Question : Installing a new network adapter to Novell Netware Server 4.1

I have a Novell Server running Netware 4.1 and my NIC card has recently gone bad.  I have very little knowledge with Novell and I need in detail how to setup and configure a new NIC card on the Server.

Please advise.

Thank you.

Answer : Installing a new network adapter to Novell Netware Server 4.1

Aldogabe,

Installing NIC should be straightforward; use can use INSTALL.NLM to detect and configure the new card. If it doesn't detect it, you may need to provide the drivers on a floppy or a CD (usually comes with the card or downloadable from the manufacturer's website). Once you install and load the driver, you need to load and bind a protocol to the card; INSTALL should provide you with all the dialogs to complete the job. A manual process can be used but it's a little more tedious and may be a bit intimidating if you don't have Netware experience.

The whole process done manually should be similar to this:
1) Load NIC driver (.LAN extention) and specify correct parameters (Slot number, IRQ, DMA, IO - different cards need different parameters; you may need to name the card and give it a "BOARD NAME" - your bindings will refer to your "BOARD NAME" rather than the NIC driver). If I remember correctly, frame type is specified at this step.
2) If desired protocol is not loaded - load it. If you are replacing a NIC in a working server, chances are your protocol NLMs are already being loaded on startup.
3) BIND protocol to the network card. This is the command where you specify protocol parameters. Usually these are network addresses, such as IP address and mask, gateway parameters etc.

You can also use INETCFG.NLM utility (if you have not used it before, it may ask you to transfer NIC load commands from AUTOEXEC.NCF - I usually let it) to manage your NIC bindings and protocols - much easier than doing it by hand.

You can use HELP command at the server console to help you with BIND command; and look at your existing BIND commands to get an example of what a working BIND command should look like as well as record the existing binding information such as network addresses.  

The whole process should take no longer than 5-10 minutes.
Good luck