Re: xAP, Win98, no NIC, workaround?

[mark_harrison_uk2]

OK - here's the bad news:

WIN98:

The Microsoft Virtual Private Network Adapter is, alas, not a
loopback adapter. It's a VPN client. As such, it WILL bind IP, but
only if there's already another IP stack over which it can initialise
a session :-(

Microsoft did NOT release a loopback adaptor for Win98. The official
Microsoft answer to anyone needing one was "move to Windows NT
4."
(Where it's trivial to install.)

There _IS_ a neat solution, but it only works on machines with IrDa
(Infrared) ports - these are typically laptops. The solution is to
install Microsoft's IrDa Network Driver as a card, then bind IP to
that.

For desktops, however, I'm trying to see if there's a solution using
the DCC server. It binds to NetBEUI as standard, but should be
bindable to IP.


The good alternative, if anyone's got the DDK (Driver Development
Kit) and a copy of Visual C for Windows 98 would be to take the
sample driver code, and pretty much comment out ALL the hardware
stuff such that EVERYTHING responds with an OK :-)

The stupid thing about all this is that all the comms for a single PC
can be done at the IP level, without diving down the NDIS stack...
however the broadcast nature of xAP means that the IP stack HAS to
issue a broadcast down to NDIS ... and it's that part which would
have to fail without an NDIS loopback driver.


In the meantime, I'll see whether there's anything clever that can be
done with DUN/DCC.

Regards,

Mark


--- In <a
href="/group/xap_automation/post?postID=2yXQj7K5qg430q3ctnz8NfZWZ6BJNUwoaog6fVeCZfrc5OUudQBg0j2Q_QKCHkugNRtESo3X2I2qDDD31xlTBSt8SFc5TA">xap_automation@xxxxxxx</a>,
"Gary" <questuk1@h...> wrote:
> My Laptop has Win98, no NIC, I was recommended earlier to try this
to
> get xAP working on my PC!
>
>
> "Installing a loopback adapter (Microsoft Virtual Private
> Networking Adapter) on a Windows 95/98/ME machine
>
> Go to the Start Menu and select Settings/Control Panel.
> Select the icon Network.
> Choose the tab Identification, and check that the text field
Computer
> name is populated - if not, enter a name.
> Choose the tab Configuration, and click on Add.
> In the dialog box that pops up, select Adapter and click on Add
again.
> Select Manufacturer of Microsoft, and click on Microsoft Virtual
> Private
> Networking Adapter.
> Click on OK to save the new Adapter.
> With the new Adapter selected, click on Add.
> In the dialog box that pops up, select Protocol and click on Add
> again.
> Select Manufacturer of Microsoft, and click on TCP/IP. Click on OK.
>
> "Problem"
> ---------
> You will be prompted to configure the TCP/IP protocol:
> Select "Determine IP address", and enter 169.254.0.1.
> Enter subnet mask 255.255.0.0.
> Deactivate WINS.
> Activate DNS. The text field hosts should contain your computer
name -
> if not, enter it. Under the DNS server search sequence, type
> 169.254.0.1.
> Click on OK to save the new Protocol.
> Click on OK again to exit the Network dialog. You will be prompted
to
> restart your PC - do so."
>
>
>
> I tried the above but at part "Problem" this window did not
appear?
>
> I have tried all sorts of ways to get it, to do the above, but
> couldn't get it to display that window?
>
> Anyone else like to try, as I do not understand Networking, I work
in
> electronics, and this is what I can contibute to the
"project" and
> have lots of ideas.
>
> If someone can please come up with a workaround?
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Gary