Perhapsthebest way to explain what setup modifications to CONFIO.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BATyou must make is to give a few examples.
Here we will describe a typical two node setup where the machines are
linke<i
together through COM ports. We will arbitrarily call the machines Jack and Jill. Jack we will assign the node number 1, Jill we will assign the node number 2. Jill will have a printer attached to LPT1 and Jack will be using that printer. So assume:
Jack
=
node #1Jill
=
node #2Jill has a printer on LPT1 Jack is usmg COM1 to talk to Jill Jill is using COM2 to talk to Jack
Hode U
[ ]
[JACK ]
[ ]
COMl
Hode '2
[ ]
[JILL ]---(LPTl)
[ ]
COM2
These would be the additions you would have to make to the DOS system files:
Jack's CONFIO.SYS,
DEVICE=LBL\NETUNITS.SYS
DEVICE=LBL\NETBSBAR.SYS LPT1 LPT1 ON:2 DEVICE=LBL\NETOOOOO.SYS '1 "Jack"
Jack's AUTOEXEC.BAT, LBL\NET8
LBL\COM LINK COM1 INT12 LINKTO:2 LBL\NET21
Jill's CONFIO.SYS,
DEVICE=LBL\NETUNITS.SYS
DEVICE=LBL\NETOOOOO.SYS 12 "Jill"
Jill's AUTOEXEC.BAT, LBL\NET8
LBL\COM LINK COM2 XNT11 LINKTO:1 LBL\NET21
Now suppose we add a new computer, called Mary, to the network. We will assign Mary the node number S. We could have assigned Mary
anil
nodenumber except 1 or 2 which are already being used by Jack and Ji ,but 5 is what we chose for no good reason. Assume that Mary is using COM port 1 to link to Jill's COM port 1. Also assume Mary has no printer and wishes to use Jill's.
Node U Node *2 Node *5
[ ) [ 1 [
[ JACK ] [ JILL l----(LPTl) [ MARY
[ ) [
I I
1[
COMl COM2 COMl COMl
These are the modified files for all three machines:
Jack's CONFIG.SYS,
DEVICE=LBL\NETUNITS.SYS
DEVICE=LBL\NETBSHAR.SYS LPT1 LPT1 ON:2 DEVICE=LBL\NETOOOOO.SYS #1 "Jack"
Jack's AUTOEXEC.BAT, LBL\NET8
LBL\COM LINK COMl INTl2 LINKTO:2 LBL\NET21
Jill's CONFIG.SYS:
DEVICE=LBL\NETUNITS.SYS
DEVICE=LBL\NETOOOOO.SYS #2 "Jill"
Jill's AUTO EXEC. BAT:
LBL\NET8
LBL\COM LINK COM2 INT11 LINKTO:1 LBL\COM-LINK COM1 INT12 LINKTO:5 LBL\NET21
Mary's CONFIG.SYS,
DEVICE=LBL\NETUNITS.SYS
DEVICE=LBL\NETBSBAR.SYS LPT1 LPT1 ON:2 DEVICE=LBL\NETOOOOO.SYS '5 "Mary"
Mary's AUTOEXEC.BAT, LBL\NET8
LBL\COM LINK COMl INT12 LINKTO:2 LBL\NET21
Unfortunately there is no way JACK can talk to MARY or vice-versa with this simplified setup. At this point the CONNLIST files must be used (described next) in order to tell the network an indirect link exists between JACK and
MARy.
Page 24
CONFIGURATION FILES
Little Big LAN needs to know a lot about your system and how you plan on using it. When the network is operating it keeps everything it needs to know in internal memory. So there is never a need to retrieve anything from a disk drive. Nevertheless, all of that information has to come from
somewhere. The configuration files provide a means of putting some of it there when the system boots.
There are three configuration files listed below:
NODELIST.LBL DRIVLIST.n CONNLIST.n
All of these files will be described in detail later. First you should know
what they have in common. All should be in subdirectory \LBL, or other "home"
directory you specify via NETOOOOO. CONNLIST and DRIVLIST must have as a file extension the node number they belong to. For example, if you are on node 6 then the CONNLIST file should be named CONNLIST.6, and if you are on node 99 then the CONNLIST file should be named CONNLIST.99, etc. By using the node number as the extension it excludes that file from being read by any other node. When NET2110ads at boot time it attempts to read both CONNLIST and DRIVLIST. NET21 tries to find both in the same way.
We will describe CONNLIST here, but DRIVLIST is found via the same method.
NET21 first looks for the CONNLIST file in the current directory. Next it looks in LBL's "home" directory which is normally \LBL on the boot disk. So NET21 makes two attempts to find the CONNLIST file. If we are speaking about node 99 then the search sequence is:
First try:
then try: CONNLIST.99
\LBL\CONNLIST.99
The utility program named LBL also reads CONNLIST and DRIVLIST using the opposite search order. The reason the order is different is because the network is not active until after NET2110ads and there may be times -especially on a floppy based workstation - that all your configuration files will be kept on a remote drive after booting but must be on the local drive while booting. But after the network loads the preferred search order should be: look in the "home" directory first, because the current directory may be someone else's "home" directory.
LBLalso reads NODELIST. The search order for node list is identical.
But because of the nature of the files, NODELIST should be using the common extension ".LBL", while CONNLIST and DRIVLIST should be used in their node number specific extensions.