Sams Teach Yourself MCSE Windows NT Server 4 in 14 Days
(Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing)
Author(s): David Schaer, et al
ISBN: 0672311283
Publication Date: 12/15/97

12.3.3. Frame Type

The frame type is probably the most significant setting for NWLink. If the frame type is incorrect, NWLink fails to make a connection. The frame type is how the network card sends information across the network using NWLink. NWLink is the language that is spoken, but the frame type is the dialect. You can use NWLink on several different type of topologies. Table 12.1 shows the different frame types you can have on the different topologies.

You can specify any of these frame types that might be in use on your network. NetWare uses 802.2 or 802.3. The type that you use depends on which version of NetWare you must access. If you are using NetWare version 3.11 or earlier, the standard frame type is 802.3. If you are using NetWare version 3.12 or later, then select 802.2.

Don’t let the number confuse you. It is not like software versions where the bigger the number, the newer the version. 802.2 and 802.3 are just two different standards. 802.3 uses a Carrier-Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) format on the network. 802.2 uses a Logical Link Control (LL C ) format.

You can configure Windows NT to automatically detect the frame type on the network and to use the type that it detects when Windows NT starts. If it does not get a response, or if it gets multiple responses, then it defaults to 802.2.

If NWLink does not receive a response on 802.2 but does get a response on other frame types, it picks a frame type from one of the types from which it received responses. NWLink picks a frame type in the following order:

•  Ethernet 802.2

•  Ethernet 802.3

•  Ethernet II

•  SNAP

For example, if NWLink did not receive a response for Ethernet 802.2 and did receive a response for Ethernet 802.3 and SNAP, it uses a frame type of Ethernet 802.3. After NWLink sets a frame type, it becomes the default frame type so that the next time the system boots, the process of picking the frame type happens faster.

12.3.4. Server Advertising Protocol

Servers on an IPX network need some way of letting the other computers on the network know of the resources that they have available. To do this, the server issues a broadcast every 60 seconds. This broadcasting is called Service Advertising Protocol (SAP). Clients on the network then use SAP to locate resources on the network. SAP is installed automatically with Windows NT server and needs no configuration.

12.4. Using the Windows NT NetWare Migration Tool (NWCONV.EXE)

You can find NWCONV.EXE in the %sysroot%\system32 subdirectory or as a program shortcut located on the Administration menu after GSNW is installed. As a utility, the primary function of the migration tool is to extract user and group account information from NDS (or a NetWare 3.1x server’s bindery) for import into a domain controller’s SAM. If re-creating all your NetWare accounts under User Manager for Domains seems a chore to you, the NWCONV program is your ticket to getting NT server up and running quickly.

You will not be tested on the use of any NetWare console or command-line utility. The server exam expects you only to know the proper use of the NetWare Migration Tool. Keep that in mind when preparing for your exam.

Second, the NWCONV utility is used to migrate NetWare files and directories to NT while maintaining equivalent rights and permissions. NWCONV allows for something entirely different than moving or copying files where they normally acquire the permissions of their parent containers. Instead, it automatically converts them to equivalent NT permissions and drops non-applicable permissions.