We've been using a Novell 4.1 25-user license server with Clipper+DBFNTX. We 
are planning to migrate the network to Windows Server with xBase++.

I'm a bit apprehensive that most databases running on the MS platform are 
Client/Server. But we need to use DBF file access for some more years to 
come. Is there any likelihood of higher occurence of integrity problems 
(lost buffers etc.) on Windows than Novell? Are there any additional things 
that we need to care about on moving to Windows Server?

We've been using the old MAP command to map a directory on the server to a 
drive letter on the client machine. On the version of Novell that we've been 
using, MAP F:=VOL2:\SALES would map the drive letter F: to VOL2:\SALES. And 
the prompt would be F:\SALES\. ie, The mapping does not do a 'root' map, and 
if needed we could access other folders on F:\. On Windows, however, mapping 
to VOL2:\SALES results in F:\ directly (a root map).

Our programs are all designed to make use of the non-root map. Many programs 
refer explicitly to F:\SALES which won't work if a root map is applied. Are 
there any solution to this?

Any comments would be very welcome.

Thanks,
Jasim A Basheer.

Hello Unni,

> We've been using a Novell 4.1 25-user license server with
> Clipper+DBFNTX. We are planning to migrate the network to Windows
> Server with xBase++.
> 
> I'm a bit apprehensive that most databases running on the MS platform
> are Client/Server. But we need to use DBF file access for some more
> years to come. 
> ...
> Any comments would be very welcome.

Why not Client/Server DBF with ADS?  Supported on both Clipper/Xbase++ and 
Novell/Windows/Linux.

Regards,

Rodd Graham, Consultant
Graham Automation Systems, LLC

Hi,

I am not very well informed on Advantage. Any info would be very welcome.

Thanks,
Jasim

"Rodd Graham" <rgraham@grahamautomation.com> wrote in message 
news:6c56a92249a578cb743461402876@news.alaska-software.com...
> Hello Unni,
>
>> We've been using a Novell 4.1 25-user license server with
>> Clipper+DBFNTX. We are planning to migrate the network to Windows
>> Server with xBase++.
>>
>> I'm a bit apprehensive that most databases running on the MS platform
>> are Client/Server. But we need to use DBF file access for some more
>> years to come. ...
>> Any comments would be very welcome.
>
> Why not Client/Server DBF with ADS?  Supported on both Clipper/Xbase++ and 
> Novell/Windows/Linux.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rodd Graham, Consultant
> Graham Automation Systems, LLC
>
>
>

Unni wrote:

> Our programs are all designed to make use of the non-root map. Many programs 
> refer explicitly to F:\SALES which won't work if a root map is applied. Are 
> there any solution to this?

Hi Jasim,

a simple 

   net use f: \\server\share\

should do the magic for you... this way you can access F:\whatever and
F:\SALES at the same time...

regards
thomas

On Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:19:51 +0100, Thomas Braun wrote:
> 
> Hi Jasim,
> 
> a simple 
> 
>    net use f: \\server\share\
> 
> should do the magic for you... this way you can access F:\whatever and
> F:\SALES at the same time...
> 
> regards
> thomas

That is the way that we do it as well.

C: on Server
 |-> Folder1    <--- shared as shr1
 | |-> SubFolder1-1
 | |-> SubFolder1-2
 |-> Folder2    <--- shared as shr2
 | |-> SubFolder2-1
 |-> Folder3    <--- shared as shr3
 | |-> SubFolder3-1
 | |-> SubFolder3-2
 | |-> SubFolder3-3
 | | |-> SubFolder3-3-1


NET USE F: \\WINSERVER\SHR1
NET USE G: \\WINSERVER\SHR2
NET USE Q: \\WINSERVER\SHR3

You can then access anything under the shared folders.

F:\SubFolder1-1\Init.dbf is valid for access as is
Q:\SubFolder3-3\SubFolder3-3-1\Init.dbf

Anyway, nothing more to really add over what Thomas said... guess I
was just talking... thanks for reading though. :-p

- richard hankins

"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to
choose from. (Andrew Tannenbaum)"

Dear Richard,

Thanks for the very detailed explanation. I think this is the only way to go 
about it.

--
Regards
Jasim.

