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How can I use a Network card that is not one of those shown with Network Client Administrator?

A. A. The Network Client Administrator tool located in the Administrative Tools section is a very useful tool, but lacks the seemingly obvious function of "Have disk" to use a NDIS 2.0 compatible driver supplied with the network card. You can get round this though with a minimum of hassle.

  1. Run Network Client Administrator as normal, selecting a network card similar to your card
  2. Once finished locate the driver disk that was supplied with the Network card (you did keep it :-) ).
  3. On the disk there will be a NDIS folder and a DOS section
  4. Copy the .dos file from this disk to the net sub-directory on the disk created by Network Client Administrator
  5. Also in the directory should be a sample protocol.ini file, open this and look for the line with a driver with a $ on the end, e.g.
    DriverName = "EL59X$"
    write this name down
  6. Insert the disk created by Network Client Administrator and move to the \net sub-directory
  7. Open the file system.ini and edit the network drivers section and change the netcard parameter to the name of the .dos file you copied to the disk
    \[network drivers\]
    netcard=EL59X.dos
  8. After saving system.ini, open protocol.ini (in the same directory) and locate the DriverName parameter and change to the name you found in the protocol.ini file supplied on the Network Card driver disk (the one you wrote down in step 5), e.g.
    \[ms$elnk3\]
    DRIVERNAME=EL59X$
    If the card is a PCI card make sure the I/O, slot etc. are commented out, or set these to the correct values. Again save the file.

The Network Client Administrator disk is now configured to use your network card. A known problem is with Irmatrac/Microdyne token ring adapters, and will not work unless the net sub-directory on the disk is renamed to dev.

This solution is fine for one off disk creations, however you may want to have the network card displayed as an option by the Network Card Administrator program, to do this perform the following

  1. You have to have the clients directory shared on your hard disk, e.g. d:\clients
  2. Copy the .dos file from the network driver disk (windows for workgroups area) to <client share name>\msclient\netsetup directory
  3. Edit the file <client share name>\msclient\netsetup\wcnet.inf and enter the following details, this information will be on the Network card installation disk as a oemsetup.inf or similar file
    \[netcard\]
    tcm$el59x="3Com Fast EtherLink/EtherLink III BusMaster Adapter (3C59x)",0,ndis,ethernet,0x07,tcm$el59x,tcm$el59x_nif
    Also in the oemsetup.inf will be 2 sections that correspond to the last 2 parameters, e.g. tcm$el59x and tcm$el59x_inf. Append these to the end of wcnet.inf, then save the file

Network Client Administrator will now list the new card as an option as a Network card.


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