| Setting
up a home LAN
Questions I often see in the Internet news groups go along the lines:
Can I send mail across my LAN How do I use the modem attached to my other computer to send faxes Introduction
However, the LAN as described here worked perfectly well so the errors are not serious. My LAN has evolved over time and each step forward has added improved functionality. The first notable change was when I added a second OS/2 computer. The most significant point here is that I had been running a Web Server on OS/2 for a while and now I configured it as a proxy and was able to access the Internet from two computers simultaneous. There were some minor limitations, however, as only the computer with the Internet connection had direct access to telnet, mail and ftp. To be sure, the second computer could use ftp, but only using a web browser configured to use the first as proxy. To be accurate. Maximus was to replace the P100, but for a week or so there were three computers on the LAN. Some time after I wrote this I decided the i486 was altogether too painful running Warp Connect and it would be nice to have a fulltime Linux machine. The i486 computer does this nicely, though to be truthful it only has a light load. Some time later the P100 returned so my LAN now has three computers. In March 97 I added a SOCKs server and figured out how to configure
the DDNS. Now when Cretin goes Internetting, Maximus goes along for the
ride. It can now fetch & send mail and has ftp access to the world.
Here's
how it's done.
What I can do My setup Setting up the LAN MPTS Installing Peer Printing with Peer Faxing with Peer Configuring MPTS Installing TCP/IP Configuring TCP/IP for i486 for p100 A few words from a correspondent on Windows 95 Meet Maximus I have two computers connected with a pair of NICs and length of coax. Their network names are p100 and i486. An Ipex 486dx33 with 8 Mb RAM and two Quantum drives totalling 590 Mb of disk space. This machine has Lotus Smartsuite for Windows network-installed on OS/2 Blue Warp Connect. It also drives my HP Laserjet IID. OS/2 Warp Connect does not perform well on this machine: it badly needs more RAM. An Optima P100 with 16 Mb RAM and about 2 Gb if disk space. It normally runs OS/2 Blue Warp Connect. It has a node install of Lotus Smartsuite, and owns the family CD & modem. The p100 sometimes runs Linux. What I
can do with these computers
From the i486 I can send faxes. From the P100 I can print on the laser printer using Peer services. From the P100 I can print on the laser printer using TCP/IP. From the i486 I have some Internet access while the p100 is connected. From either use ftp to transfer files. From either send mail to the other using Ultimedia Mail Lite. Another way has become available since I set this up
From either use ftp to transfer files. From either use telnet to connect to the other Given that the Linux CD includes
INN, the news server used by my Internet Service Provider A recent sendmail and that other necessary software is readily available (my ISP uses Linux), I can set up a full range of internet services on my LAN. Both computers have OS/2 Peer installed. This allows me to share drives and peripherals. For example, drive I on both machines is the CD. I can define a printer on the i486 attached to a port on the p100 and use it as if it were a local printer. I can and have defined a network printer on the p100. This is used for printing, of course, but the queue is maintained by the i486. Both computer have TCP/IP 3.0 installed from the OS/2 Warp Connect CD. Had I installed from the bonus pack CD, I'd have fewer TCP/IP facilities and no TCP/IP connectivity for the LAN. Setting
up the LAN
I purchased two ACCTON EN1666 Network Interface Cards. These are fairly new Plug & Play NICs that are not supported by Warp Connect as distributed. However, the necessary drivers and setup program come on a pair of floppy disks. I ordered the cards "and all necessary bits" by mail order, and had them on hand before I had a computer to install Connect on. These cards can be connected by coaxial cable or by twisted-pair. Installing the software was straightforward. I had read somewhere of problems installing the LAN software: I think involving the Novell requester. The circumvention was to install one requester at a time. MPTS
MPTS provides the LAN support. The only point that presents any challenge is configuring the NICs. You must specify the appropriate hardware driver: in my case I had to choose to install a third party driver the for the p100. When installing on the i486, the driver was on the boot disk and appeared in the list with all the others. I have installed these protocols:
According to MPTS there are two kinds of adaptors: physical ones that you can touch and logical ones that it imagines. It won't allow two NETBIOS protocols on the same adaptor, so I've configured NETBIOS over TCP/IP on logical adaptor 1. Don't forget to configure TCP/IP sockets access & NETBIOS sockets access. Installing
Peer
When it came to installing on the i486 I created a pair of network install diskettes: there's a function for that in the Warp Connect Remote Install folder within the OS/2 Warp Connect Install/Remove folder. A nice touch, I thought, was the question "Do you want your ACCTON drivers on the install disks?" Before beginning, I had to make space on the 486 system. To give me a LAN connection, I jiggered the grpware.ini file in the C:\GRPWARE\clients directory and the install disk to give me access to more disks. Here's my current grpware.ini file: compare it with yours to see what's changed. ;SRVIFS INI file for GRPWARE - HCNY08WO
I do not pretend to understand this file, but the changes I needed seemed fairly obvious. I have since read that if you want to install on more than one machine at the same time, you only need to change maxclients to a larger number, but do beware of thrashing on the CD.This allowed me to move files around with ZIP & XCOPY so as to make some room on the i486. When I went to install Connect on the i486, the installer noticed that Warp was already installed on the system and gave me the option of simply installing the networking software. This I did, and that system works fine, though I have subsequently reinstalled Connect on this system and use MSHELL rather than PMSHELL as the user interface. Installing Peer is pretty simple and there are few significant choices to make. And where numbers are called for, accept the defaults. I've settled on the name i486 and p100 for the computers: the same names
as their TCP/IP names, though this isn't necessary. Indeed their Peer domain
name is different from their TCP/IP name, and in some networks this may
be appropriate as one of the tools to control sharing.
