Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks on Windows ME
A quick look at the Microsoft NetWare client for Windows ME. This is the only NetWare client that anyone ever officially supported on ME - while the proper Novell one may work Novell didn't test or support it on ME as ME wasn't targeted at business use.
Contents
Tools
To follow along you'll need a VM with:
- Windows ME installed.
- Bridged networking (IPX won't get through NAT)
- A NIC thats setup in Windows (I'm using PCnet-PCI II)
Creating the VM and installing Windows ME are out of scope for this document as nothing special is required
Installing
A cleanish install of Windows ME! I only have the upgrade version so this was upgraded from a clean install of Windows 98.
Right-click on My Network Places and choose Properties
Click Add
Choose Service
In Windows 9x and ME the client and NDS support are installed separately. If you install the Service for NetWare Directory Services first it will install the netware client too saving a few clicks
Done!
Now change the primary logon type to NetWare and click OK.
Copying files...
Then time to reboot.
My VM crashed on reboot so I had to reset it again. Then I got this. Is this normal? Or perhaps just a side-effect of installing the Client for NetWare Networks and the Service for NetWare Directory Services at the same time. Clearly its not the NDS login screen in the background. Click Yes to reboot some more.
This looks better! Pick a tree.
The NDS login screen!
The advanced button lets you change your tree and context. The Root context often doesn't work for me so I'm going to change it to my organsiation.
Time to login.
Creating a new local account for the netware user.
The login script flashes past and we're logged into Netware!
More Screenshots
Network drives mapped
As usual no netware-specific tabs in any file or drive properties windows.
Interesting the SYS volume shows up here - don't remember seeing that happen on 95 or 98. No other netware things.
Inside entire network the NDS organisation appears (confusingly without a special icon)
Organisation properties
Organisation properties: NDS Administration Settings
Inside the organisation are all the things
Print queue properties
Print queue properties: NDS tab
A bug? WhoAmI for a NetWare 3.12 server that exists in NDS
NetWare 3.12 server properties
NDS tab for a server
Thats about all there is to see. Pretty much identical to the Windows 98 version.
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).