NetWare Core Protocol is Novell’s a client/server protocol for local area networks (LANs). It is typically connected to NetWare operating systems but works with alternative operating systems, including UNIX, Linux, and Windows NT. Here is more about it.
What is Netware core protocol?
Before the Internet left academia, corporate networks were already in place and successfully shared files and printers. In doing so, they used the rather old but reliable Novell NetWare package and related protocols.
Two packages allow Linux to provide Novell file server functionality. They allow you to access files on your Linux machine for users using the Novell NetWare client software. Users can mount and map file systems as local drives on their machines, just like on a real Novell file server. You may want to try both to see which best suits your intent. Many of these clients are still using such networks. They are still pretty good, and the developers want to integrate them into the NCP/IP environment. Novell’s primary file and printer access protocol for NetWare’s network operating system is NCP (NetWare Control Protocol).
Linux supports the NCP/IP protocols and the protocols used by Novell Corporation’s NetWare operating system. These protocols are distant cousins of NCP/IP, and although they do the same thing, they work very differently, making them incompatible with NCP/IP. However, Linux has free and commercial software to support integration with Novell.
In NetWare, the NCP protocol is an add-on over the IPX protocol and is used to organize the exchange between a workstation and a file server. For example, communication between a workstation and a file server that uses the NCP protocol API is usually organized as follows:
- the NLM module registers any of its functions as an NCP extension,
- the program on the workstation or file server contacts NetWare and receives the required identifier NCP extension,
- a program on a workstation or file server uses the registered function of the NLM module as a remote procedure, passing its initial data and receiving processing results.
Netware operating system and its functionality
NetWare is a closed operating system that uses cooperative multitasking to run various services on Intel x86 architecture computers. The system’s network protocols are based on the XNS protocol stack. NetWare currently supports the TCP/IP and IPX/SPX protocols. NetWare is one of the families of XNS systems.
NetWare was based on a very simple idea: one or more dedicated servers connect to a network and share their disk space in the form of “volumes.” Client computers running MS-DOS run several special resident programs that allow you to “assign” drive letters to volumes. Users need to log on to the network to access volumes and be able to assign drive letters. The login name determines access to network resources.
Unlike NetWare, general-purpose operating systems (UNIX, Microsoft Windows) were based on an interactive model with support for time-sharing when a program could take up all available system resources without control from the operating system. In this preemptive multitasking, memory-virtualized environment, there was a significant overhead because these systems never had enough resources to fulfill all the requests of all applications. Such systems have improved over time through tighter networking services integration with the “general purpose” operating system kernel but have never been able to match the efficiency of NetWare. Unfortunately, in the past, when application processes were in control of themselves, such “trust” often led to system crashes.