Netware 3.12 issues: XP workstation & Network number

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I hope you know that NetWare v3.12 is about 10 YEARS old, and was EOLed about 5 YEARS ago. Its not supported. The latest version of NetWare is v6.5, and it uses TCP/IP, as well as ships with a lota of stuff simply not available for NetWare v3, including Apache webserver, Tomcat JSP, Perl, PHP and MySQL. Doesn't it strike you as odd that you're trying to connect the very latest workstation to a server that's running a NOS version from LAST century? Doesn't make much sense to me.
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1) If the Novell Client 32 is talking about a "tree" or displaying error messages mentioning a "tree", then you installed it wrong for your environment. Uninstall it from the XP workstation and re-install. Choose the Custom install again, and in addition to selecting IPX, be sure to select Bindery authentication (the default is NDS). You're correct to force the workstation to 802.3 framing.

2) There is another IPX device on the network segment that is broadcasting using a different IPX network number. Might be a router, might be another NetWare server, might be a printer with a NIC, who knows? Your campus IT staff should be able to identify it from the MAC address. The resolution is to change the IPX Network Number of the NetWare v3 server to match what the other device wants, or vice-versa.

Alternate resolution to 2) - use the 802.2 frame type.  You can have two IPX networks on the same segment if they are using different frame types.

geez - do you guys have EE set up to e-mail you the moment a new question is posted?

Huh? It was nearly 40 minits between the Question being asked and me finding it. That's FOREVER in Internet Years. :-)

then I AM the only person here who actually has a job ;)

Yep - ShineOn and I depend on you for comic relief.... :-)

keep it up - old man.

Gentlemen:

Thank you for your replies.

The problem with not being able to logon was due to my being given a bad user id/password.  The Netware client was installed correctly.  Is it possible that when it was not able to logon to the 3.12 server it tried looking for the server through NDS?  Not finding it there, it reported the error not in bindery terms but as an NDS problem?

When finally given the supervisor password, all went well.

However, shame on Novell.  In a breach of best security practices, while logging onto the 3.12 server, Netware was letting me know that my id was ok but my password was not.  

I was generous in handing out points on my last question here.  In all fairness, the answers were of no help, so I will be stingy this time.

'Till the next time I get in trouble,

Regards to all,
John

Ah, but best security practices for today can't be applied to 10-plus-year-old technology.  Think in terms of what best practices were back then.

Nowadays, password-based security isn't considered security any more - you should have tokens, biometric scans, etc. in addition to password/ID  - "something you have, something you are, something you know."

jflanigan,

You seem oblivious to the fact that you're running a version of NetWare from 12 YEARS ago. It is OLD, OK? It was EOLed LAST CENTURY. It does not address the security concerns of the modern environment, any more than Windoze 1.0 or Solaris 1.1 or MacOS 3.0.

If you would run a *modern* NetWare version, say something from THIS century, you'd find a vastly different security model. But don't bash ancient software by judging it on a modern basis.