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Needing help with Novell Netware 3.12

Step One is to work out if you actually need Netware 3.12.

I recently attempted to setup a Netware 3.12 Server - but it was taking a lot of time to work through something as simple as installation (I didn't have the pile of books) - once I worked out I needed to load a particular "CHM" file from the command line to continue, it turned out my 486's IDE controller was a tad too new and I needed to apply around 20 updates if I didn't want it to crash when creating a new volume, The updates were not numbered sequentially (of course), and had to be loaded in the correct order. By that stage I just threw my hands in the air.

It's more complex than what is usually required for a small vintage network. I ended up going with Netware Lite, gives me printer sharing, file sharing, authentication, time sync, and minimal memory usage. It's also possible to completely unload the entire thing from RAM (nothing at all in CONFIG.SYS).

But if you want to learn it, I'd recommend buying those books as well. Failing that, searching "google groups" can be useful for tidbits of information when needed.
 
Lantastic is rather simple to setup and does everything. :)

I also have a program called Unet-II that is a complete Server/Workstation system for two DOS computers and it requires virtually no installation or setup. It doesn't even require any network cards as it uses the parallel ports and the equivalent of a LapLink cable.
 
thank you for all your help guys.

I have a carbon copy of the books this is why i started the thread to get some more information.

I don't need netware 3.12 but i happen to have it already so why not run it on a system for the heck of it?
I have the even earlier versions of the software but i think I am aiming for the DB part that is interresting to me.

The system specs that will run this are as follows, 386 at 25MHz with 8MiB RAM and a refurbished ET4000 card.

It has both a laplink style cable and serial hooks up to my miggy and will be used as a gateway and minor ftp host for the miggy.
 
I used to maintain several NW 3.12 servers, last one was put down about 3 years ago. It was a Compaq server with hot-swap drives. The "up" time when I shut it down was over five years. A real stable OS. The system was replaced with a MS Server in about 2001, but the accountant needed access to a few programs that were custom written for a Novell network, so the server was left on line and only a few people had the Netware client installed to access it.
Netware 3.12 installs on a small PC DOS partition and loads the OS from a file. The OS loads to a command prompt and runs scripts to load drivers for the hard drive controller, mounts the SYS volume, and loads drivers for the LAN card. The console has a small set of commands to mount drives and load modules, but usually you can't do more than that (3rd party vendors added backup programs, voice mail systems, and others that would install on the server and run on the console). Users would access the server over the LAN by mapping volumes.
It's been about 15 years sense I last installed Netware from scratch, so I don't exactly recall all the steps. I know it came on about a dozen diskettes (later versions on a CD), or you could copy all the files into a folder on a DOS drive and run setup from there. If you are running on an older system with an ISA or IDE drive it should already have the drivers you need. You will need to to locate Netware drivers for the LAN board.
You manually create a small DOS partition for the boot files, and the install creates a netware partition for the SYS volume & VOL1, VOL2... Just boot to the DOS partition and run the install on the floppy or CD, it will copy files and create the loader scripts.
I have a set of original books and software for Netware 3.12 (and other versions), I can put them on eBay if anyone is interested...
 
I'm interested but currently lack financials to even consider acquiring it at this time.

For now just getting it running and being capable of running any form DB is what is interresting to me.
 
Our main server at work is still a Netware 3.2 box. It's a Pentium Pro Compaq machine, with one internal and one external RAID array.

I'm moving the files over to Synology hardware because Windows 7 doesn't speak Netware.

The last time I did anything to it was when I installed the Y2K patch.

Solid solid stuff.
 
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