GSNW can't map Novell server

OK, exactly what are you trying to do? Are you trying to map drives on the W2K box to the NetWare server? If you're just doing that, then why not install NetWare Client32 instead of GSNW?

What I'm trying to get at is what exactly are you trying to do?

Hi PsiCop,

Because I don't want to put NetWare Client on my web server.

Thanks.

You still have not answered this question: What I'm trying to get at is what exactly are you trying to do?

I am trying to map NetWare server from W2k server .

Thanks.

I got the following error msg when I tried to add a share from Gateway services.

"The network path was not found"

Thanks.

As I recall, GSNW was designed to make the W2K machine look like a NetWare (v2) server for NetWare clients. I don't recall it being designed to let the W2K machine act as a NetWare client itself.

Unless I'm wrong about the nature of GSNW (DSPoole? ShineOn?), my advice to you would be to install the proper software, namely NetWare Client32, rather than trying to force the wrong software to do something it was not designed to do.

Another alternative would be to upgrade your NetWare server to v6.x (latest is v6.5) and install Native File Access Protocol support, which would enable your NetWare server to appear as a Windows box to Windows clients (including your web server).

Hi PsiCop,

The GSNW can be used to access file resides on Novell server from W2k server/client. It has been documented on Microsoft web site. I had made it working before but it  brought me the problem after swithed the Novell server to the new LAN. It is not forcing the wrong software to do anything.

As i metioned already, I don't want to load the Novell client on my web server. Also I don't think I will update the Novell to V6 in order to fix only this problem.

Thank you for your advice.

You say you switched the server to a new LAN. What is the interconnectivity between the LAN where your webserver is and the LAN where the NetWare server is now located? How do the two LANs communicate? Are there any firewalls? Using what protocol are you trying to communicate with the NetWare server: IP or IPX?

I am trying to use IPX to communicate with NetWare server.
I just switched my W2K server to the same LAN as Novell server resides. But still couldn't map the NetWare server.

Thanks.

OK, question: Since NetWare v5 supports (and indeed, prefers) IP as its communications protocol, why are you using IPX? Or is that some stupid limitation of GSNW?

GSNW depends on and works with NWLink protocol. NWLink is Microsoft's implementation of  IPX/SPX.

Ah, stupid limitation of GSNW, gotcha. Nothing like using archaic technology such as GSNW, is there? Here it is, 2003, and Redmond still hasn't caught onto the fact that NetWare was supporting TCP/IP as its primary protocol back in 1999. Gotta love it.

Did you correct the NetWare server's IPX network number when you moved it to the new LAN segment? That's my only idea right now.

GSNW is short for Gateway Services for NetWare, and is based on Microsoft's denial of reality.  They designed it to work as a migration tool to entice people to move from NetWare 3.x.  It was updated to kind-of work with NDS, but Microsoft still doesn't want anyone to know that the last version of NetWare to be dependent on IPX was 4.x.  

It supposedly logs on to a NetWare server and presents a pathway to the file system using the authentication criteria of the user it logs on as.  Once that connection is made, then a "pure Microsoft" "network" can map the directories as "shares."

It is extremely limited in functionality and security.

What are you trying to do with this?  Are you an MCSE that has never touched NetWare before and is afraid to learn how it works because of the way Microsoft indoctrinates MCSE's against anything non-Microsoft, and because of that want to get rid of the NetWare network that is already in place?

If you simply want to access the NetWare server from your Web server running on Win2K, and are not concerned about using the gateway fucntionalities of GSNW, then you shouldn't use GSNW.

You should use the NetWare client.  You could use the crippleware CSNW (Client Services For NetWare) that comes with Windows, but you would be better off with the NetWare client.

Why are you against using the NetWare client to connect your Win2K Web server to your NetWare server?  

You don't take seriously the FUD that Microsoft likes to spread about using the NetWare client, do you?

Or is it that the CSNW is the service that makes Windoze look like a NetWare server to a NetWare client?

At any rate, the crippleware client that comes with Windows could work for you, but won't work well - it never has and never will.  

Well, that was my earlier recommendation, that he install Client32. He refused. Mebbe he'll listen now that someone else is saying the same thing as I was.

I was hoping that would be the case.  I still want to know why he's so dead-set against installing Client32?  I had it on all of my Windows servers with no harm, no foul.

Hi PsiCop & ShineOn,

I just came back from vacation and thank you for all your suggestions/comments. I don't want to install & maintain the Novell Client on my web server. That is the reason I didn't load the client on it. Not coz I am afraid of it:) I know it will solve my problem if I have Novell client on it, but my GSNW was working perfect and I think I just need some changes to have it fixed.

I switched my web server to the same LAN as Novell server. The firewall shouldn't be the issue.

PsiCop,
for "correct the NetWare server's IPX network number", do you mean to modify the IPX network number on my web server from Network properties? if so, I did it.

I still can't map the Novell server/drive. Does GSNW work with Novell NetWare5.0?
Thanks.