Printing with Peer Standard OS/2 printing works for those machine where the printer is directly attached to the computer in question. As that's not a Peer function, lets go onto other things. Creating a printer object
Sharing a Port
In the Sharing and Connecting object of the other computers define lpt on i486 as an object to use. Define a printer object attached to lpt1. Whilst I didn't actually try it, I can see no reason this shouldn't work from a Windows or DOS program. If you share a printer this way, your settings must be appropriate to the actual device. Some coordination with others is necessary, for example, stationery, sheetfeeder etc. Network Printer
The Sharing and Connecting object in the OS/2 Peer folder is
the place to define objects to be shared with others and object belonging
to others you wish to share.
Presentation Manager Applications These function as expected. The network printer and local printer objects are just another printer. OS/2
(non-PM), Windows & DOS programs
Sending
Faxes
The fax form-filling is done on the machine with the modem. While this might be fine at home or in a small office, larger offices would be better with the Pro version which includes more device support, PCL emulation and directly supports LANs. Configuring
MPTS
For the porpose of discussion, we'll assume we're installing new equipment.
In the Adaptors & Protocols section, LAN Adaptors & protocols is selected. Click Configure. You're now looking at a window containing three separate areas. Highlight the driver appropriate to your NIC and press Add or press Other Adaptors if you need to load one from floppy or some other source. Choose the protocols you need. These are probably
TCP/IP if you want to run Internet apps, either on the LAN or with the Internet. Netbios Over TCP/IP if you want to share printers & files with some other machines such as Linux running Samba. This is also good for sharing things across the Internet. Some people may want one or both Netware protocols. Few people will want IEEE 802.2 If you've installed NETBIOS over TCP/IP
Press the Edit pushbutton. Choose Names List and press Configure Add entries for any machines you wish to contact using this protocol. you need the netbios name (or prefix) and the corresponding internet address: this can be local to your LAN or across the world & bridged by a TCP/IP network such as the Internet. Click OK. Choose Broadcast List and press Configure Add names or IP addresses for the machines you wish to connect to. These can be local to your LAN or anywhere else accessible to the TCP/IP protocol. Click OK Click OK to close the LAPS Configuration window. If it's not greyed out and you've installed TCP/IP, select TCP/IP Configuration and click Configure. This is greyed out in my versions, but as I recall there are no forms to fill in. If you've installed NETBIOS select NETBIOS Configuration and click Configure. As I recall there are no forms to fill in in the original Warp Connect version. Others, simply click OK. Click Close, Exit etc as needed to finish MPTS processing and update config,sys. On Warp Connect, open the OS/2 Peer folder and run Installation. Don't actually change anything. The program apparently inspects the MPTS configuration, presumably to see what protocols it can use. I don't know just what circumstances require this step: changing the protocols around seems to while simply changing the rfcnames doesn't require it. However, it only takes a couple of minutes and may well make the difference between a happy computer and a sad one. I imagine this step is also necessary on Warp 4 and something like it on Warp Server. Some versions of the MPTS configuration program don't allow one to add names in the NETBIOS over TCP/IP Names list. Here are the files: \ibmcom\rfcnames.lst "bbs" 194.184.50.6 "chess" chess "DEL" 194.184.50.11 "step" 194.184.50.12\ibmcom\rfcbcst.lst 194.184.50.11 194.184.50.12 194.184.50.6 chessAs you can see, any text editor will do to maintain them. If you changed these files, you can run the program rfcaddr and use the changes without rebooting. People have written and asked how to configure Samba. Here's my smb.conf
you'
see many rlics of my groping in the dark as I tried to get it working.
So here it is, without explanation.
Installing TCP/IP Actually, installing TCP/IP is quite simple. Getting it configured isn't. The problems lie in the documentation. IBM tells users how to complete fields, but not how to decide what to put there or how to make decisions. Suggestions about consulting with you LAN administrator are not helpful if you ARE the administrator. Third party documentation, notably the Network Administrator's Guide, O'Reilly & Assoc, contain lots of useful info. However, they are directed to Unix & Linux users, and take no account of IBM's TCP/IP Configuration Notebook, driven by the TCPCFG command. TCPCFG retrieves information from and stores it in these files that I've identified:
%etc%\sendmail.cf %etc%\sendmail.uml %etc%\tcpos2.ini %etc%\trusers %etc%\hosts %etc%\resolv2 %etc%\inetd.lst %etc%\snmp.ini TCP/IP
configuration for a small LAN
There are one Class A address, 16 Class B addresses and 256 Class C addresses. Most of us will be content with a single Class C address which caters for a LAN of up to 255 hosts. Not that in this context, host refers to a single computer or workstation, whether it be a thumping great IBM S390 with thousands of individual users running under VM/CMS or something more modest such as a PS/2 Model 80 running OS/2 & TCP/IP. Note also that an individual host may have more than one IP (Internet Protocol) address. In the obvious case, my P100 has one for its NIC which gives it its LAN connexion and another (temporarily) when I dial into my ISP and establish a PPP connexion. I can add additional NICs to get connexions to more LANs or even to gain a second IP address on the one LAN. Configuration
for i486
Enter the IP address. 192.168.0.3 for i486
Enter the IP address. 127.0.0.1 for all hosts. This is an internet convention. Every host should refer to itself by this address. For one thing, it allows TCP/IP servers & clients to run on the same host without any hardware.
