Connecting to NetWare 3.12 over AppleTalk (NetWare for Macintosh)
NetWare 3.12 comes with a free 5-user copy of NetWare for Macintosh. So I installed it! This is what the result looks like from an emulated Mac.
To my surprise the included client tools (which seem pretty optional - AppleTalk seems to work fine without them) include a surprisignly nice graphical alternative to the console-mode SYSCON utility that is normally used for managing users, etc. There are still a few things you'd have to use SYSCON for but a lot of the basic stuff seems to be present in the Mac tool such as creating users, setting file permissions, etc.
Tools
Things to follow along you'll need:
- Basilisk II with:
- System 7.6 installed (7.5.3 is freely available and similar enough that it will probably do as well).
- a TAP ethernet device (I'm using the one provided by OpenVPN) bridged to your LAN as AppleTalk won't get through Slirp or the Basilisk Router
- An image of the Netware Client for Macintosh 1.0 floppy disk that comes with NetWare 3.12.
Installing MacOS in the emulator is out of scope for this document as nothing unusual is required.
Its important for to use a TAP interface for networking thats bridged with your wired ethernet interface:
We're starting off with (I think) a fresh install of System 7.6
Open the chooser...
And we can see Appletalk zones!
Nothing in the zxnet zone which is surprising
There's our server - in the internal zone! Select it and click OK...
And a login prompt appears!
Logging in as SUPERVISOR I get this:
Click OK and I get the SYS volume on the desktop!
Info for the netware volume
Sharing...
Inside are all the expected SYS volume things.
I've restarted the mac emulator with an image of the "NetWare for Macintosh Client 1.0" disk mounted
This is the contents. Lets run the Installer!
The installer.
Clicking the Install button gives me this. Seems System 7.6 ships with a newer version of AppleTalk than NetWare 3.12. I clicked Cancel here.
Looks like the easy install option won't work here!
Click Customize.
Holding shift I've selected everything except AppleShare System Software and clicked Install
Copying files...
Done. The first time through this I hit reboot and MacOS refused to start back up. I assume this is just an issue with the emulator. Clicking continue seems to work fine.
Done! Click quit.
Then shutdown. I unmounted the floppy disk image afterwards then started the emulator back up again.
A new extension! The red N.
We're back! With some new stuff!
Lets go log in again..
Now we have log on methods! Lets go with Encrypted NetWare Authentication.
No go. Guess Apple Standard UAMs it is!
Logged in again!
And this is what NetWare User Tools looks like:
About screen
File menu
And this is what Add to Workspace does - adds the selected item in the top box to the lower Saved Items box.
Edit menu
Preferences
Utilities menu
Print Queue - nothing much here (my NetWare server doesn't have any printers)
Users and Groups: Add or Delete Users & Groups. This is a bit nicer than SYSCON! You get this window by double-clicking on a user in the Workspace window.
Users and Groups: Assign Passwords
Users and Groups: Users & Groups Assignments
Users and Groups: Assign or Remove Trustees. You can browse for a file or folder in the center panel
Users and Groups: Assign Rights
Users and Groups: Set Security Equivalences
Messaging: a nice GUI for sending messages.
And this is what receiving a message looks like.
NetWare Rights: this is what you get when you double-click on a volume in the Workspace window.
NetWare Rights: Set Inherited Rights
NetWare Rights: Assign or Remove Trustees
NetWare Rights: Assign Rights
File and Folder Flags
The Extension Mapper app doesn't work with NetWare 3.12
But this is what it looks like:
And thats all there is to it! You can access files on a NetWare server from a Mac without requiring any special client software but the client software does provide some benefits.
Disclaimer & Comments
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).