Using Gateway Service for NetWare | Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Administrators Companion

Installing and configuring each computer with a NetWare client can be very time-consuming in a large enterprise. Fortunately, there is a way to provide NetWare server connectivity without installing new software on each client. With GSNW, you can create a gateway through which Microsoft client computers—without Novell NetWare client software—can use NetWare file and print resources. You can make gateways for resources located in NDS trees as well as for resources on servers running NetWare 2.x or later with bindery security. These resources include volumes, directories, directory map objects, printers, and print queues.

GSNW depends on another NetWare compatibility feature of Windows Server: the IPX/SPX/NetBIOS Compatible Transport Protocol (NWLink for short). NWLink is an implementation of the Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), Sequenced Packet Exchange (SPX), and NetBIOS transport protocols used by a NetWare network. The Microsoft implementations of these protocols can seamlessly coexist with other protocols on the same network adapter.

The primary drawback of using Gateway Service for NetWare is that it's harder to customize security on a user-by-user basis for NetWare resources. Each user profile must use a separate share on the gateway and, consequently, a separate drive letter, which limits the number of shares that can be created. Also, because the Windows 2000 server must translate each server message block (SMB) call into NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) and back again, using GSNW can actually be slower than having software installed for each client. For the casual user who needs access only to printers and the occasional file, Gateway Service for NetWare is an excellent solution. Full-time NetWare users, however, will probably be better served by having the client software installed on their workstations.

The translation overhead is greatly reduced when communicating with a NetWare 5-based server using TCP/IP.

Installing and Configuring the NWLink Protocol

To install the NWLink protocol, follow these steps:

Right-click My Network Places and choose Properties. The Network And Dial-Up Connections window opens, shown in Figure 21-1.

Figure 21-1. The Network And Dial-Up Connections window.
Right-click the Local Area Connection icon and choose Properties from the shortcut menu to display the Local Area Connection Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 21-2.

Figure 21-2. The Local Area Connection Properties dialog box.
Click Install to display the Select Network Component Type dialog box, shown in Figure 21-3.

Figure 21-3. The Select Network Component Type dialog box.
Select Protocol in the network component list box, and click Add to open the Select Network Protocol dialog box (Figure 21-4).

Figure 21-4. The Select Network Protocol dialog box.
Select NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS Compatible Transport Protocol and click OK to add the protocol to your system. You might need to insert your Windows 2000 Server CD-ROM to complete the installation process.
Click OK to save the new network configuration.

Once you have installed the NWLink protocol, your Windows 2000 server will be able to communicate with your NetWare server. You can proceed to the next step, which is installing and configuring GSNW.

Although early versions of Novell NetWare supported TCP/IP, the Microsoft and Novell implementations of the protocol were not compatible until NetWare 5. As a result, Windows 2000 Server requires NWLink to communicate with NetWare 4.x and earlier servers. If you are communicating with a NetWare 5 server, you don't need to install the NWLink protocol before installing GSNW.

Installing Gateway Service for NetWare

To install and configure GSNW, follow these steps:

Right-click My Network Places and choose Properties.
Right-click the Local Area Connection icon and choose Properties from the shortcut menu. The Local Area Connection Properties dialog box opens.
Click Install to display the Select Network Component Type dialog box.
Select Client in the network component list box and click Add. The Select Network Client dialog box opens, shown in Figure 21-5.

Figure 21-5. The Select Network Client dialog box.
Select Gateway (And Client) Services For NetWare and click OK. You might need to insert your Windows 2000 Server CD-ROM to complete the installation process.
The Select NetWare Logon dialog box appears, shown in Figure 21-6. Specify the user name, tree, and context that the gateway will use when logging on to the NetWare server.
- If the gateway will be logging on to a bindery-based NetWare server, select the Preferred Server option and then select the appropriate server from the Preferred Server list box.
- If the gateway will be logging on to an NDS-based directory tree, select the Default Tree And Context option and then provide the tree and context names to use when logging on.
- To run the NetWare login script when the gateway first attaches to the NetWare server, click the Run Login Script check box.
Click OK to save the logon information.

Figure 21-6. The Select NetWare Logon dialog box.

Configuring Gateway Service for NetWare

Once you have installed Gateway Service for NetWare, you can modify its configuration by clicking the GSNW icon in Control Panel to display the Gateway Service For NetWare dialog box, shown in Figure 21-7. In this dialog box you can set the following options:

When logging on to a bindery-based NetWare server, select the Preferred Server option and then choose the appropriate server from the Select Preferred Server list box.
To log on to an NDS-based directory tree, select the Default Tree And Context option and then provide the tree and context names needed to log on to the NetWare server.
In the Print Options group, select the print options you want to use when printing to NetWare-based printers.
To run the NetWare login script when the gateway first attaches to the NetWare server, select the Run Login Script check box.

