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Conventional memory is a scarce resource under DOS. How much does the NetWare client use? That depends.
Note that I'm not an expert on DOS memory optimisation or the NetWare client. An expert could probably reduce memory consumption further. That said I think its interesting to see what sort of results you get "out of the box" with minimal effort.
The following clients were looked at:
To get something close to these results in VirtualBox with the AMD PCnet-PCI II NIC:
| Client | Free Memory | Additional Memory Used | mem /c output | Notes |
| None/Clean boot | 619KB | 0KB | boot.txt | Clean install of DOS 6.22 with SETVER and SMARTDRV disabled. |
| NETX | 531KB | 88KB | netx.txt | |
| VLM | 526KB | 93KB | vlm.txt | |
| Client32 | 615KB | 4KB | c32.txt | Minimal install - just the DOS client, nothing extra. |
Out of the box Client32 is using extended memory automatically with only a small footprint in conventional memory. The other clients are running entirely in conventional memory.
Next I ran memmaker with the VLM client in autoexec.bat. The result was basically adding EMM386 to config.sys and some stuff to try and load the VLM client high. Memmaker does nothing for Client32 - if emm386 is present it loads itself high automatically.
For comparison, I also gave Microsofts SMB client a go. The results are surprising.
| Client | Configuration | Free Memory | Additional Memory Used (incl. emm386 / excl. emm386) | mem /c output | Notes |
| None | No client loaded | 615KB | 4KB / 0KB | bootmm.txt | The additional 4KB used even without a client loaded reflects MemMaker adding EMM386 to CONFIG.SYS. |
| NETX | Loaded high | 568KB | 51KB / 47KB | netx-lh.txt | Only the network drivers (LSL, IPXODI and the ODI driver) would load high. |
| VLM | Default | 556KB | 63KB / 59KB | vlm_mm.txt | memmaker replaced @call C:\nwclient\startnet with LH /L:0;1,54992 /S COMMAND /E:256 /CC:\nwclient\startnet and this is the result |
| loaded high | 602KB | 17KB / 13KB | vlm-lh.txt | Default startnet.bat altered to load everything high. This achieves far more than memakers change to autoexec.bat. | |
| Minimal | 567KB | 57KB / 48KB | vlmm_mm.txt | The VLM client stripped to the bare minimum | |
| Minimal loaded high | 616KB | 3KB / 0KB | vlmm-lh.txt | The VLM client stripped to the bare minimum, default startnet.bat altered to load everything high | |
| Client32 | Default | 615KB | 4KB / 0KB | c32_vmm.txt | With EMM386 running Client32 automatically loads high. If you already need EMM386 for something else then Client32s conventional memory footprint is effectively nothing. |
| ODI Driver | 588KB | 31KB / 27KB | odi32.txt | Client32 Loaded using the 16bit ODI Driver | |
| ODI Driver, loaded high | 615KB | 4KB / 0KB | odi32-lh.txt | Client32 Loaded using the 16bit ODI Driver. Default startnet.bat altered to load all the .COM files high. | |
| Everything | 585KB | 34KB / 30KB | kitchen.txt | I ticked all the boxes and it still doesn't use all that much RAM! | |
| Microsoft SMB | Basic | 504KB | 115KB / 111KB | ms.txt | For comparison: Microsoft SMB Client loaded using the basic redirector and TCP/IP. Not using TCP would save a chunk of RAM but that would leave it with only IPX removing its ability to talk to anything remotely modern. |
| Full | 442KB | 177KB / 173KB | ms-full.txt | For comparison: Microsoft SMB Client loaded using the full redirector and TCP/IP. The basic redirector only supports share level security making it a little useless for talking to anything besides 90s windows systems. |
Summary:
The minimal VLM configuration used above consisted of adding the following to the NETWARE DOS REQUESTER section of net.cfg:
use defaults = off
vlm = conn.vlm
vlm = ipxncp.vlm
vlm = tran.vlm
vlm = bind.vlm
vlm = nwp.vlm
vlm = fio.vlm
vlm = general.vlm
vlm = redir.vlm
vlm = netx.vlm
signature level = 0
load low conn = off
load low ipxncp = off
cache buffers = 0
pb buffers = 0
connections = 2
preferred server=VNW411
This sacrifices performance and some functionality to match Client32s conventional memory footprint. In particular:
If you're on a 386 you're probably better off just running Client32 and not sacrificing anything
I've also tried out the NETX client on an emulated IBM PC 5150 with only 256KB of RAM and a pair of 360KB 5.25" disks. This represents probably the minimum spec for a client on a NetWare server 3.x server. Memory used colum is memory used by netware client prior to logging in.
| Bytes Free Memory after loading: | |||||||||
| DOS Version | Client Version | DOS | LSL.COM | 3C503.COM | IPXODI.COM | NETx.COM | login | Memory Used | Notes |
| MS-DOS 3.21 | 3.02 | 217,616 | 213,600 | 209,984 | 195,344 | 153,968 | 153,888 | 63,648 | NETx.COM = NET3.COM because MS-DOS 3.x |
| 3.32 PTF 1994 | 212,288 | 208,204 | 191,936 | 141,648 | 141,648 | 75,968 | |||
| MS-DOS 4.01.01 | 3.02 | 205,744 | 201,728 | 198,112 | 183,472 | 141,648 | 141,568 | 64,096 | NETx.COM = NET4.COM because MS-DOS 4.x. |
| 3.32 PTF 1994 | 200,352 | 196,304 | 180,000 | 129,712 | 129,712 | 76,032 | |||
| MS-DOS 5.0 DEC | 3.32 PTF 1994 | 207,616 | 202,304 | 198,256 | 181,952 | 131,664 | 131,584 | 75,952 | DEC OEM version of MS-DOS. Has DEC copyright on startup banner. |
| MS-DOS 6.0, 6.22 | 3.32 PTF 1994 | 206,528 | 201,216 | 197,168 | 180,864 | 130,576 | 130,576 | 75,952 | |
I'm not sure if the version of MS-DOS 5.0 used has the same conventional memory footprint as the retail version. Its a DEC OEM version (came with a DECpc) that includes an additional setup disk, a few extra files and a DEC Copyright on the MS-DOS startup banner.
I'm not a netware expert, don't have any of those fancy novell certifications and have never administred a netware network; I've just played with it at home occasionally since 2004 or so. Email me if you've got any suggestsions or corrections for this page or any extra information you think is worth including here. My address is david at this websites domain name (without the www bit of course).