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Netware Client for Mac - zxnet

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Novell NetWare Client for MacOS

There are three ways of accessing files on a NetWare server from a Mac: AFP over AppleTalk, the NetWare Client for Mac (NCP over IPX), and AFP over IP. In July 1998 both the IPX and AppleTalk options were sold/licensed to another company (ProSoft Engineering) who sold them as a commercial product.

AFP - the native Mac network protocol

A lot of versions of NetWare could operate on a Mac network with no special client software or configuration required on the macs - everything was handled on the server. Just how this works (and how much it cost) depends on the version of NetWare.

Over AppleTalk

This was the original way of accessing NetWare servers from a Mac and likely the only way of supporting versions of MacOS older than 7.1 and versions of NetWare older than 4.1. AFP support comes from the NetWare for Macintosh product which, in NetWare 2.x and 3.x, was sold separately with its own per user licensing on top of the per-user licensing for NetWare itself. Netware 3.12 includes NetWare for Macintosh bundled with a 5 user license and additional users available 200 at a time (ref).

In Netware 4.1 and 4.11 the NetWare for Macintosh product was included on the NetWare CD and no longer required per-user mac licensing. A 100 user copy of Netware 4.11 could support up to 100 Mac users over AppleShare with the Netware for Mac product installed and configured. For NetWare 4.2 it was provides as a free download with support ending on 30 April 2000.

In July 1998 Netware for Macintosh was sold to ProSoft Engineering where it became again a commercial product. For NetWare 5.x and above you could buy the AFP NLMs for, according to this thread, about $700. I cant find any reference to ProSoft porting their AppleShare AFP NLMs to NetWare 6. This seems to be the main way in which Novell supported MacOS X clients.

Over IP

In 2000 Novell took over Mac File & Print services from ProSoft and eventually released AFP-over-IP as an add-on product for Netware 5.1 (Novell Native File Access for Macintosh - product page). In Netware 6 AFP is provided out-of-the-box at no additional cost.

AFP Support Summary
Netware Version AFP Povided By Transport Cost
2.x, 3.0-3.11 NetWare for Macintosh AppleShare Add-on product purchased separately with its own per user licensing
3.12 NetWare for Macintosh AppleShare Product and a 5 user license bundled with NetWare, additional users can be purchased 200 at a time
4.0 No mac support?
4.1x NetWare for Macintosh AppleShare Bundled free with NetWare 4.1x. No additional per-user licensing costs.
4.2 NetWare for Macintosh AppleShare Free add-on with limited support
5.0 NetWare for Macintosh AppleShare Commercial product from ProSoft Engineering
5.1 NetWare for Macintosh AppleShare Commercial product from ProSoft Engineering
Novell Native File Access for Macintosh IP Commercial product from Novell
6.x Netware IP built-in to NetWare
Netware for Mac Client Files

These clients are specific to the Netware for Macintosh product (AFP/AppleShare). For the NDS/NCP client that runs over IPX, see further down this page.

Version Date Notes Link
3.x 29 March 1996 "This file contains client peices to work with Novell 3.x NetWare for Macintosh products. Included are NetWare UAM 3.0, Notify 5.0, NetWare Client v2.0 and AppleShare 3.6.1"

The .BIN file is for download and expansion on a mac. The .EXE file is for download and expansion on a DOS computer. See the README files for more information.

The Readme files were printed from the Novell Support Connection 1996-12 CD to a poscript file under Windows 3.1 then converted to PDF.
3XCLNT.EXE, Readme,
3XCLNT.BIN, Readme

NCP over IPX - The NetWare Client for Mac

At the end of 1995 Novell introduced their full NetWare Client for Mac which talked NCP to NetWare over IPX which was bundled with NetWare 4.11. This works in a similar way to NetWare clients on other platforms but it was only supported by Novell for a fairly limited time. This client only supports IPX and it only supports NCP - there is no support for NetWare versions earlier than 4.1 and no support for Pure IP - Netware 5 and higher need IPX enabled to use it.

In July 1998 Novell licensed further development of the Mac client to ProSoft engineering who sold all future versions as a product. There appear to have been three releases of this product before the company moved on to making a client for MacOS X. The Mac Classic client disappeared from their website sometime between 13 March and 5 May 2016. The MacOS X client was withdrawn from sale sometime in the first half of 2011. As far as I can tell these clients were never made freely available after they were discontinued so they are probably unavailable anyone who didn't buy a license back when they were available.

System Requirements

This covers client versions 5.1 and 5.11 only (TID 2909585) - later versions released by ProSoft Engineering have higher requirements. The CD-ROM drive requirement is probably for getting the client onto the mac in the first place.

Versions & Downloads
Version Date Notes Link
5.14 30 April 2001 Commercial product sold by ProSoft Engineering. Release Notes
5.13 22 July 1999 Commercial product sold by ProSoft Engineering. This appears to have been a free update to customers who had already bought 5.12. Release Notes
5.12 25 January 1999 Commercial product sold by ProSoft Engineering.

Press Release

Overview of whats new and improved in 5.12
Product Page
5.11 13 May 1996 This version does not support IPX running on PCI lan cards. I think the solution here is to use Netware/IP on Macs with PCI LAN cards.

Release Notes
Choosing between EXE and BIN versions

Updates:
These updates appear to be cumulative so you only need to bother with update 6a.
mclupd.bin - 14 April 1997 - Update 1
mclupd2.bin - ? - Update 2
mclupd3.bin - 24 July 1997 - Update 3
mclupd4.bin - 13 October 1997 - Update 4
mclupd5.bin - ? - Update 5
mclupd6a.bin, readme - 13 August 1998 - Update 6a. Required for MacOS 8.x support. Also available as a disk image for easier use in emulators.
CLT511.BIN, Readme
CLT511.EXE, Readme
5.1 13 November 1995 The linked file (CLINMAC.EXE) comes from Issue 3 of Novell Power Partner (June-August 1996). It's a self-extracting archive containing both the client (CL4MAC.TXT/CL4MAC.EXE) and documentation (CL4DOC.TXT/CL4DOC.EXE). Follow the instructions in the embedded readme files to correctly extract the mac client from these DOS executables.

Press Release - PDF converted from the Envoy-format original via PostScript geneated by Windows 3.1 postscript driver. Also on Google Groups.
Data Sheet - PDF converted from the Envoy-format original via PostScript geneated by Windows 3.1 postscript driver.
Whitepaper - PDF converted from the Envoy-format original via PostScript geneated by Windows 3.1 postscript driver.
CLINMAC.EXE
MacNDS 7 July 1995 This is the version of MacNDS that ships with NetWare 4.10 (the only version of MacNDS?). Its sort of a proto-Client-for-Mac existing half-way between the NetWare 3.x client bits and the newer NetWare Client for MacOS. It includes MacIPX, an NDS implementation, and the little tree menu in the Menu bar like the NetWare Client for MacOS, but it doesn't come with any additional client tools beyond what NetWare 3.x has and file and print services still go via AppleShare so it Requires NetWare for Macintosh in order to operate. Logging in to NetWare via the tree menu just means you're not prompted for a password when you connect to servers via the chooser.

This is not compatible with AppleShare 3.6 - Novells solution was to upgrade to the NetWare Client for MacOS, though perhaps simply grabbing the newer UAM would be sufficient to make this work.
41CLNT.EXE

Screenshots

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).