NETWORKING IN WINDOWS 95
Windows NT is similar, but has its own methods and quirks. This page may be helpful to WinNT users, but was written for Win95/98.
Plug-n-play is obviously the best option for choosing a card. If it's not (mine wasn't) then you will have to make sure their IRQ's and and Memory addresses were not conflicting with anything.
Win95 would not recognize my network card because of IRQ and memory address conflicts. I read the documentation for the card and found that to reset those two items I had to go to DOS and run a setup program that changed the settings on the EEPROM chip. I selected the IRQ and memory addresses suggested by Win95. Since these cards originally came configured for Lantastic I also had to turn off a Lantastic Network option in the card's configuration, changing to a generic network option. Newer cards will probably not have any of these problems.
So, I would sugggest the following:
1. Look in Control Panel/Add New Hardware/Network Adapters/NEXT. Find a Plug-n-Play or other card that Win95 supports. Buy one of these adapters. 3-Com is good. Intel cards work (that's what we have).
2. Read the documentation for your network card and determine if IRQ's etc. are set by software or jumper switches (so you'll be prepared).
3. If you have any current network adapter drivers in Control Panel/System/Device Manager, delete them.
4. Make sure your card is properly installed in the computer.
5. Re-boot Win95. If Win95 detects your card, follow the setup procedures. If it does not, use Control Panel/Add New Hardware/Network Adapters/NEXT. Choose your card from the available options. Have your Win95/98 CD ready in case it needs to find the driver there.
6. If the card installs with no conflicts you're all set. If there are conflicts with IRQ's etc. you will have to go to Control Panel/System and find which IRQ's etc. are available, then go back and reset your card. Then go back to No. 4, above, and start again.
7. Once the card is installed in each computer the rest is not too difficult, just a bit confusing.
Software Settings
8. Most of your networking options will be set from Control Panel/Network, so go there now.
9. Click on Identification. Give a
name for the computer you are working on. If the computer is dedicated
to one user, give it a name like MIKE, or SERVER, or ALPHA. Now type in
the Workgroup name. This should be the same on all the computers on the
network (you could have multiple workgroups in a larger office). Now give
a description for the computer. This can be anything, but we just give
it something similar to the Name field. The settings on my computer are:
Name=MIKE
Workgroup Name=WMA
Description=Mike's.
10. Click on the Access Control tab. Check the Share-level access control box. This allows all computers to share all resources, like hard drives or printers. You can still password protect certain files, directories, drives, etc later on.
11. Click on the Configuration tab. This is the difficult one, and the one that confuses me, so I hope I get it all correct. Click on ADD. Go to Client and Add "Client for Microsoft Networks". Go to Adapter and Add your adapter card, if it's not already. It should install a couple of PROTOCOLS. If not, go to Protocol and choose Add/Microsoft, then choose the IPX/SPX Compatible Protocol for your adapter card. Next choose the NetBEUI Compatible Protocol for your adapter card.
12. Now click on Add/Service/Microsoft. Then go back to the Configuration tab and click on File and Print Sharing. Check both boxes if you want to share both. I don't remember if I had to go to each item in the "The following network components are installed" window and add the File and Print Sharing for each one, or whether I only had to do it just the one time. Try it just once first.
13. Click on OK to get out of the Network setup. Do steps 2-12 for all the computers on the network, then re-start all the machines.
14. To enable hard drive, file, and printer sharing you now need to do two more things. 1. You need to map physical hard drives to a network drive letter for each computer, and 2. You need to enable "sharing" on everything you want to share.
15. For Network Plotters and Printers to be used by DataCAD see the footnote on the subject below. ***
16. Do this same thing for all the printers/plotters you want to share in the My Computer/Printers folder. Whatever you name the printer (ours is "HP LaserJet 6P") is the name you will put in the path for all the other computers.
18. Do the above steps for all the computers on the network.
19. Simple, huh? And well documented? -- NOT!!!
I'm sure this is not a complete how-to, but it should help limit your down time to hopefully less than mine was.
*** Instructions for Printers/Plotters on the network:
If your printer/plotter is local to the computer you are on, all you have to do is configure the printer/plotter for the local LPT1 port. Note that Win95 does not know the difference between a printer and a plotter. They are both just output devices, so there is nothing you need to do differently for a plotter. The word "printer" below therefore also means "plotter." The following assumes that the printer/plotter is on another computer from the one you are working on:
You need to "capture" a printer port in Win95 for use by Windows and DOS. Capturing a printer port means you are creating a "virtual" port; the computer thinks you are using a second parallel port, but you are actually using your single parallel port (LPT1) with a different name (like LPT2).
Your primary printer port (coming off the parallel port) is LPT1. You want to "capture" LPT2 to access your other machine, which the plotter is attached to. To do this in Win95:
ADD A NEW PRINTER:
1. Control Panel/Printers
2. Add Printer.
3. Follow the Win95 "wizard" for printer setup, adding the settings indicated below in the setup procedures for existing printers.
4. Note: At the beginning of the process you will be asked "Do you print from MS DOS base programs?" You should make sure the "Yes" box is selected. This is very important. You will then be prompted to "capture" a printer port.
NETWORK AN EXISTING PRINTER:
(I will use the generic term "YourPrinter" to mean whatever printer/plotter you are trying to set up)
Pick Details,
then change/add the following:
a. Print
Using the Following Driver:
-Make sure the YourPrinter
driver appears here. It should
be there from step 3, but if not then
use New Driver to
select it.
b. Capture
Printer Port:
-Device:
LPT2 (not COM1).
-Path:
\\NIC\YOURPRNT (YOURPRNT will be whatever name you gave your printer when
you set it up). You should find this option
in the drop-down menu if your network
is set up properly. If not, first try typing the correct path. If that
doesn't work, recheck your network settings.
-Reconnect
at Logon: make sure the box is checked so the Win95 computer
will automatically connect to the
plotter when you start the machine.
-Click OK
c. Print
to the Following Port:
-Pick the new LPT2 on \\NIC\YOURPRNT
option from the drop-down menu.
d. Port Settings:
-Spool MS-DOS
print jobs: check the box
-Check port
state before printing: check the box
e. Timeout
Settings:
-Not Selected:
900 sec.
-Transmission
Retry: 900 sec.
-The reason for this is important
if you don't enjoy DCAD crashes. If you send a plot and something happens
to it (plotter runs out of paper, plotter not turned on, or some other
error) the machine with the plotter connected to it will give an error
message to tell you something is wrong. Unfortunately if DCAD is running
on that machinge, the pop-up message will cause DCAD to immediately crash.
The 900 seconds gives you 15 minutes to figure out that something is wrong
before the error message pops up. This is a good argument for having a
dedicated server (not running DCAD) to attach all your printers and plotters
to. If an error message pops up on the server, there is no harm done since
DCAD is not running on the server.
f. Click OK
That's it. Just a few "easy" (?) steps for printer/plotter networking. Back in DataCAD, when you go to DCAD's plotter menu, go to "Select" and pick Plotter #1 (assuming that this is the plotter you set up in Step 9).