Introduction to Data Communications
Previous	38d. Network Interface Card Drivers (cont'd)	Next

The NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) standard was developed jointly by Microsoft and 3Com for implementation in Microsoft's NOS and IBM OS/2.

The Microsoft implementation of NDIS modifies the config.sys file, autoexec.bat file and makes two important initialization files: SYSTEM.INI and PROTOCOL.INI.

Microsoft loads the IFSHLP.SYS file as a device driver in the CONFIG.SYS file. The IFSHLP.SYS is the installable file system helper file and contains the network redirector for the NDIS interface. The LASTDRIVE command in the config.sys file tells the network operating system the last available drive that can be used for mapping network drives.

The SYSTEM.INI file contains information similar to the following:

[network]

sizworkbuf=1498

filesharing=no

printsharing=no

autologon=yes

computername=E237-12

lanroot=C:\NET

username=EBLANCHARD

workgroup=WORKGROUP

reconnect=yes

dospophotkey=N

lmlogon=1

logondomain=T217PROJECT

preferredredir=full

autostart=full

maxconnections=8



[network drivers]

netcard=elnk3.dos

transport=ndishlp.sys,*netbeui

devdir=C:\NET

LoadRMDrivers=yes



[Password Lists]

*Shares=C:\NET\Shares.PWL

EBLANCHARD=C:\NET\EBLANCHA.PWL

The PROTOCOL.INI file contains protocol specific information and the virtual network card interface. A typical netbeui NDIS protocol.ini looks like:

[network.setup]

version=0x3110

netcard=ms$elnk3,1,MS$ELNK3,1

transport=ms$ndishlp,MS$NDISHLP

transport=ms$netbeui,MS$NETBEUI

lana0=ms$elnk3,1,ms$netbeui

lana1=ms$elnk3,1,ms$ndishlp



[protman]

DriverName=PROTMAN$

PRIORITY=MS$NDISHLP



[MS$ELNK3]

DriverName=ELNK3$

IOADDRESS=0x300



[MS$NDISHLP]

DriverName=ndishlp$

BINDINGS=MS$ELNK3



[MS$NETBEUI]

DriverName=netbeui$

SESSIONS=10

NCBS=12

BINDINGS=MS$ELNK3

LANABASE=0

Introduction to Data Communications
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