Freed from the Novell client

Scott Lowe Tech Republic

Published: 29 Jan 2003 11:25 GMT

Testing the service
You can test the service with any workstation that doesn't have the Novell client loaded. For this example, I have a Windows XP Professional workstation configured without the Novell client. To test whether everything works as it should, log in to the workstation with the same user name and password that you assigned on the Simple Password tab in ConsoleOne.

To find your NetWare server, click Start | My Network Places | Entire Network. When the Entire Network screen appears, double-click the domain or workgroup that you entered in Figure D. You'll then see your NetWare 6 server listed with your Windows servers, as shown in Figure I.

Figure I

Network neighborhood shows the NetWare CIFS server.

You can be certain that this is the CIFS version of your NetWare server because it has the same name as your NetWare server. Also, you'll notice the comment next to the server and the fact that the server name ends with the _W, or another extension that you provided during the installation.

Allowing users to change their passwords
Native File Access lets users change their own passwords. To do this, press [Ctrl][Alt][Del] on a Windows NT/2000/XP machine, and click Change Password. In the Log On To box, type in the name of the NetWare CIFS server, and then enter the old password plus the new password. From a command prompt in a Windows 9x machine, type NET PASSWORD {Netware CIFS server name} and press [Enter].

When prompted, enter the name of the user, the old password, and the new password. You'll also need to go to the Passwords control panel and change the local system password for the user in order to keep them synchronised.

Password synchronisation
One major problem with this method of handling access to a NetWare server is that each user requires two separate passwords -- and in the same profile, no less. This can create some confusion for the administrator, but it's not that difficult to work around it.

If you initially set up the NDS user object password and the simple password to be the same, the NDS user object password is changed when a user changes his simple password so that the two stay synchronised. However, the reverse is not true: If the user changes her NDS password (i.e., from a system while logged in via the Novell Client), her simple password won't change, and you'll have to synchronise them manually. If the two passwords aren't the same, neither will be synchronised when the other one is changed.

Of course, this is only a problem if you've chosen to use local authentication. If you've opted instead for domain-level authentication, passwords are handled at the Windows domain controller and not in NDS at all.

Free at last!
The CIFS Native File Access protocols allow an administrator a great deal of flexibility in a mixed environment. It can be a great way to reduce the hassle of running Novell's Client to provide access to your NetWare servers. Password synchronisation between the NDS and CIFS sides is not perfect, but being able to provide native access to files can far outweigh this problem.

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