ZXnet

A Quick Tour of XCONSOLE for NetWare 3.12

This is a feature that comes with NetWare NFS and possibly some other IP products. Its not a standard part of NetWare 3.x at all. I encountered it while I was configuring NetWare NFS 1.2C and couldn't resist exploring a little.

XCONSOLE works kind of like RCONSOLE. It depends on REMOTE.NLM the same as RCONSOLE does so if you've already got that setup then XCONSOLE will use the same password. To get started, TELNET to your NetWare 3.x server and enter your password. You'll be given two options:

I chose option 0 first - I assumed this was just asking what sort of terminal (xterm or something more primitive). But I was very wrong:

I just so happen to be running an X Server on my windows PC with access control disabled (I'm using it for running virt-manager under the Windows Subsystem for Linux). So up popped this on my windows desktop! Its basically an X11 version of RConsole running via remote X. Neat! I guess that explains why its called XConsole.

Here is what MONITOR.NLM looks like via Remote X

And the snake screensaver via Remote X

I then reconnected and tried option (1) instead - VT100/VT220/Compatbile. Here is the server console via actual telnet rather than Remote-X:

And here is PuTTYs impression of MONITOR.NLM. Not very good.

And the screensaver - also not good:

I changed PuTTYs remote character set to Win1252 (Western) and the result is a bit better:

And the snake screensaver via telnet:

All three together

All three showing the screensaver

So there we go! Its like RCONSOLE but over IP. And with X11 support.

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).