Follow the steps below to configure and load the SoftWindows ODI driver:

In normal operation the SoftWindows NDIS drivers filter received packets on-the-fly. That is, they only receive packets of protocol types which it has previously transmitted. In some circumstances this could cause a slight degradation in performance and the functionality of the NDIS drivers can be changed to disable this on-the-fly filtering technique. Disabling this functionality can stop network packets being received by Windows 95 if care is not taken.

If On-The-Fly packet filtering is disabled Valid Protocol Overrides MUST be supplied.

Five Protocol Override settings are provided. These force the SoftWindows NDIS drivers to enable the selected protocol types. The following table shows how to enable specific frame/protocol types:

Where `x' represents a Hex digit.

Note that ALL protocols must be added. To enable TCP/IP you must enable both IP (0800) and ARP (0806). It is valid to have On-The-Fly packet filtering enabled whilst protocol overrides are defined. They are simply ignored.

The LINK SUPPORT section of the NET.CFG file is used to configure the Open Data-link Interface Link Support Layer (LSL.COM). This section is only needed when protocols require a non default configuration.

The LINK DRIVER section is the most important part of the NET.CFG file for configuring SoftWindows. The options set in this section govern the interface between the driver and the rest of the system, the protocols registered with the network interface, and the format of packets transmitted and received. There are also numerous other configuration options associated with the network interface card, but most of these are not relevant to SoftWindows.

The following options are the most important for SoftWindows:

Syntax: FRAME frame-type

This configuration option enables a particular frame type.

Syntax: PROTOCOL name protocolID frame-type

This configuration option enables a particular protocol to be used with a particular frame type. The SoftWindows ODI driver will only receive network packets for those protocols enabled within the NET.CFG file.

Syntax: MAXPACKETSIZE value

Some platforms limit the size of packets which can be transmitted. This option is only offered to resolve any platform-specific limitations which may occur in the future.

The default sizes are shown in Table 10-3.

A sample LINK DRIVER section is as follows:

LINK DRIVER ETHERSPC
        FRAME ETHERNET_802.2
        FRAME ETHERNET_II
        FRAME ETHERNET_802.3
        FRAME ETHERNET_SNAP
        PROTOCOL IPX 8137 ETHERNET_II

The FRAME lines in this LINK DRIVER section allow all four Ethernet frame types to be used with the driver. It is recommended that you always include all frame types in the LINK DRIVER section to allow the driver to transmit and receive frames in any of the common hardware packet formats. Note that the order of the lines is not significant. A configuration such as this prevents any FRAME and PROTOCOL mismatches occurring, and also makes configuring both ODI and NDIS (over ODI via the ODINSUP shim) identical.

The MAX PACKET SIZE option limits the size of any packets being transmitted and is only provided to solve platform-specific implementations in which the host is not able to transmit full size raw packets.

Since the SoftWindows ODI drivers (ETHERSPC) and the other Novell ODI components all obtain their configuration data from the NET.CFG file, it is important that they all reference the same NET.CFG file. It is recommended that all the ODI components are loaded from the directory which contains the NET.CFG file, usually

C:\NWCLIENT

For example:

CD\NWCLIENT
LSL
ETHERSPC
IPXODI
VLM

The table below provides information on the FRAME types and PROTOCOL entries required in the NET.CFG file for common Network Clients and SoftWindows.

Although by default this feature is disabled, it is possible to increase the performance of the NetWare 4 client within SoftWindows by enabling Novell's Protocol Burst support for use with the SoftWindows ODI driver. This should only be enabled when accessing NetWare 4 servers via the NetWare 4 client as no increase in performance will be seen in other circumstances.

To enable Protocol Burst support the SoftWindows NET.CFG file must be edited. Remove the ; (semi-colon) at the beginning of the following line:

; MAX IPG = 1

Change the value of PB BUFFERS from 0 to 7.

Protocol Burst support will now be enabled whenever the NetWare 4 VLM client is loaded.

PROTOCOL VINES BAD ETHERNET_II

Where two or more protocols of the same frame type are provided for the network client, all must be present in the NET.CFG file for the client to work correctly. For example, for the Microsoft network client to work over TCP/IP, and for access to NetWare servers to be enabled, the following must be defined in the Ethernet section of the NET.CFG file:

LINK DRIVER ETHERSPC
FRAME ETHERNET_II
PROTOCOL IP 800 ETHERNET_II
PROTOCOL ARP 806 ETHERNET_II
PROTOCOL IPX 8137 ETHERNET_II

No problems should be encountered when loading the Link Support Layer. If an error does occur, the most likely cause is an incorrect entry in the LINK SUPPORT section of the NET.CFG file.