"Richard L. Hankins, Jr." <RHankins@ContactASI.com> wrote in message 
news:1gi2g9l0s2vi$.1tlsaxd19qaai$.dlg@40tude.net...
> On Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:19:51 +0100, Thomas Braun wrote:
>>
>> Hi Jasim,
>>
>> a simple
>>
>>    net use f: \\server\share\
>>
>> should do the magic for you... this way you can access F:\whatever and
>> F:\SALES at the same time...
>>
>> regards
>> thomas
>
> That is the way that we do it as well.
>
> C: on Server
> |-> Folder1    <--- shared as shr1
> | |-> SubFolder1-1
> | |-> SubFolder1-2
> |-> Folder2    <--- shared as shr2
> | |-> SubFolder2-1
> |-> Folder3    <--- shared as shr3
> | |-> SubFolder3-1
> | |-> SubFolder3-2
> | |-> SubFolder3-3
> | | |-> SubFolder3-3-1
>
>
> NET USE F: \\WINSERVER\SHR1
> NET USE G: \\WINSERVER\SHR2
> NET USE Q: \\WINSERVER\SHR3
>
> You can then access anything under the shared folders.
>
> F:\SubFolder1-1\Init.dbf is valid for access as is
> Q:\SubFolder3-3\SubFolder3-3-1\Init.dbf
>
> Anyway, nothing more to really add over what Thomas said... guess I
> was just talking... thanks for reading though. :-p
>
> -- 
> - richard hankins
>
> "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to
> choose from. (Andrew Tannenbaum)"

We'r now trying this method. The problem is the mapping would be machine 
specific. We've been using a user-based mapping (ie, the mapping is 
different for different users).

Is there any way to execute NET USE in the user's login script in XP ?

Thanks,
Jasim.

"Thomas Braun" <spam@software-braun.de> wrote in message 
news:8xyownkyzxvp.1wfjfah175n36.dlg@40tude.net...
> Unni wrote:
>
>> Our programs are all designed to make use of the non-root map. Many 
>> programs
>> refer explicitly to F:\SALES which won't work if a root map is applied. 
>> Are
>> there any solution to this?
>
> Hi Jasim,
>
> a simple
>
>   net use f: \\server\share\
>
> should do the magic for you... this way you can access F:\whatever and
> F:\SALES at the same time...
>
> regards
> thomas

Hi Unnni
    Good luck - and prepare for more work! I have several clients who 
are still using NW 4.1. There is no way that a Windows Server 2003 will 
be as stable. A few of my clients don't even remember where their NW 
server is and it is not unusual for them to run for 2 yrs without ever 
being rebooted. Also, Novell's gentle elevator seeking disk access makes 
hard drives last a very long time. Unfortunately, as far as I know, the 
Vista client for Novell will only support NW6 so I have been gradually 
moving them to Windows Server. I looked at Linux but there just wasn't 
enough support there.
Fortunately, most of my clients use Advantage Server which is extremely 
reliable and I would highly recommend it.
One of the problems with 2003 server is that only XP Pro can use Active 
Directory . I recently converted a 12 station network where all of the 
work stations had XP Home so we had to use a mapped drive approach. If 
you create a c:\Apps\Sales directory on your server then you can map F: 
to \\server\apps so that F:\Sales is available to you.
Garry

Unni wrote:
> We've been using a Novell 4.1 25-user license server with Clipper+DBFNTX. We 
> are planning to migrate the network to Windows Server with xBase++.
> 
> I'm a bit apprehensive that most databases running on the MS platform are 
> Client/Server. But we need to use DBF file access for some more years to 
> come. Is there any likelihood of higher occurence of integrity problems 
> (lost buffers etc.) on Windows than Novell? Are there any additional things 
> that we need to care about on moving to Windows Server?
> 
> We've been using the old MAP command to map a directory on the server to a 
> drive letter on the client machine. On the version of Novell that we've been 
> using, MAP F:=VOL2:\SALES would map the drive letter F: to VOL2:\SALES. And 
> the prompt would be F:\SALES\. ie, The mapping does not do a 'root' map, and 
> if needed we could access other folders on F:\. On Windows, however, mapping 
> to VOL2:\SALES results in F:\ directly (a root map).
> 
> Our programs are all designed to make use of the non-root map. Many programs 
> refer explicitly to F:\SALES which won't work if a root map is applied. Are 
> there any solution to this?
> 
> Any comments would be very welcome.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jasim A Basheer. 
> 
>

Dear Garry,

Many thanks for the detailed response. We are at the moment stuck with 
Netware 4, and we've been using a 25-user license. However, we now need to 
have more number of concurrent users - and so far we have not been able to 
obtain additional license for this very extinct but superb product.

Could you tell a bit more about Advantage Server? Is it possible to use .DBF 
+ .NTX files using the conventional
  'use XYZ index xyz1,xyz2'
approach?

