ZXnet

Novell NetWare Client for OS/2

OS/2 had quite good client support from Novell (plus the ability to host a virtualised instance of the NetWare server). All versions of OS/2 above from 1.2 and up have a freely available client available while the clients for OS/2 versions 1.0 and 1.1 were possibly only bundled with very old versios of NetWare. The final client release was 2.12 in 1996 with support ending after the year 2000.

For figuring out which version of the OS/2 Client ("Netware Requester for OS/2") to install on your OS/2 computer refer to the Supported client versions table. For example, if you're running OS/2 Warp 3 or 4 you can run either v2.11 to v2.12. Where possible run v2.12 - it fixes many bugs and has much improved support for DOS and Win-OS2 applications.

Contents

• Supported client versions
• All Downloads
• Year 2000 Support
• Identifying Installed Client Versions
• Screenshots
• Missing Stuff
• See Also / Links

Supported client versions

Refer to the table below to figure out which version of the Netware Requester for OS/2 to use for a given version of OS/2. It can be a little confusing to read due to OS/2 and the NetWare client using similar version numbers.

* The 2.11 client may work on OS/2 2.0 - I have found no clear answer on this so its probably worth giving a go. An early version of the 2.11 FAQ from 1995 lists OS/2 2.10 as the minimum version while the latest version of the FAQ says 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 are supported. This post which appears to be quoting a readme file says says all 2.x releases made prior to 15 April 1994 are supported.

† I can find no documentation stating what versions of OS/2 the v2.12 client supports. Given novell didn't feel the need to document this perhaps it supports the same versions of OS/2 as the 2.11 client? Probably worth giving the 2.12 client a try first and if it doesn't work switching to 2.11 (or perhaps 2.01 for OS/2 2.0)

All Downloads

	WSOS21.EXE - First install disk
	WSOS22.EXE - Client program files
	WSOS23.EXE - Windows libraries and RPL files
	WSDRV1.EXE - ODI LAN drivers
	OS2UT1.EXE - Workstation Utilities
	OS2DC1.EXE - Electronic Documentation in native OS/2 format
	OS2VMB.EXE - VLM boot disk iamge (Creates a Private Dos 
		session that runs VLMs. This allows an OS/2 workstation 
		to run NWADMIN, NETADMIN and other DS Utilties)

	nc21os21.zip - Disk 1 - Installation disk - WSOS21
	nc21os22.zip - Disk 2 - Requester/RIPL - WSOS22
	nc21drv1.zip - Disk 3 - LAN Drivers - WSDRV1
	nc21ut1.zip - Disk 4 - Utilities - OS2UT1
	nc21dc1.zip - Disk 5 - Documentation - OS2DC1

Year 2000 Support

The v2.12 client is Y2K compatible. For prior versions there is an updated copy of NWLOCALE.DLL is available in clty2kp1.exe (readme). The readme doesn't say which versions of the client it applies to though so it might be a case of try it and see.

Identifying client versions

According to TID 10051720 if you're logged into the server and the OS/2 Utilities are installed on the server you can just run NVER and it will give you the version of the OS/2 Requester. Otherwise, check the date on NWREQ.SYS in the NETWARE directory and refer to the table below:

Data in this table comes from TIDs 10051720, 10051720, inspecting the v2.11 OS2Cx.EXE update files and inspecting the v2.12 release and patch files.

Screenshots

• Version 1.3 on IBM OS/2 1.3
• Version 2.01 on OS/2 2.0
• Version 2.12 - the last released version and the version from the NetWare 4.11 CD
  • On OS/2 2.1
  • On OS/2 Warp 3
  • On OS/2 Warp 4

Missing stuff

After much searching I've been unable to find the following:

• REL102.ZIP - the copy that exists on the internet has been modified by the author of a shareware CD-ROM
• Definitive information about the release and distribution of the 1.0 and 1.1 clients. Were they freely redistributable like most later versions? Or available for sale only like the 2.0 client?
• NSD002.ZIP - Update for client v1.3. Should be dated sometime around 16 July 1991.
• NSD201.EXE - Update for client v2.0. Should be dated sometime around October 1992.
• R201ST.EXE - Update for client v2.01. Referenced by TID 15833 (source for the client versions table above) but I can find no other mentions of it on the NSEpro or support connection CDs I've got access to. Not one mention of it on the google groups usenet archive. Perhaps its a typo in the TID?
• R211FT.EXE - Update for client v2.11 from around March 1995
• R211FT.EXE - Update for client v2.11 from around August 1995. Same filename, different contents.
• OS2C2.EXE - Update for client v2.11.
• OS2C3.EXE - Update for client v2.11 from around 6 February 1996. This site has a copy but sadly it is damaged and won't extract.

See Also

• Network Booting OS/2 Warp 3.0 from NetWare
• TID 10051720 (formerly 15833) - First Steps to Troubleshooting OS/2 Clients on NetWare

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).