NW 4.11 / Win98 Client

[GaryEllington]

I have a Netware 4.11 server; it has been running for 4 years, without even a minor problem, supporting 5 DOS clients. About 2 years ago, I added a Win98 client, using the Microsoft Client for Netware. No problems, been working fine.

Recently, I wanted to add an external print server to the network. It's installation routine was Windows-based (of course), and in going through the install, I discovered that, by using Microsoft's client, I was not logged into "NDS", and couldn't install the print server unless I was. According to what I dredged up on Novell.com, I needed to switch to using Novell's client.

I did, and was able to sucessfully get the print server working. Hooray for me.

But now my Win98 machine is acting wonky. I can log-in, with ANY username/password. I get the rights, drive mappings, etc., appropriate to whichever user account I logged in with. But my available disk space is 0 bytes.

This is NOT related to the user account restrictions, as I can login with the SAME user account from one of the DOS machines, and have no problem whatsoever.

I have re-installed, un-installed & re-installed, switched back to the Microsoft client. I have tried everything I can think of, short of wiping & re-installing Windows on the client machine.

I know this is a long post, thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[TheLad]

If you run a command prompt and check there, do you get the same results as what Explorer says? It is normal wor Explorer to screw up diskspace (especially if your NetWare volume is over 2Gb). -----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
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[GaryEllington]

Yes, it shows 0 diskspace from command-line also

The only app running on this network is a database, and the first thing the client does on startup is append to a logfile on the server with the date/time/user-id/etc of who started the client.

It instantly dies with a "out-of-disk-space" error. Another weird thing I just noticed; if I do a "whoami" from the command line, it doesn't show anything for my username, just the tree name.

BTW, the drive IS less than 2gb, and has over 1.5gb free space.

Since I have to get this win98 client back up and working before Tuesday, I think it's about time to re-part & re-install.

 

[TheLad]

If this is the only machine affected, I would concur! -----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
-----------------------------------------------------

 

[GaryEllington]

Figured it out...

Didn't realize the print server would use one of my connection licenses. I have only a 5-connection license. The print server would be the 6th connection. Since it and the DOS workstations ALL stay powered on and logged-in at all times, the next time I booted my Win98 machine, I should have gotten some sort of "connection-refused, out-of-licences error"

But I never got this type of error, so I didn't realize what was happening right away.

I shut down one of the DOS workstations to swap NIC's (getting desperate to find problem with Win98 box!) Suprise! My Win98 box connected and started working fine! Re-installed the first NIC and it worked too!

Of course, when I put the NIC back in the DOS box, now it doesn't connect, but I still didn't get any type of "out-of-licenses" error, this one simply pretended the network drive letters weren't there, even though Client32 reported a successful connection to the server.

Eventually, I realized that I could log-in any workstation, as long as at least one of the others was logged out. Thought I had a "ghost connection", so I load monitor on the server and *BINGO* there's my print server using up one of my licensed connections!

So, what's the end result? Removed the print server and hooked up the printer to one of the DOS workstations using NPRINTER. Now I am right back where I started a month ago.

sheeesh, it's a good thing the prez doesn't keep me around, JUST for my computer skillz!