A Little Technology Shoppe LLC

Last Updated: January 21, 2000

Windows 95 and Windows NT File Sharing Support

ALTS.NET® now supports yet another way to upload web content to your virtual server in addition to FTP, Telnet, Microsoft® FrontPage®, etc. We now offer Windows 95/NT "File Share" support.

This feature allows you to map your virtual server's home directory to your Windows 95 or NT desktop over the Internet. After your virtual server's network drive is mapped, you can "drag-and-drop", delete, copy, and move files on your virtual server as if it were a local drive.

Note: Tests show that a 28.8K connection gets about 2Kbps transfer rate which is not bad but it will be significantly slower than your local hard drive.

Note: Because this is an advanced user feature we asked that you read the instructions very carefully before trying this. We can not be held responsible for what you do to your Windows client or the contents of your virtual server.

Note: Because UNIX uses a different EOL (End Of Line) scheme than DOS/Windows: UNIX text files have lines delimited by a single line-feed character (0A hex), whereas DOS text-mode files are delimited with a carriage-return/line-feed pair (0D/OA hex). We have placed a very useful utility, fixcrlf, that you can install on your Windows 95/NT host to do help convert DOS files to UNIX and UNIX files to DOS. With fixcrlf you simply drag-and-drop your file on to the fixcrlf dialog. It automatically detects the type and makes the proper conversion. Please note that binary files do not need to be converted.

Note: Use an editor that is "UNIX aware" like HotDog Pro from Sausage Software (See http://www.sausage.com/). This way you don't have to worry about converting the file before uploading uploading. Also, you can make changes right on your virtual server volume right over the Internet.

Here is a step-by-step setup process to configure your Windows 95/98/NT operating system to support the "file share" feature. It is a little tricky to do but is worth the effort. Once you get this set up, you can have it automatically "reconnect" when you log into your Windows 95/98/NT again. Therefore, this only needs to be done once.

The following instructions are for Windows 95/98 clients:

  1. "Client for Microsoft Networks" and the "TCP/IP" protocol stack must be installed. This is done with the "Network" configuration panel in the "Control Panel". Note that TCP/IP must be installed before you can connect to the Internet in the first place.

  2. Locate and modify a file titled "lmhosts" in your "C:\Windows" directory. If the file does not exist then you will need to create it. In some revisions of Windows 95/98 a sample "lmhosts" file is included with the software installation. You can search for the existence of this sample file by using one of two methods. One way to find the file is simply by using your Windows Explorer to review the contents of your "C:\Windows" directory; looking specifically for a filename like "Lmhosts.sam". You can also search for the file by using the file search capability in your "Start - Find - Files or Folders…" menu.

    If you find the file "lmhosts.sam", open the file using Notepad or some other text file editor. If you did not find the file, then launch Notepad to create a new file. Add a line to the bottom of the file you have just opened. The line should contain the IP address of your Virtual Server and a nickname that you would like to identify the IP address with. Please consider the following examples: 

    1.2.3.4          nickname
192.41.12.131   "Virtual Server"
    Note that if the nickname you choose includes a space or other special characters, you will need to enclose the nickname with quotation marks. If are administrating multiple Virtual Server accounts, then you will need to specify a unique nickname for each IP address you include. Also, please make sure that each host entry ends with a line feed. Press your enter key a couple of times after the last entry in your lmhosts file just to be safe.

    After you have finished adding the lines to your lmhosts file, save the file to your "C:\Windows" directory under the name "lmhosts". Most windows editors will want you to specify a file extension like ".txt" or ".doc". You can prevent this from happening by enclosing the filename in quotation marks.

  3. Shutdown and restart your machine in order for Windows to load the new host definitions.

  4. Now that you have included IP address/nickname pairs in your lmhosts file, you are reading to establish network connections using the Windows File Sharing capability. To do this, open your Windows Explorer and select the "Map Network Drive…" menu item located in the "Tools" menu. This will open up the "Map Network Drive" dialog box.

    Using the Map Network Drive dialog, you will map a specific drive letter to the File Sharing Connection. Select an available drive letter using the "Drive:" selection box. The value for the "Path:" definition should be of the form "\\NICKNAME\LOGIN" where NICKNAME is one of the nicknames you defined for a specific IP address in your lmhosts file and LOGIN is the login id for the Virtual Server at that IP address.

    For example, if you defined the nickname "Virtual Server" for the IP address of your Virtual Server account and the login id for your account was "biff", then you would enter "\\Virtual Server\biff" as the value in the "Path:" text entry field. If you would like the drive mapped each time you logon to your computer then select the "Reconnect at logon" check box.

    Select the "OK" button after you have selected a Drive letter and specified a path. Your computer will then attempt to map the drive to the home directory of your Virtual Server. This process can take several minutes so please be patient. If a connection is established, you will be prompted for your login password. After you enter your password and successfully authenticate, your Windows Explorer will display the drive letter on the left-hand side along with your local drives. You can now double-click on directories to expand paths and double-click on files to open them locally. If you need to upload files to a specific directory, you need only drag the file from your local folder to your Virtual Server folder. Likewise, if you want to download a file to your local machine, you would select the file in your Virtual Server folder and drag it to your desktop or a local file folder. It's that easy!

A similar procedure is used for Windows NT clients.


Compatibility with Windows 98 and NT4.0/SP3
The fileshare feature will not work with Windows 98 or Windows NT4.0/SP3 until you add a small variable to your system registry.

A fix for Windows 98 can be effected by changing your system registry. In your "Start Menu" select "Run...". This will bring up a Run window with a text entry field, input "regedit" and hit "Ok". This will bring up the Registry Editor. Select the following folders: 

expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then expand System
then expand CurrentControlSet
then expand Services
then expand VxD
then select VNETSUP
on the right hand side you will see a collection of name:data pairs. You will want to add a new entry here for "EnablePlainTextPassword" so select your "Edit" menu, then select "New", then "DWORD Value". This will create a new name:data pair. Change the name from the Windows 98 default of "New Value #1" to "EnablePlainTextPassword" and hit the return key. Your name:data pair should now look like: 
  
EnablePlainTextPassword         0x00000000 (0)
Highlight the "EnablePlainTextPassword" and then select the "Edit" menu and the "Modify" menu item (it should be the first menu item). In the "Edit DWORD Value" dialog box change the "Value data" value form "0" to "1" and make sure the "Hexadecimal" Base radio button is selected. Then select the "Ok" dialog. Then exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer.

The same thing can be done to your NT4.0/SP3 machine. Except that you must select these folders instead: 

expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then expand System
then expand CurrentControlSet
then expand Services
then expand Rdr
then select Parameters

Add the DWORD value "EnablePlainTextPassword". Set the value to 1.

Additionally, for NT4 SP3, go to your NT control panel for networking, Look at TCP/IP properties, look at the WINS Address tab, and check the Enable DNS for Windows resolution box.

Make sure you reboot your NT machine after you add the registry entry.

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