and adapter numbers to test, causing a premature end of the program. All files will be closed. If the update mode was active, namefile update will be done if the program was performing a scan search (/S), but not if it was doing a NameFile scan (/F without /S). Don't keep Control-C or Control-Break pressed or the machine will hang so that only the Reset key (if you're lucky enough to have one, I'm not) or the main power switch will be able to restart it by performing a hard boot. __________________ Archive's contents NETLIST EXE Main program. NETLIST DOC This documentation. NETLIST DEF Sample configuration file. NETLIST NAM Sample "namefile" from "Examples" section above. NETLIST OLD Sample "namefile" ---------------"-------------- NETLIST LOG Sample archive file -------------"-------------- NETLIST UPD Sample "updatefile" -------------"-------------- NETLIST PIF Program Information File for Windows. REGISTER BAT Batch to automatize "namefile" database creation. WHO BAT Batch to start NETLIST with selected options. NETSTART COM Short program to only start the NetBIOS on the local primary network adapter. _______________ Remarks -- Bugs 1) There is an ambiguity on how to understand the command line when the last parameter is an option which accepts an optional argu- ment, as /F, /N, /R and /U do. Should this argument below to the option or should it be considered as a name to search for on the net? I choosed to consider this argument as the network name to search for if it is separated from the last option letter, and as the argument of the option if there is no space between it and the option letter. For example, NETLIST /U GLOBAL will be understand as "test the GLOBAL name and update the database if necessary", whereas NETLIST /UGLOBAL will tell NETLIST to consider GLOBAL as the name of the "updatefile" to create (or to update). 2) IBM's NetBIOS device driver is either the old NETBEUI.COM, or the newer DXMT0MOD.SYS. 3) The \ notation doesn't allow a funny char to start a normal name, because the name would then be taken as a hexadecimal adapter number (because of the single \ at the beginning). In order to minimize this problem, when the name/number parsing routine finds the hex number wrong it tries to interpret the whole string as a name. 4) The order of lines in output isn't necessarily the same as in the input file. This is especially true when the Debug option (/D) is used. 5) NETLIST needs 42 Ko to start, but additional space will be necessary for each poll block and associated data, mainly the response buffers, and for the /U option for storing NameFile updates (48 bytes per update) and making a DOS exec call. 6) If you don't want DOS to put his prompt at the end of the last line of NETLIST's display when run from a batch file, don't put any CR-LF on the line with NETLIST, just a Ctrl-Z. ============ APPENDICES ============ ____________ NETSTART.COM NETSTART.COM opens the local primary adapter or starts the NetBIOS on it if this adapter is already opened. [ Starting NetBIOS consists in opening the NetBIOS Service ] [ Access Point (F0), reserving place for link stations and ] [ starting receiving/responding to NetBIOS frames. ] It doesn't display any messages, even if errors occur, like running it on a machine without network hardware and corresponding drivers installed. Remark: to start NetBIOS on an opened adapter there should be one available SAP (Service Access Point). The number of allo- wable SAPs is requested during adapter opening. Some network software could only request one SAP (for them- selves) or too few allowable link stations when they open the adapter, making it impossible to start a NetBIOS SAP later. _______________________ Ideas for next releases The big improvement would be to find the users without any database, only by doing the right network calls. It seems that the Token-Ring network manager does such things (this software costs over $2000 here in France) on the corresponding network. But I wouldn't be surprised if in fact it simply (:-) monitored all the frames passing through his ring and asked the bridges for the same thing on other rings. NETLIST could receive a Windows or (why not?) Presentation Manager fancy user interface. NETLIST could better indicate what software is running on the remote nodes (currently only PC-LAN is detected), whether they listen for messages or provide some services (file sharing, etc.). ___________________ Search's principles NETLIST simultaneously polls as many cards as has been requested by the /B switch, through non-blocking STATUS calls. Because the default answer time-out would lead to an unbearable slowness, each poll is interrupted by a CANCEL after a selected number of ticks. As the ticks decrease, adapters are given less time to respond, but even with one tick, there should be no losses. The number of simultaneous polls is limited to 255 by the NetBIOS software. The speed will grow with their number but only to a certain limit, because interrupting a poll is a blocking call. If we neglect the input reading speed and the overhead and if we suppose that all tested adapters do not answer, the speed function would behave like (18.2 / ticks) * blocks for small values of the "blocks" argument and big values of the "ticks" one, and reach the 1 / CANCEL_delay_per_call asymptote for big values of "blocks" and small values of "ticks". All that explanation is purely speculative, as I don't have any mean to know what exactly is going on inside the adapter firmware and on various levels of interfaces and as I have no mean to measure anything with a precision superior to 1 clock tick. I've heard that it is possible to reprogram the system clock to quite high speeds, like 1000 ticks per second, but this necessitates too much effort and would introduce even more overhead into the program. ___________________________________ Connection's mechanism (Token-Ring) Will be discussed in a future version of NETLIST's documentation. __________ The author Adam Mirowski, Ecole Centrale de Paris, FRANCE The following people have provided help to test NETLIST in various environments: Alex at awiwuw11.bitnet C. H. Cheng at cucsc.bitnet David William at esoc.bitnet Peter Jaspers-Fayer at vm.uoguelph.ca Don Meyer at uiuc.edu David Priestley at p1.lancsp.ac.uk Dave Richardson at engr.uky.edu Tom Salzmann at ramona.cary.nc.us Samuel Lam at wimsey.bc.ca Sean at clarku.bitnet Bernd Wagener at doluni1 and Warren Evans at ecncdc.bitnet Many thanks! This program is placed in public domain, but any donations will be accepted and will support the development of next versions. If you like it or simply use it, drop a line to MIROWSKI@FRECP12.BITNET or ADAMAINT@FRECP12.BITNET. ------------------------ ------- Till 8/90 ------- Residence Monceau Residence ECP 1, square de Tocqueville 2, avenue Sully-Prudhomme 78150 Le Chesnay 92290 Chatenay-Malabry FRANCE FRANCE