I've been forced to revist the NLM nightmare.

First the history - we have NT workstations and a Novell 5.0 server (on another floor controlled by IT staff). About 4 months ago we had a bad bout of fs466 and fs477 errors - couldn't contact the NLM basically. We eventually solved it by desinstalling and reinstalling client 4.8 after installing the microsoft client (and ensuring all the other network propertied were set correctly). This solution was provided to us by another OI/ARev place here in Australia - you guys had no idea.

We get 3 months of OI and Arev running well (but slowly).

This morning the server crashed. After it was rebooted (and after confirming that the NLM is running) we are now back to fs466 and fs477 errors. The network people swear they didn't change anything. No one can use OI or Arev anymore. Nothing has changed on the workstations - the clients configured correctly - IPX preferred protocol etc..

If I switch the network driver to Netware 2.0 it works great and about 10 times fater than with the NLM ( I thought the NLM was supposed to speed things up!).

Tell me what is the danger in using the Netware driver until you release the new IP driver?

When is the new driver due - we desperately need it now!! - We have wasted thousands of dollars and a huge amount of time trying to get it working right with the NLM. I don't want to start again now. And these people need to work. We have an award winning OI application here that at the moment is completly useless.

Please could you advise me of the current situation. Anything to solve the problem as it it stands now would be great (however I realise that I've had all the advice you and the knowledge base and the rest of the Revelation community can give me on this one)

Could you ship me the new driver now?

Bob Watson

Bob,

There are quite a few issues that you mention, so looking only at some of the technical ones,

]] We get 3 months of OI and Arev running well (but slowly).

This is possibly because the IPX packets are sized from a call to the Novell API to determine packet size from the client. In this case they are sized too small owing to a bug in the Netware client API. Mike Ruane mentioned this at the Sydney roadshow. Revelation have raised Novell incidents (at their expense) to have the problem remedied. Novell have been slow to respond (understatement). Can also be due to mixes of network cards on the LAN segments, or multiple server chatter. Topology can play a part here, so the problem may not be totally NLM- or client-based.

]]If I switch the network driver to Netware 2.0 it works great and ]]about 10 times faster than with the NLM ( I thought the NLM was ]]supposed to speed things up!).

In normal use, without the "runt IPX packet" problem the NLM would be faster. As it stands your IPX driver approach is the best bet.

]Tell me what is the danger in using the Netware driver until you ]release the new IP driver?

Just GFEs if true commit disabled or write caching enabled. LISTS file is the most vulnerable. The IPX driver is still solid. Attach a local LISTS file on its own volume and you'll minimize the risks of GFEs if your select processes hammer the LISTS file heavily.

There is the added factor that some of the Novell 5 NLMs suffer memory leaks and tend to misbehave, especially those NLMs for DNS support.

Steve Smith in Melbourne (0418 759 707) is happy to field any queries you may have about this (especially by email). Note - Steve will be based in our UK office from Nov 29 until Dec 11.

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Thanks for clearing up some of issues around the use of the NLM on NT for me.

I do have one question for Steve. Is it [email protected]?

I appreciate that Revtech are doing a great job and this problem is one they inherited and I know they are doing there best to solve the networking issues.

Bob Watson

[notag][email protected] [email protected] [email protected]. We aim to please <g>. Andrew even has [email protected] because the printers screwed up his business cards and he didn't want to wait for a reprint.

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