Figure 21-7. The Gateway Service For NetWare dialog box.

Enabling the Gateway

To enable the gateway, click Gateway in the Gateway Service For NetWare dialog box to display the Configure Gateway dialog box (Figure 21-8). Select the Enable Gateway check box and specify the user name and password required by GSNW to connect to the NetWare server.

Figure 21-8. The Configure Gateway dialog box.

NetWare IDs are typically limited to eight characters or fewer.

You can also establish one or more shares that point to the NetWare server for use by your Windows 2000 clients. Click Add in the Configure Gateway dialog box to display the New Share dialog box, shown in Figure 21-9.

Figure 21-9. The New Share dialog box.

Once the new share has been created, click Permissions to specify which Windows 2000 Server users and groups have access to the resource and what their rights for the resource are. These same rights need to be established with any Windows 2000 Server share.

Everyone with rights to GSNW has access to any share you define, and each share takes up one of the 26 available drive letters. You might need to reorganize the NetWare server directory structure to minimize the number of shares required. You should also consider the security ramifications of each share. Sensitive shares should not be made available using GSNW; users who need access to sensitive areas should have the client software loaded locally on their workstations.

Configuring the NetWare Server

To finish configuring GSNW, the NetWare system administrator must place the user account specified in the GSNW configuration in a group called Ntgateway and must grant that user account access to the NetWare resources you want to share on the Windows 2000 server.

First create a group called Ntgateway on the NetWare server. Make sure that the user specified by GSNW is created on the NetWare server and is part of the Ntgateway group. Then create a share for the NetWare resource and grant the Windows 2000 user access to the share resource.

Running NetWare Utilities

With Windows 2000 Server and Gateway Service for NetWare, you can run many of the standard NetWare utilities as well as many NetWare-aware applications from the command prompt. GSNW does not support utilities for NetWare 4.x and earlier. Also, for some administrative functions, you must use Windows 2000 Server-based management tools.

To run NDS administrative utilities on Windows 2000 Professional, you must use the NetWare client software.

Windows 2000 Server supports many NetWare utilities that you can use to manage the NetWare network from a computer running Windows 2000 Workstation or Windows 2000 Server. (Some utilities might require additional files that are supplied either with Windows 2000 Server or with NetWare, as discussed in the next section.)

The following MS-DOS-based utilities are known to work with Windows 2000:


Chkvol	Help	Rconsole	Settts
Colorpal	Listdir	Remove	Slist
Dspace	Map	Revoke	Syscon
Fconsole	Ncopy	Rights	Tlist
Filer	Ndir	Security	Userlist
Flag	Pconsole	Send	Volinfo
Flagdir	Psc	Session	Whoami
Grant	Pstat	Setpass

The Windows 2000 Server Net Use command or Microsoft Windows Explorer perform the same functions as the NetWare Attach, Login, and Logout commands. The Net Use command is also similar to the Capture command for printing when MSDOS-based and Windows-based applications must print to a specific port. In addition, you can use the Add Printer Wizard to connect to NetWare print queues. The Net Use command can also be used to connect to volumes and printers in NDS trees as well as on NetWare bindery-based servers. The Windows 2000 Server Net View command performs the same function as the NetWare Slist utility.

Using NetWare-Aware Applications

Many NetWare-aware applications run on Windows 2000 Server through Gateway Service for NetWare just as if they were running on a NetWare client computer. However, not all NetWare-aware applications are supported. Many applications require special files that are supplied either with NetWare or with Windows 2000 Server.

Nwipxspx.dll

Many older 16-bit NetWare-aware applications require the Nwipxspx.dll file supplied by Novell. The file is part of the standard Novell client installation. Find it and copy it to the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder on the machine where you'll be using the NetWare applications.

Netware.drv, Nwnetapi.dll, and Nwcalls.dll

NetWare-aware applications that use the NetWare API to send and receive NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) packets may require Netware.drv and either Nwnetapi.dll or, for more recent versions of NetWare, Nwcalls.dll. Netware.drv should be installed in the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder when you install GSNW. If you copy any of these files to your computer running Windows 2000 Server or modify your search path during the current Windows 2000 Server work session, you must log off and then log on for the changes to take effect.

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Obtaining Current NetWare Software Files

To get the NetWare files you need, check with your NetWare network administrator or your local Novell representative to see if the latest client files are available locally. You can also get the files over the Internet from http://download.novell.com.