Novell Shareware

The original NwDsk is a professional network boot disk for connecting to Novell NetWare servers. The boot disk can be constructed using Novell's 32-bit client (NLM) or the 16-bit client (VLM) or even both. Choices for protocols (TCPIP or IPX or both), frame types, topology (ethernet, token-ring, fddi), TCPIP-settings, nic driver detection, packet-driver support, connect-information, and more can be made using menus and saved to user-profiles on diskette to prepare for fully automated sessions.

When PXE and WinPE/BartPE (see NwDskPe) are not applicable an NwDsk diskette can be used for processing images between workstations and NetWare servers using Deploy Center or Ghost (even Multicast), or server to server using Storage Manager. It can also serve as the starting point for launching a pre-configured unattended installation of your client OS like XP, W2K, NT or W98 from a NetWare server. Next to that NwDsk is being used as a sole TCP/IP stack (Novell's 32-bit TCPIP or by packet driver on 16/32-bit ODI layer) to serve Citrix's DOS ICA client, VNC's DOS viewer, the Arachne browser, DOSRDP (Terminal Services for DOS), and the IP DOS print server PPRD.

Features of NwDsk: NetWare Boot Disk:

• Features 32-bit (NLM) and 16-bit (VLM) NetWare client
• Supports TCP/IP (NLM) and IPX/SPX (NLM & VLM) protocol (even simultaneously)
• Supports 32-bit ODI Nic drivers (NLM) and 16-bit ODI Nic drivers (NLM & VLM)
• PCI Nic auto-detection (uses pré-saved list to speed up detection)
• ISA Nic auto-selection (selects single ISA Nic upon PCI Nic auto-detection failure)
• Multiple Nic detection support (option to exclude certain Nics)
• Supports multiple Frame types (including SLOT auto-detection with 32-bit ODI drivers)
• Autodetects Ethernet, Token-Ring (LSB/MSB/SROUTE), FDDI (SROUTE) topologies
• TCP/IP and SLP fully configurable by dialogs (SLP-diagnostics by SlpInfo.bat)
• Client fully unloadable and reloadable without rebooting (both 16- and 32-bit client)
• Packet Driver support on IPX (VLM & NLM) available (Wattcp, Ghost Multicast)
• Supports USB (facilitating imaging to/from your USB pen-drive/flash-drive)
• IP LPD print server module available (NDPS aware NPRINTER alternative)
• Minimum hardware requirements: 386, 16 MB Ram, Nic, 1.44 MB floppy drive
• Can be made to boot (without user intervention) from a bootable CDROM
• Fully automated by (timed) dialog boxes, choices can be saved to profiles on diskette
• All dialog boxes can be hidden from end-user
• Modular design (add/drop components as you wish)
• Very easy driver plugin support (user can build and add own driver modules)
• IP-address and/or MAC-address are captured into ENV-vars (IPADDR, MACADDR)
• Also in 8-char format (IPADDR8, MACADDR8) for conditional (short-name) mappings
• User can add NetWare login-scripts and/or batch-files which autorun after login
• Already-run detection available (NwDsk will not run twice in a row on same PC)
• User may allow/deny login per MAC/IP-address (in exception to the rule above)
• Integrity check available (immediate abort when diskette has been compromised)
• Scroll back console screens (press SCROLL-LOCK and ARROWS to scroll the screen)
• Supporting >64MB memory (Himem)
• UDMA IDE hard disk support (FreeDOS)
• Can also be used to boot from hard disk (skipping ramdrive)
• Fits on one diskette inluding Nic drivers and various add-ons
• Default diskette supports: Mouse, Cdrom, Ntfs-readonly, int.-Keyboard, NC-clone, ...
• Extra available modules: Linux-EXT2, Long File Name, FdAPM (suspends CPU), ...
• FreeDOS supported and included (much lighter & faster, but less compatible: try it!)
• OpenDOS (DrDOS) supported and included
• Absolutely free!

When PXE and WinPE (see NwDskPe) are not an option an NwDsk diskette can be used for connecting a PC to a NetWare server for performing image operations (Ghost from Symantec, Deploy Center from PowerQuest, Drive Snapshot from Tom Ehlert, Image for DOS from TeraByte) like saving an image of your PC to the server for backup or loading a new image from the server on your PC. It might serve as the starting point for launching a preconfigured Unattended installation of your client Operating System (OS) like XP or W2K from the NetWare server. Also for server to server imaging (Storage Manager from Portlock) an NwDsk boot diskette can be usefull. Be sure to check FAQ 43 when using NwDsk with imaging software.

NwDsk is based on Bart's very fine piece of work: Modular Boot Disk. The modules included here in the NwDsk package that are provided by Bart (with his permission) are modified for use with NwDsk. Before version 2.30 the modules by Bart were unaltered and building an NwDsk diskette needed 2 runs (one extra finalize '/!' run). Starting with 2.30 this is not needed anymore since the modules are adjusted for use by NwDsk. However when you add modules directly from Bart's site you still need that extra run with NwDsk.bat to ensure proper working with NwDsk (see FAQ 40).

Download Location : Download NwDsk: NetWare Boot Disk

Homepage : http://www.veder.com/nwdsk/