Enter Default as the route type Enter 192.168.0.1 as the router address Enter 1 for the metric Click OK Click Add Enter NET as the route type Enter 192.168.0 as the destination address Enter 192.168.0.1 as the router address Enter 1 for the metric Click OK
Unless you have a domain nameserver, leave this blank. Unless you know otherwise, leave Lan searchlist blank. Click the arrow to advance to page 2 of the hostnames. Click Add Define an entry for this host. You need to provide its IP address, its host name and any aliases or nicknames you may wish to use. Add entries for every other host on the LAN.
telnetd - provides the telnet service. Note that telnet on OS/2 is not very secure. ftpd - provides ftp service. Good for occasional file transfer. For file sharing, OS/2 Peer is preferable. lpd - Provides print service. May be useful if you have a Linux box on the LAN or if you want to print over the Internet, although ftp may be a better option there. lprportd - these seems needed too if you're providing a print service. routed - Provides routing functions. I think this is useful if you're providing a gateway service. If you use it, you must have corrective service applied: IC11173 comes to mind. Tony Rall, an IBMer has been putting it out as ic whatever. It's definitely uppercase. In any event, check IBM's Boulder site for a full list of all corrective service. sendmail - provides the mail transport. sendmail is capable of functioning in both server and client modes. sendmail will receive mail across the LAN and deliver it to Ultimail Lite or other mail program that supports smtp.
Specify your time zone. remember if you're west of Greenwich, specify a negative offset because it's later in Greenwich than where you are. Choose your code page.
Define any ftp users. At least here you get to specify different information for different users. Click the arrow to advance to page 2 of security. You probably don't actually want to add any info here.
Specify your userid. For a LAN it can be anything - refer to the help. The i486 has this field blank. Leave the mail storage directory alone. Advance to page 2 of the mail configuration. Admire the fields. I've not established that they actually do anything. One can specify equivalent information in the Ultimail Cabinet settings, and I've not taken the time to see whether they both store the information in the same place, or which is used.
You may specify your reply domain. According to the documentation, this is the name of the host where your mail awaits your collection. I left it blank for the i486. If you specify an smtp mail gateway, outbound mail is delivered to it. Otherwise, sendmail attempts to deliver mail direct to the recipient. The i486 has this field blank. Page 2 of the sendmail configuration seems to be useful only if you are connected to the Internet and have multiple domains in your LAN: that is, interconnected LANs. Here's how I've configured TCP/IP on the P100.
Enter the IP address. 192.168.0.1 for P100
Enter the IP address. 127.0.0.1 Select hostnames
I have my ISP's Domanin Name Server here. Lan searchlist is blank. Click the arrow to advance to page 2 of the hostnames. Click Add Define an entry for this host. You need to provide its IP address, its host name and any aliases or nicknames you may wish to use. I have these entries
127.0.0.1 localhost 192.168.0.1 p100
telnetd - provides the telnet service. Note that telnet on OS/2 is not very secure. ftpd - provides ftp service. Good for occasional file transfer. For file sharing, OS/2 Peer is preferable. portmap. I turned this on when I was trying to get tcp/ip printing going. The documentation says it's required for nfs which isn't part of Warp Connect. sendmail - provides the mail transport. sendmail is capable of functioning in both server and client modes. sendmail will receive mail across the LAN and deliver it to Ultimail Lite or other mail program that supports smtp. Select Security See i486 notes Select servers See i486 notes Select printing. On the p100 I have
lp0 is the remote printer said there are two lpd ports on the i486. This is the mimimim acceptable value.
I have enabled multi-user mail but have not yet discovered its effect. I have specified summer, my Internet userid. The mail storage directory has its default value. Advance to page 2 of the mail configuration. Admire the fields. I've not established that they actually do anything. One can specify equivalent information in the Ultimail Cabinet settings, and I've not taken the time to see whether they both store the information in the same place, or which is used. However, on the p100 I have specified its own address as the pop server and my internet userid & password.
You may specify your reply domain. According to the documentation, this is the name of the host where your mail awaits your collection. I left it blank for the i486. If you specify an smtp mail gateway, outbound mail is delivered to it. Otherwise, sendmail attempts to deliver mail direct to the recipient. The i486 has this field blank. Page 2 of the sendmail configuration seems to be useful only if you are connected to the Internet and have multiple domains in your LAN: that is, interconnected LANs.
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