Best Regards,
---
Jasim


"Garry Allen" <gallen.dbmc@kingston.net> wrote in message 
news:5ac7d534$5403d587$2d606@news.alaska-software.com...
> Hi Unnni
>    Good luck - and prepare for more work! I have several clients who are 
> still using NW 4.1. There is no way that a Windows Server 2003 will be as 
> stable. A few of my clients don't even remember where their NW server is 
> and it is not unusual for them to run for 2 yrs without ever being 
> rebooted. Also, Novell's gentle elevator seeking disk access makes hard 
> drives last a very long time. Unfortunately, as far as I know, the Vista 
> client for Novell will only support NW6 so I have been gradually moving 
> them to Windows Server. I looked at Linux but there just wasn't enough 
> support there.
> Fortunately, most of my clients use Advantage Server which is extremely 
> reliable and I would highly recommend it.
> One of the problems with 2003 server is that only XP Pro can use Active 
> Directory . I recently converted a 12 station network where all of the 
> work stations had XP Home so we had to use a mapped drive approach. If you 
> create a c:\Apps\Sales directory on your server then you can map F: to 
> \\server\apps so that F:\Sales is available to you.
> Garry
>
> Unni wrote:
>> We've been using a Novell 4.1 25-user license server with Clipper+DBFNTX. 
>> We are planning to migrate the network to Windows Server with xBase++.
>>
>> I'm a bit apprehensive that most databases running on the MS platform are 
>> Client/Server. But we need to use DBF file access for some more years to 
>> come. Is there any likelihood of higher occurence of integrity problems 
>> (lost buffers etc.) on Windows than Novell? Are there any additional 
>> things that we need to care about on moving to Windows Server?
>>
>> We've been using the old MAP command to map a directory on the server to 
>> a drive letter on the client machine. On the version of Novell that we've 
>> been using, MAP F:=VOL2:\SALES would map the drive letter F: to 
>> VOL2:\SALES. And the prompt would be F:\SALES\. ie, The mapping does not 
>> do a 'root' map, and if needed we could access other folders on F:\. On 
>> Windows, however, mapping to VOL2:\SALES results in F:\ directly (a root 
>> map).
>>
>> Our programs are all designed to make use of the non-root map. Many 
>> programs refer explicitly to F:\SALES which won't work if a root map is 
>> applied. Are there any solution to this?
>>
>> Any comments would be very welcome.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Jasim A Basheer.

Hello Unni,

> Many thanks for the detailed response. We are at the moment stuck with
> Netware 4, and we've been using a 25-user license. However, we now
> need to have more number of concurrent users - and so far we have not
> been able to obtain additional license for this very extinct but
> superb product.

Look to the used market.  It is legal to purchase obsolete Netware software 
from owners who no longer use Netware.  I have done this in the past and 
so long as your documentation showing the transfer is good, Novell will recognize 
the transfer.

FWIW, I have a client with 100 user NW5 licenses that are no longer used 
and in could check to see if they were NW4 upgrades.  Would need to nego 
fees prior to doing the legwork.

Regards,

Rodd Graham, Consultant
Graham Automation Systems, LLC

I had a similar problem,
I could MAP any folder as N: in all the workstations but not in the server. 
On the server you should use substitue command or use :
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Visual Subst v1.0 for Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Copyright (c) 2006-2008 NTWind Software
http://www.ntwind.com/software/utilities/visual-subst.html
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


Introduction
============

Visual Subst is a small tool that allows you to associate the most accessed
directories with virtual drives. It uses the same API similar to the console
'subst' utility, but makes it easier to create and remove virtual drives in 
a
GUI way.

Personally, I use virtual drives everywhere - I always prefer to press 
ALT+F1
in the file manager and switch to a project directory where hundreds of 
various
files are kept. Using virtual drives, these files can be quickly accessed at
any time.

Regards
Jayaram



"Unni" <unni2003@mailup.net> wrote in message 
news:5fecd5d2$603801e1$442b0@news.alaska-software.com...
> We've been using a Novell 4.1 25-user license server with Clipper+DBFNTX. 
> We are planning to migrate the network to Windows Server with xBase++.
>
> I'm a bit apprehensive that most databases running on the MS platform are 
> Client/Server. But we need to use DBF file access for some more years to 
> come. Is there any likelihood of higher occurence of integrity problems 
> (lost buffers etc.) on Windows than Novell? Are there any additional 
> things that we need to care about on moving to Windows Server?
>
> We've been using the old MAP command to map a directory on the server to a 
> drive letter on the client machine. On the version of Novell that we've 
> been using, MAP F:=VOL2:\SALES would map the drive letter F: to 
> VOL2:\SALES. And the prompt would be F:\SALES\. ie, The mapping does not 
> do a 'root' map, and if needed we could access other folders on F:\. On 
> Windows, however, mapping to VOL2:\SALES results in F:\ directly (a root 
> map).
>
> Our programs are all designed to make use of the non-root map. Many 
> programs refer explicitly to F:\SALES which won't work if a root map is 
> applied. Are there any solution to this?
>
> Any comments would be very welcome.
>
> Thanks,
> Jasim A Basheer.
>