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LANsmart: a LAN for home or a small office If you have an office or a home with more than one computer and often need to transfer files from one computer to another or share available resources, then a Local Area Net­work (LAN) such as LANsmart could be just what you need. By BOB FLYNN Most people, if they think about Local Area Networks (or LANs) at all, think that they only used in large organisations with lots of computers which need to be linked together. LANsmart, on the other hand, is designed as a very small network, where as little as three and maybe up to 10 com­puters need to be hooked together. 4  Silicon Chip These days, this can easily happen in the home. Maybe the teenage children have one or more older computers while the parents have a more up-to-date machine and perhaps a laptop. But there may only be one inkjet printer and perhaps just one CD-ROM drive. Wouldn’t it be nice if all the computers could access the printer or CD-ROM drive at any time without the need to undo cables and all that hassle? This is a situation made for LANs­mart. LANsmart can operate with all programs working under Windows or DOS and machines can log onto or leave the network at will, without disrupting operations on any of the other machines. Naturally, it can copy or move files between computers and disc access on individual computers in the network can be restricted to certain directories or sub-directories. Computers in a network also have the ability to send messages to one or all members of the group. The ability of all the computers on the network to access one printer has obvious advantages in terms of hardware investment. The cost of setting up the network system, however, must be offset against any potential savings. The LANsmart system is available as a three, six or 10-user package. All packs come with a D-Link LANsmart network card for each computer; BNC terminated, 5-metre long coaxial connector cables; a BNC T-piece for each card; and two BNC 50-ohm line termi­ nators. Software is supplied with the package on a 3.5-inch floppy disc but can be provided on a 5.25-inch floppy on request. Three user manuals are also provided with the system: LANs­ mart Quick Operation Guide, LANsmart for Windows User’s Manual and LAN­ smart User’s Reference. The package also contains a 20-minute step-by-step installation videotape (VHS), a printed sheet of last minute information and hints and tips regarding the program. A sample network planning sheet is also provided to help you plan your network – a big help, we found. LANsmart may be installed on any IBM or IBM compatible computer. Minimum recommended memory sizes are 640Kb of RAM for file servers and 384Kb for workstations. MS-DOS/ PC-DOS 3.1 or above is required to run LANsmart. For those not familiar with the jargon, a file server is the hub of the network and usually has the printer and most of the key software programs. On the other hand, it could be a slower machine handling just the print­er. A workstation is just one of the individual machines connect­ ed to a LAN. As a single picture is worth a thousand words, it is well worth watching the video that comes with LANsmart A D-Link network card must be installed in each machine on the network. The machines are linked together in daisy-chain fashion using coax cables and T-connectors. The network transfers data at 10 megabits/second. before install­ing the program. Once you have seen the video, setting up the network should be quite straightforward. Installing LANsmart You commence installing LANsmart by inserting a D-Link network card in a slot in each of the computers to be networked. These cards have no switches to set or jumpers to select; setup of the card can be done (if required) from the software. With the cards installed, the machines are connected daisy chain fashion using the coax cables and T-connectors supplied. The first and last machine on the chain must have the open side of its T-connector terminated with a loading resistor. This Fig.1: the resource to be shared is selected by typing “Net” at the C:> prompt, then choosing “Share Your Resources” from the resulting menu and hitting the “Insert” key. The resource type is then selected using the arrow keys and pressing “Enter”. takes the form of a dummy male BNC plug with an internal 50-ohm resistor. Proper termination of the cables is essential if the data transfer rate of 10 megabits/second is to be achieved. In fact, the system won’t work at all and you get an on-screen error message if you don’t have these terminating resistors fitted. The next step is to make a copy of the LANsmart program disc and use this to install the program on each of the comput­ers. Installation can be made direct to DOS or into Windows. If installing to DOS, place the floppy in the drive and at the DOS prompt type A: EASY and installation of the program will commence. While the program is being installed from the DOS prompt you will be given Fig.2: after selecting the resource type, you choose the resource to be shared by repeatedly hitting the “F1” key and using the arrow keys. Hitting “Enter” twice then allocates the selection to the net. This can be done repeatedly; eg to allocate a number of directories. November 1995  5 now follow the prompts to make the resources of your computer avail­able to the network. Access rights Three manuals are provided with the LANsmart system: a Quick Operation Guide, a LANsmart for Windows User’s Manual and a User’s Reference. The package also contains a 20-minute step-by-step installation videotape (VHS). the opportunity to install to Windows if the program discovers Windows on your computer. If you wish to install directly into Windows from Program Manager, choose File, Run and type A: EASY. When the message “Do you want to set up your LANsmart net­work card?” appears, follow the