M.
 

Speaking for PsiCop (sorry, dude) I think what was meant is that, on the NetWare server, you need to go into DSREPAIR and do a full unattended repair until there are zero errors.  If you changed networks, then the NDS-stored info may be different from the physical reality, so DS has to be told what is right.

If you can't come up "clean" after multiple, full unattended repairs, let us know.

If you have this yet-unexplained aversion to installing the NetWare cleint, which you acknowledge will fix your problem, then we need to talk about why.

Yes, you made it work before with GSNW.  Like I said, though, GSNW isn't meant for what you need, it's meant to be able to create Windoze "shares" on NetWare resources, and has many flaws and limitations.

If you absolutely MUST stick with a Microshaft-only fix for your issue (why, I can't fathom) then you should install the crippleware Microsoft Client for NetWare, which will expect your server to look and act much like a NetWare 4.10 server would.

If you want full compatibility between Win2K and NetWare, you must either install the NetWare client32 for Win2K, or upgrade your NetWare to 6.x and implement NFAP on the NetWare server(s).

Frankly, I'm with ShineOn. There is no "maintenance" issue here. You install the NetWare Client, its done. What is there to maintain. It seems to me that you're going around your butt to scratch your nose.

Another idea would be to upgrade your NetWare to v6.5 and install Native File Access Protocol (NFAP), which would allow you to make the NetWare server look like a Windoze box to the Windoze clients (just with much longer uptime than Windoze gets). Think of NFAP as a sort of SAMBA for NetWare (altho with NFS and AppleShare capabilities also built-in).

Frankly, I stick by my previous recommendation of 11/26 @ 11:34am ET, and that is to install Client 32. That is the optimal short-term solution.

The best long-term solution is to upgrade NetWare to a version that supports NFAP and have it emulate a Windoze box.

"I know it will solve my problem if I have Novell client on it, but my GSNW was working perfect and I think I just need some changes to have it fixed."

If it is EASIER and FASTER and MORE SECURE and MORE ROBUST simply to install the Novell client32 on your web server, what's holding you up?

I'm telling you, and others will concur, that whatever Micro$oft has provided you for connecting to NetWare is made to work with an older NetWare platform that you currently use, and was never meant to work well in the first place.  Whether it be the GSNW or the Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks, it is made to "kinda-sorta" work but not quite, for an OLD, OBSOLETED, UNSUPPORTED version of NetWare, and is known to have problems that do NOT exist in a Novell Client32 configuration.

The fact that it DOESN'T work now after a putatively simple infrastructure change, should be a BIG RED FLAG for you.

Either spend the bux on a NetWare upgrade to 6.x or bite the bullet and use current Novell technologies to connect Windoze to Novell resources, instead of hoping that old, outdated Microsoft-supplied technologies will work.

Hey mrong,

I've had similar problems with my W2K server with GSNW a few times in the past year. What causes my problems is usually a security patch from MS, deployed through Windows update. The fix, the last two times, was to remove the driver for my NIC and re-install it. After that, GSNW magically worked again. However, the third time it happened, it didn't work.

Now, the reason that I need to use the crappy little GSNW thing is because I refuse to install the Netware client. It's not because of the quality or reliability of the client, but of the desktop management dweebs here at my corp. If I had the Netware client installed, they'd start pushing unwanted and untested cr*p onto my system whenever I logged on.

Of course, I submitted myself to the vagaries of Windows update.... but that was my choice, not some other dweeb's.

Hope this helps,
Choiski

>>Now, the reason that I need to use the crappy little GSNW thing is because I refuse to install the Netware client. It's not because of the quality or reliability of the client, but of the desktop management dweebs here at my corp. If I had the Netware client installed, they'd start pushing unwanted and untested cr*p onto my system whenever I logged on.<<

Not if you don't install/enable the Workstation Manager feature.

Always, ALWAYS, A-L-W-A-Y-S install the NetWare client32 using the custom install option and NEVER choose features that you do not have or do not want.

The only way the "desktop management dweebs" can push crap onto your server is if you have Workstation Manager installed and active.  

Even if it does get installed with a custom install, which it shouldn't, you can always disable the service.

Better yet, talk with your Network Manager/Engineer/whatever to have the user ID for your server removed from any group that allows your "desktop management dweebs" access to it.  Ideally, a server ID should be in a server-only container, with that container not being subject to anything done by the "desktop management dweebs."

Just because you like to let Microsoft manage your updates willy-nilly, regardless of what it breaks, doesn't mean you shouldn't use the NetWare/NDS infrastructure to your best advantage.  Trying to do that with GSNW is not dweeby, it's dorkish, because it was built for obsolete versions of Netware.  It's interesting that you don't want your own "dweebs" pushing unwanted and untested crap onto your system, but you don't seem to mind that when Microsoft does that to you...  

Also,

Client32 is much less likely to be broken by Windows Update, saving you the time and effort of reinstalling your drivers.

The user's permission caused the error. Nothing wrong with the GSNW.