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How to Provide Additional NDIS2 Drivers for Network Client 3.0

Article ID: 128800 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q128800

SUMMARY

The compact disc for Windows NT Server version 3.5 includes a tool called the Network Client administrator. This tool can be used to create boot disks and setup disks for the setup of Windows for Workgroups version 3.11 and The Microsoft Network client version 3.0. However, this tool provides only a limited selection of NDIS2 drivers.

This article describes a workaround for adding NDIS2 drivers that are not on the Windows NT Server 3.5 compact disc. The information in this article is applicable to any generic NDIS2 driver.

MORE INFORMATION

Follow these steps to add an NDIS2 driver to the Network Client administrator.

Copy the \Clients subdirectory from the Windows NT Server compact disc to your hard disk. This requires 49 megabytes (MB) of disk space.

-or-

To save disk space, copy just the \Clients\Msclient and \Clients\Wfw subdirectories. Also copy the file Ncadmin.inf to the \Clients subdirectory on your hard disk.
Share the \Clients subdirectory on your hard disk.
Copy the [netcard] section from your NDIS2 driver's Oemsetup.inf file to the [netcard] section of the file Wcnet.inf, found in the \Clients\Msclient\Netsetup subdirectory, if you're making a boot disk. Follow the same procedure for making a setup disk set, except add the changes to the file Wcnet.inf, found in the \Clients\Msclient\Disks\Disk1 subdirectory.

For example, the following is the [netcard] section of the Compaq NetFlx driver's Oemsetup.inf file:
[netcard]

ms$netflx="COMPAQ Netflex
ENET-TR",246,ndis,ethernet,real,ms$netflx,ms$netflx_nif
ms$netflx2="COMPAQ Netflex-2
ENET-TR",246,ndis,ethernet,real,ms$netflx,ms$netflx_nif
ms$netflxt="COMPAQ Netflex-2
TR",246,ndis,tokenring,real,ms$netflx,ms$netflx_nif
ms$ntflx2t="COMPAQ Netflex-2 DualPort
TR",246,ndis,tokenring,real,ms$netflx,ms$netflx_nif
ms$ntflx2e="COMPAQ Netflex-2 DualPort
ENET",246,ndis,ethernet,real,ms$netflx,ms$netflx_nif
ms$cpqtok="COMPAQ 32-bit Dual-Speed Token Ring
Adapter",246,ndis,tokenring,real,ms$netflx,ms$netflx_nif
Append the NDIS2 driver's header and NIF section from the Oemsetup.inf file to the Wcnet.inf file.

For example, the following are the header and NIF sections of the Compaq NetFlx driver's Oemsetup.inf file:
[ms$netflx]

devdir= 1:NETFLX.DOS
device=NETFLX.DOS,@DEVDIR\NETFLX.DOS

[ms$netflx_nif]

drivername=NETFLX$
param=earlyrelease,"Early Release Option",keyonly,,,0x02
param=maxrequests,"Maximum number of general requests",int,"3,10,1",
<continued line> 3,0x02
param=maxmulticasts,"Maximum number of multicast addresses",int,"1,
<continued line> 50,1",16,0x02
param=maxtransmits,"Maximum number of queued transmits",int,"3,50,1",
<continued line> 10,0x02
param=maxreceives,"Maximum Receive Buffers",int,"3,30,1",3,0x02
param=maxframesize,"Maximum frame size",int,"256,17952,8",4096,0x02
In the appended header section of the Wcnet.inf file, remove the "devdir" and "device" lines. Add the line, "ndis2=1:<drivername>" and save the Wcnet.inf file.

This is the resultant header section of the Wcnet.inf file in the Compaq NetFlx example:
[ms$netflx]

ndis2=1:NETFLX.DOS
Copy the NDIS2 driver to the \Clients\Msclient\Netsetup subdirectory. Follow the same procedure for making a setup disk set, except copy the NDIS2 driver to the \Clients\Msclient\Disks\Disk1 subdirectory.

In the Compaq NetFlx example, copy the file Netflx.dos to the \Clients\Msclient\Netsetup subdirectory, or to the \Clients\Msclient\Disks\Disk1 subdirectory if you are making a setup disk set.

You can use the Network Client administrator to create the boot floppy disk for this new NDIS2 driver, or the driver will be available in the installation disk set. The new driver will then be available from the GUI interface of the Network Client administrator.