NeOS 1.51 Quick Install Utility - Dave Dunfield  June 16, 1998

NeOS is a handy little DOS network, which provides full peer-to-peer file and
printer sharing over any medium with a class 1 packet driver. NeOS uses only
a single TSR, one control program, and one configuration program. It does not
require any complicated setup, or changes to your system configuration files.

Congratulations to Igor Bujanovic and SRCE for creating such a simple and
functional networking system, and for making it available as freeware.

Although I have found NeOS itself to be very useful, the INSTALL program
does several things that I really don't like:

 - It always adds a "call startnet" to your autoexec.bat, even if you do
   not want the network to automatically load.

 - It creates the NEOS.NET\CTRL subdirectory with the Hidden attribute.

 - It creates NEOS.CFG with an invalid date, which confuses date scanning
   utilities etc.

 - It does not automatically support anything other than an NE2000 network
   card.

 - It will not allow you to specify an address less than 0x300 for the
   network card (mine are all at 0x280).

 - The default configuration values written to NEOS.CFG are not always
   what I want.

To fix these problems, I have created NSETUP, a "Quick Install" program for
NeOS 1.51. To install NeOS, just run NSETUP. Operation of the program is
very straightforward. The configuration options available in NSETUP are
identical to the ones in the NeOS INSTALL and CONFIG programs and you can
refer the help facilities of these programs, or the NeOS documentation for
more information. If you have problems with video and/or colors, try using
NSETUP /M to force monochrome.

You must have the following files present in the source directory (the one
containing NSETUP):

    NEOS.MAN    = NeOS Documentation
    NEOS.COM    = Main NeOS kernal
    NET.EXE     = NeOS user interface
    CONFIG.EXE  = Configuration program
    NEOSH.HLP   = NeOS help file
    <packet drv>= Packet driver for your network card
    NSETUP.INI  = NSETUP control file

The file NSETUP.INI allows you to pre-define certain values for the NEOS
configuration, and to define network cards.

Lines beginning (in column 1) with '$' are configuration presets, which
allow you to set the default values for the parameters in the local station
configuration (you can still change these values from within the installation
screens):

    $NA <text>  = Registration Name
    $CO <text>  = Registration Company
    $SN <text>  = System Name
    $CP <text>  = Configuration Password (if desired)
    $PR <value> = Number of printers connected to workstation
    $MB <value> = Number of message beeps
    $MF <value> = Maximum number of files
    $DI <value> = Maximum number of network resources (directories)
    $ND <drive> = Network Drive
    $NT <value> = Network CPU time setting
    $ST <value> = Station CPU time setting
    $PT <value> = Printer CPU time setting

Lines not beginning with '$' are assumed to be network card definitions:

The first line of a network card definition is the ASCII TEXT description
of the card. This line must not begin with a space or a tab. All other lines
of each definition are indented by one or more spaces or tabs.

The second line of the network card definition contains the name of the
packet driver file needed to use this card. This line must be indented by
at least one space or tab.

The third line contains the DOS command required to install the packet
driver. Note that '^n' can be used to extract variable information listed
below (Use '^^' to insert a single '^'). This line must be indented by at
least one space or tab.

The forth line contains the DOS command required to remove the packet driver
from memory. Note that '^n' can be used to extract variable information
listed below. This line must be indented by at least one space or tab.

Additional lines define variable information, which can be used in the
install and remove commands. This is normally used to identify I/O addresses,
hardware interrupt lines, RAM buffers etc. You will be prompted for each
variable value associated with your network card during the installation.

Each variable line contains a single entry which must be indented by at least
one space or tab. Each entry starts with the initial (default) value for the
variable, followed by a space, and the text description of that variable. If
the initial value begins with 'x', the variable is assumed to be hexidecimal,
otherwise a decimal value is assumed. Up to 10 variables may be defined, and
they are assigned the indexes 0-9 (Use ^0 to read the first variable, and ^9
to real the 10'th one).

Here is an example NSETUP.INI file:

    $NA Joe User
    $CO Acme Computer Corp.
    $DI 30
    $MF 40
    NE2000 Compatible
        NE2000.COM
        NE2000 0x60 ^0 0x^1
        NE2000 -u
        11 Interrupt
        x300 I/O address
    WD/SMC EtherCard (8013)
        SMC_WD.COM
        SMC_WD 0x60 ^0 0x^1 0x^2
        SMC_WD -u
        11 Interrupt
        x280 I/O address
        xDC00 Memory buffer address
    Intel Etherexpress-16
        EXP16.COM
        EXP16 0x60 0x^0
        EXP16 -u
        x300 I/O address
    D-Link DE620CT
        DE620PD.COM
        DE620PD 0x60
        echo Cannot Uninstall DE620PD

The STARTNET.BAT file created by NSETUP is slightly more powerful than the
one created by NeOS INSTALL. Executing 'STARTNET' will load the packet
driver and launch NeOS. The command 'STARTNET STOP' will unload NeOS and
the packet driver.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
dave@     Dunfield Development Systems          http://www.dunfield.com
dunfield. Low cost software development tools for embedded systems
com       Software/firmware development services       Fax:613-256-5821