Several problems could cause the Insignia ODI driver to report a failure at load time. The following are common faults and solutions:

ODI driver cannot find the host's network adapter

The message shown below indicates that the Insignia ODI driver has failed to initialize or find the host's network device:

C:\NWCLIENT>etherspc
Insignia Ethernet MLID  v2.00E (950908).
(C) Copyright 1991-1995 Insignia Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
IRQ 10, Node Address 800690895E2 L
Max Frame 1514 bytes, Line Speed 10 Mbps, Bus ID 0
Board 1, Frame ETHERNET_802.2, LSB Mode
Board 2, Frame ETHERNET_II, LSB Mode
Board 3, Frame ETHERNET_SNAP, LSB Mode
Board 4, Frame ETHERNET_802.3, LSB Mode
Could not find a host Ethernet card.
ETHERSPC-DOS-6: The adapter did not initialize.  ETHERSPC did not load.

The Insignia ODI driver has failed to initialize or find the host's network device. Ensure that:

ODI driver is loaded twice

The second attempt at loading the ODI driver will produce error output similar to the following:

C:\NWCLIENT>etherspc
Insignia Ethernet MLID  v2.00E (950908).
C) Copyright 1991-1995 Insignia Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
ETHERSPC-DOS-7: You need another ETHERSPC driver section in the NET.CFG file in order to load the LAN driver again.

The Insignia ODI drivers can only be loaded once. If you need to reload the ODI driver simply unload the previous instance first with the command:

ETHERSPC U 

When using TCP/IP-based clients within SoftWindows it is advisable to run SoftWindows on machines with just one network card installed. If more than one card is installed within the machine, the host's operating system may handle the TCP/IP packets destined for SoftWindows as packets to be routed. This will result in a vast degradation in performance and is not an encouraged configuration.

When running multiple SoftWindows sessions on the same machine, only one SoftWindows session will support networking via the Insignia ODI or NDIS drivers.

If you decide to install the Insignia NDIS or ODI driver and add the Microsoft TCP/IP protocol , then the Microsoft Winsock libraries will be taken from the Windows 95 setup files and placed in the C:\WINDOWS and C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directories. (The Insignia Winsock DLL files are still be present in the C:\INSIGNIA directory). You can use one set of DLL files or the other, but not both.

The application or functionality you require determines which winsock drivers should be installed.

If you need a FULL TCP/IP stack (for example, to map drives to NT servers, Microsoft Exchange, or applications which use Microsoft extensions), then you should be using the Microsoft Winsock DLLs.

If you don't want to use Microsoft Winsock extensions, or your application is a true winsock application—the application doesn't expect and use the Microsoft full TCP/IP stack— for example, MicrosoftIE, Netscape, or Telnet, then you should use the Insignia Winsocks, as they offer better performance with less configuration.

When using the Microsoft TCP/IP stack you MUST use a unique IP Address.

It doesn't make sense to use the Insignia Winsocks above the Microsoft TCP/IP stack.

Do not select Auto Freeze within SoftWindows if you are using networking. Using Auto Freeze in such an environment is like disconnecting the network cable from the machine. If you do use the Auto Freeze option, you will find that your connections to servers and other network facilities have been disconnected when you reenter SoftWindows.

If SoftWindows is configured to be a TCP/IP client, avoid using a remote display. Using a remote display leads to increased TCP/IP traffic generated by X Windows which SoftWindows will receive and must then filter.

Some network client software needs to know the interrupt number of the ODI driver during installation and configuration. SoftWindows ODI and NDIS drivers uses IRQ 10 (decimal).

If you can't see any other PCs in your Network Neighborhood, there are several reasons why it might not be working:

If you can't get the ping or ftp commands to work in SoftWindows:

You must use a unique IP address when you have an full TCP/IP protocol stack within SoftWindows (be that DOS, Windows, or Windows95).

See Table 10-4 for a chart of the various configuration combinations that work for these commands when running SoftWindows.

To enable network error reporting from the command line include the command-line option -snerror when running SoftWindows.

Alternatively, networking error reporting can be enabled by setting the SNERROR environment variable to one of the following values: