We are in the process of upgrading our AREV server which has been operating on Novell since 1989 and version 4.11 for the last 5 years

or so. Since we are upgrading the hardware I was checking around to

find out about the feasibility of Netware 5 or 6. I was disappointed to find out that Novell has not facilitated AREV users migration to Netware 5 or 6 by cooperating in resolving compatability issues.

Novell has been very stable for us, but being stuck on 4.11 is a real dead end and unless Novell gets off the stick we will switch to Windows 2000. I am contacting Novell to let them know they are forcing long time customers to Microsoft by their inaction. Maybe if enough of us let them know they might reassess their priorities!

Jim Dierking

Liberty Natural Products, Inc.

We have USA customers presently using AREV and Novell 5 with no problems.

The Sprezzatura Group

World Leaders in all things RevSoft

Concur. We have a number of clients using various flavors of AREV with Netware 5.x. The only issues have been with service packs, clients and NLM issues (mostly performance problems). The biggest problem seems to be if the user wants to stack both IPX and TCP/IP on the same desktop. Unless you're careful, IPX gets runt's udder and takes a big performance hit.

OTH, Netware seems to be at least 35-40% faster than NT, all other things being equal, except for WAN access.

Don Miller

C3 Inc.

Are the Netware 5 customers running ipx/spx with the nlm1.5a?

If so what client are they using?

TIA, Jim

The only real problem I am aware of with AREV and NetWare 5 occurs when you try to use a Windows 2000 or XP workstation. There is a bug (or perhaps Microsoft feature) that breaks up ipx ethernet packets into 30 byte packets. Performance crawls. Networks that show 500 transactions per second on NT will show about 40 transactions per second on W2K, and about 25 on XP.

Novell did issue a revised version of vipx.exe, which we got from RTI. So far we have tested it on a handful of sites. It helped about half of the sites. We have not figured out what is different between the sites that work and the ones that don't.

NetWare 6 has abandoned client software, which at face value, kills the NLM on that version. However, they do include a client for backward compatibility, so it appears to be an option. We have not tested it, perhaps Revelation has.

Also, we have been told that there is a TCP/IP driver in the works for AREV and the NLM. The last time I spoke with Mike Ruane, he thought it would ship in second quarter. This would get around the ipx bug and, perhaps, negate the need for the client with NetWare 6.

We made the switch to Windows 2000 server last fall due to the performance problems and the lack of any visable activity toward addressing the ipx bug. If you can make Novell work, I recommend you stay with Novell. W2K Server has some nice features, but many negatives. We used to turn our Novell server on and forget about it. Our W2K Server requires contant attention, the security structure is cluttered and not well thought out, and the default setting on nearly everything is 'no security,' so you need to spend a lot of time finding back doors and closing them. The patch list is endless. If RTI delivers a TCP/IP driver for Novell, we will switch back to Novell.

If you do switch to W2K on the server and W2K on the desktop, be prepared for an entirely different approach to security. Passwords are centrally managed, which is nice, but the W2K workstations get locked down. Everyone becomes the equivalent of a User. It doesn't really affect AREV, but most of the Windows software we have requires write access to the Registry, which is not allowed for W2K Users, only Power Users. Once attached to the server, however, the server does not provide the equivalent of a Power User. There are ways around it, but you have to configure each workstation to allow it.

Perhaps someone from Revelation can update us on the status of the TCP/IP driver for AREV/NLM.

We have a bunch of sites running NetWare 5 with AREV. The only problemmatic client version that I am aware of is that SP1 and SP2 for the 3.0 client do not work.

With that said, the biggest issue is the type of Workstation OS you are using. Windows 95/98/NE/NT work fine. Windows 2000/XP do not. I responded to you at greater length about this topic, elsewhere in this thread.

Hope someone (or Mike Ruane) could substantiate the rumoured TCP/IP drivers that might ship for AREV 3.12 and NLM 5.0. It couldn't come soon enough for us.

Our environment consists of 125 Netware servers, 200 NT servers and 15,000 NT 4.0 workstations running Novell Client v4.8 (SP3). However, our AREV application user base is very small (approx. 50 users). With network traffic a key issue, it has been full steam ahead to complete the switch to Novell's pure IP implementation, which would eventually leave the nefarious "IPX-Only NLM 5.x" in the dust. The switch to pure IP has already resulted in an annoying work around for these users. Here's the problem, which I hope someone could lend some insight:

Users login to the network with a designated primary "super-server" under our main NDS tree. These primary login servers, however, have had IPX removed from them to speed up login times and provide faster service resolution, etc. After login to said primary server, a login script then attaches them to their NLM/AREV application server (same NDS tree) which is running NLM 5.0 and IPX. However, when they attempt to run lhipxtsr.exe, they get the famous FS472/FS477 errors. To get around this, users have to set their primary server to the AREV server using a Novell desktop feature called "Netware Connections" that allows them to switch primary servers. Once they do this, the lhipxtsr/lhipxser interface can resolve the Revelation NLM service. Of course, they have to do this every time they login - and even setting the AREV server to be their login server (at the main tree) does not cut it because - use guessed it - the workstation still resolves default trees and login services first by IP then IPX.

To sum up, this is what needs to happen for a workstation in our environment to successfully connect to NLM 5.x:

1. Workstation Netware Client Preferred Protocol=IPX;

2. Switch initial primary login server to NLM/AREV server;

3. Workstation must contact NLM/AREV server via IPX not IP (ie. Netware's "Trans Type"=IPX).

So there you have it - a compelling need to see a TCP/IP driver for AREV 3.12 and NLM 5.x.

- Jason Yip

City of Toronto

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