prompts and choose “Set up Con­figuration”. Note that the number you choose for the I/O Base Address and the Interrupt Number may clash with other cards in your computers. This did not happen for us using the default settings or those shown in the video. Save these settings by pressing the Enter key. You can then test the configuration by running Diagnostics, the second field on the Set up Card menu. After the program files are installed and you have entered your company name and the serial number of the program, you will be asked for a name for the station. This can be any name, such as the computer user’s. You are then asked “What type of computer is this?” and you are given the choice of (A) Workstation, (B) Print Server or (C) File/Print Server. Choose the one you want and press Enter. You are then asked to enter the number of computers on the network. Then follows the message “Would you like to reboot your computer to make LANsmart active?” “Y”. Press Enter and your computer will reboot and the LANsmart logo will appear followed by the message “LANsmart Workstation (Server) Installed Successfully”. All computers on the network should have the program installed as above. The next step is to allocate the resources of the server computers on the network. At the DOS prompt type NET, Enter. The main menu will appear and if you move to the line “Share your resources” and press enter, the “Share Your Resources” screen will appear. Press the Insert key and a “Resource Type” window pops up. You can Fig.3: this screen allows you to alter the configuration of your computer. It can be set up as a file/print server, a print server or as a workstation. 6  Silicon Chip Access rights to your directories can be set to one of five levels with LAN­smart: Read-Write-Create, ReadWrite, Read-Only, Write-Create and Write-Only. To restrict access to certain files in a directory (but not all), those files that you wish to share should be moved to a separate directory and access then given to that directory. Use of the F1 (Help) key during this last procedure is of great benefit and will save you from frustration. If you do not use the F1 key while completing “Share Your Resources” and the following “Connecting To Resources” section, remember to move down from one line to the next using the down arrow key. Do not press enter after each line or error messages will appear. Enter can only be used after the “Resource to be shared” and the “Status” lines are filled (“Resource name” and “Password” are optional lines). After completing “Share your resources” and returning to the Main Menu, highlight the “Connect to network resources” field and press the enter key. Follow the prompts as before to choose the network resources you wish to use. If you are going to make use of the C: drive of another server on the network, give it some other drive letter, say D:. Complete the “Connect to network resources”, return to the Main Menu, key down to “Save network setup” and press enter. Press the “Y” key to save the settings and return to the DOS prompt. If everything has gone according to plan, go to the C:\ prompt, type D: and press Enter. Your computer will now be switched to the C: drive of the network computer that you called D:. Computer functions During the installation of the program, you are asked to choose a function for your computer: Workstation, Print Server or File/Print Server. Just what are these functions? A machine set up as a File/Print server allows that computer to share its resources – eg, discs, directo­ries, files and printers – with the rest of the network . Set up as a Print Server, a computer can share its printer(s) with the network. And set Fig.4: these two screen grabs show the opening menus for Network Basic and Network Management when running LANsmart in Windows. up as a work­station, a computer can access the resources of the network but none of the other stations can access a workstation’s resources. LANsmart uses about 100Kb of memory as a File/Print Server, about 90Kb as a Print Server and about 60Kb as a Work­station. For the purpose of this review we set up LANsmart on two of our own computers and it was generally straightforward. We did have trouble with one of the programs on the server computer not booting after LANsmart was installed but it would boot as normal with LANsmart disabled. This lead to much editing of the Config.Sys and Autoexec.Bat files but nothing cured the problem. As a last resort, the program that didn’t want to boot was reinstalled in the computer and that fixed it. You tell me why; I don’t know. We found the system as installed did all it is supposed to do. Files can be transferred from one computer to another with ease and printing from the remote station through the print server is straightforward. The printer server in our setup is used most of the time as a CAD machine. When a large file is being printed in the background, the CAD program runs below its normal speed. However, background printing has no noticeable effect on speed when Fig.5: this Windows screen grab shows the network print queue manager. Files can be deleted or held, or the print order can be altered. the print server is running a word processor program. The lesson here is obvious: connect the printer to a computer that is used mainly as a word processor and any slowdown effects will be negligible. Price & availability At the time of writing this review, LANsmart prices are as follows: three users, $599; six users, $999; and 10 users, $1599.00. A single user add-on card is $169. All these prices include sales tax. LANsmart is available from Smart­ NET Distribution Pty Ltd, 66-76 Dick­ son Ave, Artarmon, NSW 2064 and all SC Harvey Norman stores. Fig.6: this window allows open files on the network to be managed. Among other things, it allows servers to close files that have inadvertently been left open. SC November 1995  7