(out of date)
Computers on the Ethernet at Carleton have access to a number of Novell file servers. One of these servers (named Madeline) is running an older version of the Novell software (version 3.12). Access to Madeline is different in a number of details from access to the other servers (which run version 4.1) and will not be covered in this document.
The two servers of interest to faculty and staff are Celeste and Etienne. Celeste is the faculty server. All faculty members are provided with both a private space for storing files, as well as access to a departmental common space where files can be easily exchange among members of a department. Additional areas can be setup to allow inter-department file sharing as well. Etienne, the students server, stores much of the software available for student use in the public labs, as well as providing space for class activities.
To access the file servers you first log into the Network Directory Services (NDS) "tree". Once logged in you can connect to any of the services provided by any of servers (as long as your account has access privileges to the services). There are two essential services provided to DOS/Windows machines: network printing, and access to the server file systems. Both services are accessed by "mapping" a local resource (such as the printer port LPT1 or the drive E:) so that it actually connects to a network resource. Resources can be mapped automatically whenever you log in, as well as manually any time after you log in.
Mapping printer ports is fairly straight-forward in concept. The output from one of the LPT ports (LPT1, LPT2, or LPT3) on your machine which normally goes to a plug on the back of your machine (and then to a printer if you have one hooked up) is instead routed to whichever network printer you have mapped to that port. As far as your machine and software is concerned once the port has been mapped to a network printer, it is just like printing to a locally connected printer.
Mapping drives is very similar. A virtual drive is created with a name such as k: (in the same way that a: and b: correspond to your floppy drive, or c: to your hard drive). This is mapped to a directory on one of the file servers. Once the drive has been mapped, you can access the files in that directory ( and all its subdirectories) on the server as if they exisited locally on your machine. Which directories you are allowed to map, and your ability to read, write, create and destory files in those directories can be controlled separately for each user. Keep in mind that the files in mapped drive are NOT copied to your local drive. When you access these files they remain on the central file server, unless you explicitly copy them to your local drive (a:, b:, or c). This is especially important to keep in mind if you are accessing files that other people may want to use, since only one person at a time can open a given file on the server.
To understand which server directories you want to map to local drives you'll first need to know a bit more about the structure of these directories. There are four main divisions among the directories availible. They are CELESTE_USR, CELESTE_SYS, ETIENNE_USR, and ETIENNE_SYS. As the name indicates, CELESTE_USR is part of the faculty server Celeste. Within CELESTE_USR is directory for each department with a short name such as BIO or HIST. Within each of these directories is a directory for every member of the department with the same name as that person's username, and another directory called COMMON. A normal faculty office machine setup would be to map K: to the personal directory (the one with that person's username) and to map another drive to the departmental COMMON area. As the names indicate, the directory with the same name as a username is a private directory only accessible to that user. The COMMON directory is setup so that all members of that department have full access to all its files.
CELESTE_SYS doesn't currently contain any interesting files, although in the future it may contain limited copies of interesting software for faculty to experiment with. ETIENNE_SYS contains all the software that the machines in the publics labs run. This software is generally licensed for use only in the public labs and therefore you won't need to worry about mapping drives to this area. The one exception to this is the "Hold Folder". This is an directory provided for students working in the public labs to store work on a temporary basis. There is no gurantee that a file left here will remain longer than 3 days. Also, since this area is accessible to anyone, it not a good location for important or sensitive material. The hold folder is in a directory under ETIENNE_SYS called MACLAB\HOLDFOL0 (yes, that's a zero at the end) .ETIENNE_USR is a student area for academic work. Directories can be setup (by your computing coordinator) on a class by class basis in this area. Normally, directories are setup for each student in the class within the main class directory. Since students don't usually have NDS accounts your computing coordinator will setup accounts for your students to be used for the duration of the class. In addition to directories for each of the students, COMMON and HOMEWORK directories can be created. The COMMON folder is accessible to all members of the class to facilitate sharing work. The HOMEWORK folder is setup so that students can copy files into the directory (hand in homework) but not look at the contents of directory. This setup is by no means the only possible arrangement. Talk with your computing coordinator if you think some other arrangement of directories and access rights would work better for a particular class.
In general your office machine should be setup to prompt you for a password when it boots. After correctly entering the password you'll be logged in to the servers and won't need to deal with this part of the process anymore. It may be helpful to know a bit more about the process if you run into an unusual situation. The full login procedure involves specifying a context, a username, and a password. The context is a string such as chemistry.fac.acad.carleton that indicates where in the NDS tree the account lives. The username is usually setup to be the same as your veblen (email) username. The password is kept separate from your veblen password even if you set them to be the same (which is not particularly recommended for obvious security reasons). Normally, your office machine is setup to set the context, and login with the appropriate username when it boots.
You can do this entire procedure by hand by issuing the command login at the K: prompt.
If the machine is in the context appropriate to your account (as your desktop machine should be) you need only enter your standard username. If the machine is set to a different context you can specify "your" context when you enter your username by using the full string:
.username.chemistry.fac.acad.carleton (Where you substitute your username and department) (don't forget the leading period).
The easiest way to map network printers and drives to local printer ports and drive letters is through a Windows program called nwuser. On many computers this program can be run anytime Windows is running by hitting F6. If this doesn't work select Run from the main menu of the Windows Program Manager, put in nwuser as the program name, and click on OK. This should start up a graphical interface to the available Novell services. Across the top of the Nwuser window are a row of buttons. Click on the printer icon to map a printer, or the hard drive icon (the 2nd from the left) to map a drive.
When you click on the printer button you'll get a list of the available printer ports on the left. If any printers are already mapped their names will appear next to the LPT port they are mapped to. On the right is access to the NDS tree. By clicking on appropriate areas in this window you can navigate the tree. Usually you will start in your department's area of the tree. If you have any networked departmental printers they will show up here. Simply click on the printer name, click on the port you want to map to on the left, and click on the map button at the bottom of the window. This should complete the attachment of your local printer port to the networked printer. Once mapped you can make this connection permanent (every time you start Windows) by clicking the permanent button at the bottom while the desired mapping is highlighted. You may also need to adjust the printer's setting which can be done by clicking on the LPT settings button, also at the bottom of the window.
Mapping drives works much the same. Once you've clicked on the hard drive button in Nwuser you should see a list of available drive letters and current mappings on the left. On the right is the NDS tree. To map to Celeste or Etienne you will need to go out of your departmental area on the tree (which is where you start). Clicking on the arrow icon should move you "up" in the tree structure and show a list of the departments with the available drives (Celeste_USR, Celeste_SYS, Etienne_USR, Etienne_SYS) at the bottom. Note that you need to map to the icons with the _USR or _SYS ending, not the plain Celeste or Etienne icons (which are the file servers themselves, not the drives). Doubling clicking on the drive icons should allow you to navigate through the file structure of the drives and select the actual directory that you want to map. Once you have selected the directory and the drive letter simply click on the "Map" button to complete the connection. Again, the "permanent" button does exactly what it's name implies. (The icon to the left of the mapped drive letter toggles to indicate whether the mapping is permanent or only good for this Windows session)
For more information get in touch with your support provider at ACNS.
Maintained by Sean
Fox, sfox@carleton.edu
Last updated: Thursday, 31-Aug-2000 12:26:13 CDT