Applies To:
  • CitectSCADA 1.00 1.01 1.10 1.11 1.20 2.00 2.01 3.00 3.21 4.00
Summary:
I am setting up Citect version 3.21 to run on a Windows 95 computer. I have NetBEUI and IPX protocols installed, however I keep getting the NetBIOS not Found error message when I startup Citect. I have tried setting the LanA number to 0 and 1, but NetBIOS is still not found.

Solution:
How LanA numbers are allocated has been changed under Windows 95 from WFW 3.11. This change has occurred to support plug an play devices, which can be hot inserted and removed. Because of the hot plug feature the exact LanA number is dynamically allocated and you can not be sure which LanA number each protocol will be using. However if you have a single network card and you don't change the installed network protocols then the LanA numbers should be allocated the same numbers on startup of Windows 95. If you have a hot plug able network card ie PC Card (PCMCIA), when you insert the card it will be allocated a new LanA number.

WFW 3.11 allocated LanA numbers from 0 counting up by 1. So the first (default) protocol was LanA=0, the next was 1 etc. Windows 95 allocates LanA numbers starting at 7 and counting down. However you cannot tell which protocol is on which LanA number If you have IPX/SPX and NetBEUI installed you cannot tell which protocol will be on LanA=6 and LanA=7. However you can force one of the protocols to be the default protocol. This will make that protocol have a LanA=0 and the second protocol will be LanA=7. To make a protocol the default protocol you check the "Set this protocol to be the default protocol" in the protocol propertied dialog in the Network setup of the control panel.

To give an example" I have NetBEUI, IPX/SPX and TCP/IP installed on my Windows 95 computer. I don't have any protocol set as the default, so there is no NetBIOS with a LanA=0. So the valid LanA numbers I have are 5, 6 and 7, however I cannot tell which protocol is on which LanA number. If I wanted to force Citect to use a particular protocol I would set that protocol to be default and use LanA=0.

A more common example would be to install NetBEUI and IPX/SPX and make NetBEUI the default protocol. So NetBEUI will be on LanA=0 and IPX on LanA=7. Another common example is to have only 1 protocol. In this case the LanA=7 and if you make this the default protocol it will be LanA=0.

A useful tool to find what valid LanA numbers you have is shipped with the 16bit version of Citect. This DOS program is called NETSTAT and is installed in the CITECT\BIN directory. To run this utility you will have to open a DOS box and change into the \CITECT\BIN directory as some version of Windows have another utility called the same name in the windows directory. You can verify you have found the correct version of NETSTAT by typing on the DOS prompt NETSTAT * 8 and you should see the following:

C:\CITECT\BIN>netstat * 8
NetStat, CI Technologies 1992..1994
args [name] [lana]
Lana 8
Netbios not installed

What NETSTAT does it to get basic statistics from the NetBIOS interface. You tell NETSTAT which LanA number you want to look at by passing on the command line. The number 8 above is the LanA number. NETSTAT in this case has display 'Netbios not installed' message as it cannot find a NetBIOS with this LanA number (as 7 is the maximum for Windows 95). When I run NETSTAT * 7 on my computer the following information is displayed:

Permanent node name : 00 00 1b 4e 34 f9
                 Self Test Result : 00
          External jumper setting : 02
   Adapter protocol layer version : 255.34
                 Reporting period : 48 minutes
       Free/Maximum/Hardware NCBs : 252/255/255
Pending/Maximum/Hardware Sessions : 2/10/10
            Maximum datagram size : 1024
              Maximum packet size : 4096
             Successful transmits : 19
              Successful receives : 6521
             FRMR frames Received : 0
          FRMR frames Transmitted : 0
       I frames received in error : 0
                  Transmit aborts : 0
               Retransmit I frame : 0
            Out of receive buffer : 0
           Out of transmit buffer : 0
             DLC T1 Timer expired : 0
             DLC Ti Timer expired : 0
        NetBIOS name table entrys : 4
Name : ' MARTIN ROBERTS ' NcbNum(02) Status(04) Registered Unique Name
Name : ' CITSYD ' NcbNum(03) Status(84) Registered Group Name
Name : 'MARTIN ROBERTS _' NcbNum(04) Status(04) Registered Unique Name

From this I know what I have a protocol at LanA=7. I can repeat the command trying all LanA numbers between 0 and 7 to find all the valid numbers. Pressing any key will cause NETSTAT to update it's information and pressing ESC will terminate it. This utility can be used under WFW, Windows 95 and Window NT to find your LanA numbers.

You may ask why I have TCP/IP, IPX and NetBEUI protocols installed on my computer and I don't have any one of them setup as the default (so I cannot tell which protocol is on which LanA number). I am glad you asked that question. The answer is I am running the next to be released version of Citect which supports a new mode of LanA numbers. In Citect version 3.3 and 4.1 you may set the LanA=-1(this will be the default in these versions). When you do this Citect will search for all valid LanA numbers and start using all of them. So in these version you don't have to worry about LanA numbers, Citect will find them for you. The only problem you may encounter with this feature is that Citect will automatically use all protocols with a valid LanA number. You can stop this from occurring by setting the LanA number to the required protocol.

 
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