Novell NetWare 4.0 and Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.1

Microsoft's Windows for Workgroups version 3.1 includes support for NetWare client operation. This NetWare support was developed around the Novell NetWare 3.11 driver set, and utilised a Microsoft supplied NDIS to IPX converter, based around the Novell IPX driver standard.

With the new release of Novell NetWare 4.0, Novell have changed the type of driver used to communicate with the LAN card in the workstation from being a 'monolithic' IPX driver, to using ODI drivers. The ODI driver stack can be made to interact with an NDIS protocol by using a Novell supplied module called ODINSUP (which can be found in the file DOSUP7.ZIP in File Area 37 of the Apricot BBS). Novell have also however supplied a new set of Windows NetWare drivers that support the new functions available under NetWare 4.0.

This introduces a problem in that the Windows for Workgroups NetWare interface does not know how to communicate with the NetWare 4.0 Windows drivers, resulting in a loss of network functionality. Dependant on how the installation has been completed, you will typically see one of two types of failure.

If the NetWare 4.0 stack was installed over the top of an existing NetWare/Windows for Workgroups configuration, you will lose the network functionality of the Windows for Workgroups environment, so you will be unable to use the Chat utility, and you will be unable to share directories or printers using the Windows for Workgroups network.

If The NetWare 4.0 stack was installed first, and then Windows for Workgroups installed afterwards, the Windows for Workgroups installation will over-write the NetWare 4.0 Windows drivers, resulting in Windows not starting the next time it is loaded (as the DOS shell files will not be compatible with the Windows drivers). If the NetWare 4.0 drivers are then copied over the Windows for Workgroups NetWare drivers, you will get problems whenever the Windows for Workgroups driver tries to communicate with the NetWare driver (for example when changing drive mappings from within Windows, or when printing to NetWare print queues).

Novell and Microsoft are aware of this incompatibility, and as soon as a solution is made available, we will pass the information (and hopefully the solution) on.

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