Overview of Logon, Browsing, and Peer Resource Sharing

This section summarizes key Windows 98 features that you can use to make network logon, resource browsing, and peer resource sharing easier and more secure for computers running Windows 98 on your network.

Unified System Logon Overview

Windows 98 offers a consistent user interface for logging on to and validating access to network resources. The first time the user logs on to Windows 98, logon dialog boxes appear for each network client on that computer and for Windows 98. For a Windows 95 upgrade, your Primary Network Logon setting and all Windows 95 password caching settings remain the same; therefore, you might not see a logon box for each client and for Windows 98 depending on how you have configured your computer.

Windows 98 includes the following features that enable you to see only one logon prompt (or no logon prompts) when you log on:

• Unified system logon
• Password caching

For more information about these features, see "Understanding System Logon," later in this chapter.

For Novell NetWare networks, Windows 98 provides graphical logon to Novell NetWare version 3.x, or version 4.x if the network is configured for bindery emulation or if your computer is running Microsoft Service for NetWare Directory Services. Windows 98 also provides a NetWare-compatible Login Script Processor. This means that if you are using Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks, Windows 98 can process NetWare login scripts.

For Microsoft networks, Windows 98 supports network logon using domain user accounts and logon script processing (as supported by Windows NT and LAN Manager version 2.x).

The Windows 98 logon processor can parse most statements in the NetWare login scripts. However, any statements loading terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs must be removed from the scripts and loaded from Autoexec.bat. Because the Windows 98 logon processor operates in protected mode, it is not possible to load TSRs for global use from the login script. These TSRs should be loaded from Autoexec.bat before protected-mode operation begins, or you can use other methods described in "Using Logon Scripts" later in this chapter.

In some cases, logon scripts load backup agents as TSRs. In such cases, you can use protected-mode equivalents compatible with Windows 98, making it unnecessary to load these TSRs.

Network Browsing Overview

Network Neighborhood is the central point for browsing in Windows 98. It offers the following benefits:

• Users can browse the network as easily as browsing the local hard disk.
• Users can create shortcuts to network resources on the desktop and hard disk.
• Users can easily connect to network resources by using the Map Network Drive dialog box.
• Users can easily connect to network resources using universal naming convention (UNC) connections, which are described later in this section.
• Users can open files and complete other actions by using new common dialog boxes in applications. This standard provides a consistent way to open or save files on both network and local drives.
• The network administrator can customize Network Neighborhood by using system policies, as described in Chapter 8, "System Policies." A custom Network Neighborhood can include shortcuts to commonly used resources, including Dial-Up Networking resources.

In any situation in which you can type a path for connecting to a server—such as in the Map Network Drive dialog box or at the command prompt—you can specify the server name with two backslashes (\\) if your network uses UNC path names. For example, to connect to the server CORP, volume DOCS, directory WORD, and subdirectory Q1, type the UNC name \\corp\docs\word\q1.

Network browsing issues include the following:

• You can plan ahead to configure workgroups for effective browsing by using Wrkgrp.ini to control the workgroups that people can choose. For more information about configuring Wrkgrp.ini, see Chapter 3, "Custom Installations."
• If your enterprise network is based on Microsoft networking, is connected by a slow-link wide area network (WAN), and includes satellite offices running only Windows 98, users in the satellites cannot browse the central corporate network. Consequently, they can connect to computers outside their workgroups only by typing the computer name in a Map Network Drive dialog box. To provide full browsing capabilities, the satellite office must have a Windows NT Server.

  Note

  There is one exception: if one computer in the satellite office has a workgroup name that corresponds to the corporate network’s domain name, users will be able to browse the central corporate network. For more information, see Knowledge Base article Q149941, "Windows Clients Not Able to Browse Remote Workgroups."

• You can use system policies, such as Hide Drives In My Computer or Hide Network Neighborhood, to limit or prevent browsing by users. For more information, see Chapter 8, "System Policies."

Peer Resource Sharing Overview

The two peer resource sharing services in Windows 98 — Microsoft File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks and File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks — are 32-bit, protected-mode networking components that allow users to share directories, printers, and CD-ROM drives on computers running Windows 98. File and printer sharing services work with existing servers to add complementary peer resource sharing services. These components are required for any computer whose name will appear in a browse list.

For example, using File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks produces the following benefits:

• Users can share files, printers, and CD-ROM drives without running two network clients. This saves memory, improves performance, and reduces the number of protocols running on your network.
• Security is user-based, not share-based. You can administer user accounts, passwords, and group lists from the NetWare server, because File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks uses the NetWare server’s authentication database.

  Note

  In the Windows 98 Resource Kit, NETX is used to refer to the Novell NetWare workstation shell for NetWare version 3.x; VLM (Virtual Loadable Module) is used to refer to the workstation shell for version 4.x.

• Users running VLM or NETX clients can access shared resources on computers running Windows 98. The computer running Windows 98 looks as if it were just another NetWare server if it uses Service Advertising Protocol (SAP) Advertising, as described in "Using File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks" later in this chapter. The computer providing file and printer sharing services can handle up to 250 concurrent connections.
• You can add secure storage space and printing to the network inexpensively, while using familiar NetWare tools to manage these resources. You can reduce the load and improve the performance of NetWare servers by moving selected shared resources to one or more computers running file and printer sharing services. This allows you to manage load balancing for users without adding a new NetWare server.
• You get a scalable, high-performance 32-bit peer server that uses multiple 32-bit threads, the Windows 98 Virtual File Allocation Table (VFAT) 32-bit file system, 32-bit network driver interface specification (NDIS) drivers, a 32-bit Internet Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange (IPX/SPX) – compatible protocol, and the Packet Burst protocol.

Similar benefits are available when you use File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks. You can also use either share-level security or, on a Windows NT network, user-level security to protect access to peer resources.

Resource sharing issues include the following:

• You can install only one file and printer sharing service at a time.
• If you want to configure a computer to share its files or printers, the choice of which file and printer sharing service you install depends on whether users who will be browsing for shared resources are running Microsoft or NetWare network clients.
• If you want to use File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks, a NetWare server must be available on the network. This peer resource sharing service uses only user-level security, not share-level security, so a NetWare server must be available to validate user accounts. Also, the NetWare server must include a Windows_Passthru account (with no password) in its user accounts database.
• If you plan to use File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks with user-level security, a Windows NT Server or domain must be available to validate user accounts.
• If you are configuring a user’s workstation to act as a peer server, you might also want to specify that this computer cannot run MS-DOS-based applications that take exclusive control of the operating system, shutting down file and printer sharing services. To do this, you can set the system policy named Disable Single-Mode MS-DOS Applications.