Banner

Side Banner

Custom/QC DOSTM Network FAQ

Problem:

User gets an error message along the lines of: Printer is off-line or disk full. The first page prints fine before they get this error message.

Solution:

If the user is on a network and SHARE.EXE is loaded, make sure that SHARE.EXE is loaded AFTER the network drivers. When in doubt have them put it at the end of their AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

 

 

Problem:

User gets sporadic print output when running CQC on a network.

Solution:

The user may have insufficient trustee rights to a directory where CQC is tring to write it's temporary files. This is usually manifested as graphics pages not printing as you would expect or incomplete print jobs. Make sure to distinguish this from the SHARE.EXE problem listed above. See the Novell installation instructions for details on required trustee rights and general setup.

Novell Installation Instructions

The following document assumes you are the system supervisor or equivalent and that your users have their own directories off of a \HOME directory. THESE ARE GUIDELINES ONLY! YOUR SYSTEM MAY BE SET UP DIFFERENTLY!

The system login script should be changed to include the following search mappings and environment variables. If you don't want all your users environments cluttered up with all this you may want to consider creating a CQC group and checking for membership of it before setting these.

The following environment variables must be set so that CQC can write temporary files. We want to map them to the user's home directory because we're assuming the user has RWCEMF (RWOCD if using NetWare 2.x) rights in that directory. If the user doesn't have those rights then CQC will start acting flaky when it tries to write a temp file to a directory where it doesn't have sufficient rights. Since we're adding a few very large strings to the environment, chances are that you'll have to add a SHELL= line to all your CONFIG.SYS files to increase the available DOS environment space. Consult your DOS manual for specifics, different versions behave differently. Please remember that the login script statement %LOGIN_NAME IS case sensitive and must be entered in caps.

if member of "CQC" then begin
    dos set cgipath="f:\\public\\cqc"
    dos set tempdir="f:\\home\\%LOGIN_NAME"
    dos set metaoutput="f:\\home\\%LOGIN_NAME\\metafile.dat"
    map ins s1:=sys:home\%login_name
end

A lot of users will start having memory problems when they log onto a network. The problem is that the Novell shells take approximately 55k between IPX.COM and NETX.EXE loaded into conventional memory. If you are running 80286 or 80386 workstations with available extended or expanded memory then the Novell extended memory (XMSNETX.EXE) or expanded memory (EMSNETX.EXE) shells can be used instead. This will result in a savings of approximately 30k of conventional memory.

Version 4.x of CQC creates a CGI.CFG file in the installation directory. This enables the program to load the device drivers while the program is running and then unload them when it is finished, thus freeing up about 75k of conventional memory when the program is not in use. You may need to either have multiple CGI.CFG files in each user's home directory if you have a large number of different workstation configurations on your network (i.e. different types of displays, printers etc.) or one CGI.CFG file located where CQC was installed with multiple printer drivers listed and tie certain printer types to specific users through the use of an environment variable. In either case the format of the CGI.CFG file will be the same. An example file is listed below:

DRIVER=F:\PUBLIC\CQC\IBMVGA12.SYS
DRIVER=F:\PUBLIC\CQC\EPSONLQ.SYS
DRIVER=F:\PUBLIC\CQC\HPDJ500C.SYS
DRIVER=F:\PUBLIC\CQC\LASERJET.SYS
DRIVER=F:\PUBLIC\CQC\HPGLPLTR.SYS
DRIVER=F:\PUBLIC\CQC\META.SYS
DRIVER=F:\PUBLIC\CQC\GSSCGI.SYS

In our example login script we set the environment variable CGIPATH to point to the directory where we are putting our CGI.CFG file. If you are using one centrally located file the example given would be correct. If you will be using multiple CGI.CFG files then it would look something like the following:

dos set cgipath="f:\\home\\%LOGIN_NAME"

If your network contains workstations that use the same display driver everywhere (i.e. VGA color) but multiple printers then you may wish to create a centrally located CGI.CFG file with multiple printer definitions like the example above and use an environment variable to specify which printer the user will have active. Say you have three network printers, an Epson 24 pin printer, a HP Laserjet III, and a HP Deskjet 500C color printer. Most of your users will normally print to the Laserjet III, so we will put that driver last in our CGI.CFG file. If no environment variable is set, the last driver present in CGI.CFG will be the default. Now let's say Jim needs to print out his charts in color. In order to do this we would set the PRINTER environment variable to be equal to the Deskjet 500C driver in either that users AUTOEXEC.BAT file or their personal login script.

Example AUTOEXEC.BAT file line:

SET PRINTER=HPDJ500C

Example personal login script line:

DOS SET PRINTER="HPDJ500C"

By setting the PRINTER environment variable we can tell CQC which printer driver we would like to use. This can also be changed at the DOS prompt before starting CQC to allow the package to output to whatever printer you choose.

Send mail to webmaster@stochos.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last Modified: 5/20/2006