Best Kept Secret???
re: NT and DOS for render farms
All my DOS stations started out as reliable WFW clients.
By starting this way you can be sure your comminications are
behaving correctly.
In my case all my stations are using NetBeui as a protocol.
Not great for big LAN's (too much broadcasting) but ok for about 30 stations
or so they say.
I started out as a Peer to Peer system, but did not do any rendering at that
time.
There are two ways to go for connecting up to a server.
If you have a working WFW set up you will need
1. in autoexec.bat
c:\windows\net start
2.in config.sys
device=c:\windows\ifshlp.sys
(I'm not sure this is required for DOS to talk to the network, but it is a
byproduct of the WFW setup.
3. you will need to configure your 3dsnet.set file
4. at DOS you will need to type
net logon /domain:<domain name>
this should log you into your LAN
next type
NET
you should now get a text based browser of your network
you need to connect to the server drive/directory that will
be your 3ds net drive.
Make sure to toggle the 'reconnect' button. This way you will
never have to go thru this step again.
exit the browser
NET logoff
5. here is my startup for a slave (start.bat)
net logon
net time \\cookserver /set
3ds
The above steps worked on a station I have NOT been using for rendering.
It was just a WFW client to my server.
The second way to network a DOS machine that is NOT a WFW machine is
to pick up "Microsoft Workgroup Add-on for DOS"
My understanding is that most retailers don't even know about this product.
Looking at the disk it has "Disk Assy 207-051-213"
The book that comes with this add-on is the ONLY reference I have found
that documents what the commands that go with the NET command.
Since I never have the book when I'm at the other end of the office
just type NET ? to get the command options.
I have loaded this thing on a working WFW station and it screws up the
WFW services. This method is only good for those who do use windows
(apple users <g>)
Hope this gets everyone started. I did a lot of tinkering around so I may have
missed a step, but like I wrote, the above worked fine on a WFW station.
Peer to Peer….I think you just leave out the /domain.
Todd