LANtastic Notes on Version 4.x and Windows 3.1

ID: Q84339

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows versions 3.1, 3.11

SUMMARY

This article contains information from the "LANtastic Network Operating System Version 4 Compatibility Bulletin" for Microsoft Windows operating system version 3.1. The complete bulletin is available from LANtastic support.

MORE INFORMATION

SMARTDRV.EXE and LANCACHE

Windows 3.1's Setup will install SMARTDRV.EXE in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file (and maybe the CONFIG.SYS depending on hard drive type). This will conflict with the LANtastic's LANCache, which is normally loaded in the STARTNET.BAT file located in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

To disable the LANCache utility, open your STARTNET.BAT (or other batch file that starts the network) and delete the following line:


     C:\LANTASTI\LANCACHE

According to LANtastic, it is possible to configure the LANCache for use with Windows, instead of using SMARTDrive. For more information, refer to the LANtastic manual.

Printing with Windows 3.1

If you are running Windows 3.1 on a workstation that also functions as a print server, then use the following steps to improve printing speed:

At the MS-DOS command prompt, run the LANtastic NET_MGR program and choose Shared Resource Management from the Main Functions menu.

Select the printer resource (for example @PRINTER), select the Chars/Second field, and change it to 9600.

Press the ESC key twice to return to the Main Functions menu, then choose the Server Startup Parameters option. Set Printer Tasks to 1, even if you have more than one printer physically attached to this machine. Exit from NET_MGR and reboot.

With Windows 3.1, you can send print jobs to any of the standard print devices (LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, COM1, COM2) when running LANtastic. However, if the printer you are sending jobs to is a network printer, do the following to streamline printing:

Run Control Panel and choose Printers.

Clear the Use Print Manager check box.

Choose the Connect button and clear the Fast Printing Direct To Port box.

Change the Device Not Selected to 900, and change the Transmission Retry Timeout to 950.

You must use the LANtastic NET USE command to capture the port you print to before starting Windows. For example:
net use lpt2: \\server_name\@printer

Standard Mode NetHeapSize Error

If you upgraded from Windows 3.0 to Windows 3.1, then you may receive a NetHeapSize error when running Windows in standard mode. To correct this, edit the SYSTEM.INI file with an ASCII text editor (such as Notepad) by locating the [standard] section in SYSTEM.INI and changing NetHeapSize=64 to NetHeapSize=63.

Note: There is also a NetHeapSize setting in the [386Enh] section. You want to change the NetHeapSize setting in the [standard] section.

Swap File and SERVER Program

You cannot set up a permanent swap file on a workstation running the SERVER program. To shut down the SERVER program:

Exit Windows and type SERVER/REMOVE at the MS-DOS command prompt (do not do this from within Windows).

Restart Windows and run Control Panel.

Choose the 386 Enhanced icon and adjust the virtual memory.

Note: If you receive the following error message, then you must remark the SERVER software in your STARTNET.BAT file and reboot to set up a permanent swap file:

ERROR: not safe to REMOVE, Interrupts re-hooked

Adapters and Ranges to Be Excluded

Windows 3.1's Setup inserts the following line in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file during the configuration process:


     EMMExclude=D800-DFFF

Note: If you are using EMM386.EXE, you must use the X= parameter to exclude this range also:


     DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE X=D800-DFFF

This prevents Windows from using the default RAMBASE address of the Artisoft Enhanced 2Mbps (E2Mbps) adapter. You may remove this line if you are using Artisoft AE-2, AE-2/T, AE-3, or AE-1 adapters because they do not use a RAMBASE address. If you do have the E2Mbps adapter, verify the address it uses and change the values on the EMMExclude line to match them if necessary. If you are using adapter cards other than Artisoft's, check the adapter documentation to confirm whether the card uses a RAMBASE address.

Additional query words: 3.10 3.11 3rdparty

Keywords :
Version : WINDOWS:3.1,3.11
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :