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Getting an OWS running, from bare metal to WinLink

A working order for setting up a Norsk Data Office Work Station: boot from floppy, partition and format the hard disk, put MS-DOS on it, add the ND-OWS layer, then MS-Windows, then WinLink and the other Windows programs.

Everything below is either quoted from an ND Installation Description in this repository, or read directly off the diskettes preserved in the software archive - the exact file is named each time. Where no source states a step, it says so rather than inventing one.

The one rule to remember: every OWS product has a PC half and a SINTRAN half, and installing the PC half alone gets you a program that starts and then cannot reach anything. See README.md §2 for what the host needs.

0. What you need in front of you

Diskette / product Label on the disk Held in the archive
1 MS-DOS boot + utilities DOS5, or an Ericsson/IBM DOS disk yes
2 ND-OWS system diskette (drivers, setup) 30002EN1A00 yes, 3 copies
3 ND PC Starter Kit PCSTART-NO2 yes
4 ND Connect Module (only for Ethernet/TCP-IP) CONNECTB00 yes
5 ND keyboard drivers 380952XXA0 yes
6 MS-Windows 2.10 with ND drivers 30021SV1B01..SV4B01, INSTALL1..INSTALL4, ND-DRIVERE yes, 10 disks
7 WinSMX (starter) 30212NO1A00 yes
8 WinLink 30210NO1A00..NO5A00 yes, 5 disks + an install set
9 WinPrint 30211NO1A00 yes
10 Desk Top Manager (the MS-DOS alternative to the Windows set) 30025* yes, 10 disks

1. Boot from floppy

Put the MS-DOS boot diskette in drive A: and power on. The OWS is a PC/AT compatible, so this is ordinary PC behaviour - the ND-specific parts only appear from step 3 onwards.

The archive's DOS5 disk is MS-DOS 5.00 (FDISK.EXE reports "MS DOS Version 5.00 (C)Copyright 1981-1991 Microsoft Corp"). The older Ericsson-built machines came with their own system disk (#1310C61208, #2310C61208, GW-BASIC 3.11A "COPYRIGHT Ericsson Information Systems AB 1984").

Version floor: NDBIOS.SYS from the PC Starter Kit refuses to load on anything older - "Incompatible DOS version (use ver. > 3.0)". ND LAN Connect asks for MS-DOS >= 3.1 (ND-895556-1-EN) and the Connect Module for

= 3.2 (ND-895499-1A-EN).

2. Partition and format the hard disk, install DOS

Standard MS-DOS procedure, with the DOS diskette still in A:

A> FDISK                 create a primary DOS partition, make it active, reboot
A> FORMAT C: /S          format and put the system on it
A> MD C:\DOS
A> COPY A:*.* C:\DOS     the DOS utilities

Nothing ND-specific happens here. The layout the ND software expects afterwards is C:\DOS, C:\WINDOWS, C:\ND-OWS and C:\TEMP - that is what the ND-OWS AUTOEXEC.BAT on the 30002EN1A00 diskette sets up (§3).

3. The ND-OWS layer

Insert the ND-OWS system diskette (30002EN1A00). It carries SETUP.EXE, an ND-OWS directory, EIS and MAINT, plus the keyboard tables.

The AUTOEXEC.BAT on that diskette shows exactly what an installed OWS looks like:

SET ND-OWS=c:\nd-ows
%nd-ows%\comms\connect
echo connect has passed
%nd-ows%\drivers\keyboard sw
%nd-ows%\drivers\mouse
path=c:\windows;c:\nd-ows;c:\dos;c:\
set temp=c:\temp
cd \user
prompt $p$g

and its CONFIG.SYS:

country = 46
files=25
buffers=10
device=ansi.sys
device=clock.sys

Read that top down and it is the whole ND-OWS boot: the ND-OWS environment variable is what every later installer looks for, comms\connect loads the TCP/IP stack, then the ND keyboard driver with a language argument (sw here), then the mouse.

3.1 ND PC Starter Kit

The Starter Kit (PCSTART-NO2) is the base every other ND product requires - it creates C:\ND-OWS and installs the drivers found on that diskette under ND-OWS\DRIVERS: NDBIOS.SYS, BIODRIV.EXE, CSSDRIV.EXE, CSTDRIV.EXE, EGADRIV.EXE, VGADRIV.EXE, W7HDRIV.EXE, ZENDRIV.EXE, TOSDRIV.EXE, and a MAINT directory with CHKPORT.EXE, CLSPORT.EXE and their .PIF files for Windows.

"Before you start the installation of ND LAN Connect, please make sure you have installed the ND PC Starter Kit, and rebooted the workstation." - ND-895556-1-EN

"To install ND LAN Connect manually you must first locate your ND-OWS directory. If this does not exist, the ND PC Starter Kit might not be installed." - same sheet

Reboot after this step. Both sheets say the parameters it sets only take effect after a reboot.

3.2 ND keyboard drivers

Diskette 380952XXA0 holds ND-OWS\DRIVERS\KEYBOARD.COM, NDKEYB.COM, NTXKEYB.COM and a keyboard table per language (KEYBTABL.EN, .DA, .FR, .GE, .NO, .SW, .US). Its INSTALL.TXT is the forms file the ND installer reads - "install.txt - Forms file for ND Keyboard Installation", "(C) Copyright Norsk Data A.S, 1989", revision A04 of 19.10.90.

In the running system the driver is invoked from AUTOEXEC.BAT with the language as an argument, as above: %nd-ows%\drivers\keyboard sw.

Product sheets: ND-895487-1A-EN (NOTIS PC keyboard, 380697A) and ND-895558-1-EN (NORTEXT Enhanced keyboard, 230189A).

3.3 Connecting to the host

Serial line: nothing more to install; the terminal programs use the COM port directly, and the host side is the OWS Terminal Line Server (ND-211295).

Ethernet / TCP-IP: install the ND Connect Module. Its diskette identifies itself in DISK.ID:

ND Connect Module
B00
DISK1

and the Installation Description gives the procedure verbatim:

"Type A:INSTALL... The installation program will enter a menu of different network adaptors. If you are installing on a client running 3+Open client software, choose 4 NDIS from the menu, otherwise choose the entry that corresponds to your hardware... All the files will be copied to the \ND-OWS\COMMS directory. CONFIG.SYS will be updated with necessary changes." - ND-895499-1A-EN

The installer script on the diskette (INSTALL.DAT) confirms where it puts things and which interrupts it takes:

@DefineProject
    @Name     = "ND Connect Module"
    @Version  = "B00"
    @OutDrive = C
    @Subdir   = @Getenv "ND-OWS"
@EndProject
@DefineVars
    @Qstring @SlibInt = "6dh"
    @Qstring @ConnInt = "69h"

Interrupt 66 is taken by PKTDRVND.SYS / DISPKTPM.DOS on NDIS adaptors (same sheet); the packet drivers on the diskette cover 3Com EtherLink II (NDIS\ELNKII.DOS), Interlan, Ungermann- Bass and 3+Open, with INT14.COM for INT 14h redirection.

After this the %nd-ows%\comms\connect line in AUTOEXEC.BAT loads the stack at boot.

4. MS-Windows

The archive holds MS-Windows 2.10 in ND's own packaging: INSTALL1..INSTALL4 (Norwegian "Oppsett 1-4") and ND-DRIVERE, plus the Swedish set labelled 30021SV1B01..SV4B01.

Install Windows from disk 1 in the ordinary way (A:SETUP), then take the ND display and printer drivers from the ND driver disk: NDEUS.DRV, NDEEN.DRV, NDENO.DRV, NDESW.DRV, NDEDE.DRV, NDEGE.DRV and FONTDPUS.FON - one per keyboard/language variant.

The Swedish set also carries Intel's EMM.SYS ("Expanded Memory Manager Version 4.0 Revision A, Copyright 1985, 1987, 1988 Intel Corporation") and printer notes that tell you the driver is installed but not yet configured - INFOEPSO.TXT (Epson LQ), INFOHP.TXT (PCL/LaserJet), INFOPLOT.TXT (HP plotters), INFOPROP.TXT (IBM Proprinter). Configure those from the Windows Control Panel afterwards.

WinLink is "compatible with Microsoft Windows/286 and Microsoft Windows/386 version 2" - ND-610-1-EN

Order matters: WinLink is started by WinSMX (or WinStart), so install the starter first.

"Either WinSMX (ND 230119) or WinStart (ND 230118) to start WinLink with" - ND-610-1-EN

5.1 WinSMX

Diskette 30212NO1A00: INSTALL.EXE, and under BIN the files SMXINIT.EXE, SMXLIB.EXE, SMXEDIT.EXE, WINSMX.HLP. Run A:INSTALL from Windows or DOS as the diskette directs.

What its INFOPRIV.TXT tells the installer to do says what the result looks like:

d <BACKUP><WINDOWS>\WIN.INI
c (WINSMX)CALL-NAME <WINSMX>\SMXINIT.EXE
w windows load <WINSMX>\SMXINIT
w SMX SMXPATH <WINSMX>
  • back up WIN.INI first
  • create a program item calling SMXINIT.EXE
  • add SMXINIT to the load= line of WIN.INI, so the starter comes up with Windows
  • record the SMX path in WIN.INI

Five diskettes, 30210NO1A00..NO5A00. Disk 1 holds the programs, disks 2-5 the screen fonts per language (TD2NO*.FON, TD2EN*, TD2DA*, TD2SW*, TD2US*, TD2NL*, TD2FR* in 15/25/48/70/84 point). BIN\INFO.TXT on disk 1 lists exactly what belongs to the product and which font disk is wanted:

NDTERM.EXE -r        EASYLINK.EXE -r       NDTERM-S.EXE -r
NDETHSEL.EXE -r      NDSERSET.EXE -r       SETUP.BIN -r
no\ -r
en\ -r 203776 "SKRIFTFILER 1"
sw\ -r 203776 "SKRIFTFILER 1"
fr\ -r 203776 "SKRIFTFILER 2"

and BIN\INFOPRIV.TXT shows the installer backing up the ND configuration and WIN.INI, then creating the program items:

d <BACKUPW2NDCONFIG>
d <BACKUP><ND-OWS>\NDCONFIG.
d <BACKUP><WINDOWS>\WIN.INI
c (EMUL)CALL-NAME <WIN3TERM>\NDTERM.EXE
c (EASYLINK)CALL-NAME <WIN3LINK>\EASYLINK.EXE
c (NDTERM-S)CALL-NAME <WIN3LINK>\NDTERM-S.EXE

So after installation you have three program items: the terminal emulator (NDTERM), the file transfer (EASYLINK), and the serial terminal (NDTERM-S).

Then choose the transport, once:

  • Ethernet: run NDETHSEL.EXE to pick which ND server to link to.
  • Serial: run NDSERSET.EXE to set the line parameters.

The archive also holds a later, compressed WinLink install set (winlink/3.img: INSTALL.EXE, WINLINK.INF, WINLINK.INI, EASYLINK.~XE, WSOCKETS.~LL, LESMEG.TXT) - a self-contained INSTALL that expands the ~-suffixed files itself.

Two ND manuals for WinLink itself are held in this repository, and they settle several points the diskettes alone do not:

The product number is ND 230210. Both manuals state it: "To install WinLink (ND 230210) you need" (ND-891092EN1, page 2, "Read this first!") and "WinLink has the product number ND 230210." (ND-860452EN1, page 4, "What is WinLink?"). That answers the question left open in §8 below and in README.md §10. The diskettes still carry the media number 30210; no document here explains the relationship between the two.

Prerequisites, verbatim from ND-891092EN1 page 2:

To install WinLink (ND 230210) you need: - An IBM-compatible PC running Microsoft Windows 3. - PC Starter Kit, ND 230123 (version A04 or newer). - For Ethernet connection: ND Connect Module, ND 230125. - SINTRAN software required for PC Starter Kit and ND Connect Module: Ethernet: SINTRAN 100: OWS Access Server, ND 211297 / SINTRAN 500/5000: OWS Access Server, ND 211325. Serial: OWS Terminal Server, ND 211295

and, on the same page: "OWS Terminal Server is a part of PC Starter Kit."

Four things to note about that list:

  • It says Windows 3. The PI sheet says the opposite generation: WinLink is "compatible with Microsoft Windows/286 and Microsoft Windows/386 version 2" (ND-610-1-EN). Both statements are kept here with their sources; nothing in this repository reconciles them, and the manuals carry no version number for WinLink itself that would tell them apart.
  • Neither manual names WinSMX or WinStart as a prerequisite, although ND-610-1-EN requires one of them to start WinLink with. ND-860452EN1 starts every program from the ND Applications group in Program Manager instead, and mentions WinSMX only as an optional convenience (page 17).
  • ND 211325 is called "OWS Access Server" here, while README.md §2 tables that number as "CMS Access Server for ND-500/5000" after ND-895060-2-EN. Same number, two names in ND's own paperwork.
  • No memory size, no disk size, no MS-DOS version is stated in either manual. The DOS version floor in §1 above still comes only from the Starter Kit and Connect Module sheets.

Installation order, ND-891092EN1 page 3, under "Important!":

The programs must be installed in this order: 1. Windows 3 2. PC Starter Kit 3. ND Connect Module, if Ethernet communication 4. WinLink

That puts Windows before the PC Starter Kit and the Connect Module. §3 and §7 of this document install the Starter Kit at step 3, the Connect Module at step 5 and Windows at step 6 - the reverse relative order. ND-891092EN1 is the only source here that states an order explicitly; the order in §7 was assembled from the individual product sheets, none of which mentions Windows.

The procedure itself (ND-891092EN1 page 3, "From Windows"):

  1. Put the diskette into the diskette drive; "If you have more than one drive, use drive A."
  2. Get Program Manager on the screen.
  3. From the File menu, choose Run.
  4. Type A:\INSTALL and press return.
  5. "The installation is automatic."

Two side effects the folder names:

  • "If you select a font for the terminal emulator which is not on diskette no. 1, the installation program will tell you to change the diskette during the installation." That matches the five archive diskettes - disk 1 programs, disks 2-5 fonts (§5.2 above).
  • "The file NDCONFIG is updated. A copy of the old file will be renamed to NDCONFIG.WI2. It will be in the same directory as NDCONFIG." The installer's INFOPRIV.TXT quoted in §5.2 backs up NDCONFIG and WIN.INI; the folder names the backup file for NDCONFIG explicitly.

The folder mentions no CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT change for WinLink. It only says NDCONFIG and, indirectly through the error messages (§5.2.5), that CONNECT belongs in AUTOEXEC.BAT and that a nationality setting lives in CONFIG.SYS.

Multi-user (network) installation, ND-891092EN1 page 4: install WinLink on the server first, by the same procedure. "The last message from the installation program gives you the path for the program SETUP.EXE. You will use this path later, so write it down." Every client that is to use WinLink then runs SETUP.EXE from that path on the server.

ND-860452EN1 works entirely from the ND Applications group in Program Manager. The icons it names are NOTIS Terminal (page 4), EasyLink (page 10), Select Host (page 20), Settings (page 21) and Serial (page 23).

Terminal type. ND-860452EN1 page 5, in a box of its own:

Important! When asked for terminal type, answer 93!

Choosing the host (Ethernet only). "If your PC is connected to an OpenLAN network (Ethernet), you can choose which host computer you want to connect to (if there is more than one host on the network, and if you are registered as a user on the host computer)" - page 20. Double-clicking a host in Select Host starts NOTIS Terminal on it; clicking Select only records the choice for the next start. Two notes on the same page: if NOTIS Terminal is running, even as an icon, log out and log in again after selecting a new host; and connecting to a new host disconnects you from the current one. The dialog box carries "Copyright © 1988/89 Norsk Data a.s".

Serial parameters. The Serial icon opens "ND Serial Communication" (page 23) with: port COM1/COM2, speed 2400/4800/9600, data length 7 or 8, parity even or none, stop bits 1 or 2, handshake XON/XOFF or hardware, a separate Host Link port selection COM1/COM2, and a Document Transfer delay on/off. The manual does not explain the fields - "See the Microsoft Windows User's Guide for an explanation of the various fields." The one hard limit it does give, page 23:

If you have serial communication and have a 286- or 386SX-computer, you should not use a higher transfer speed than 4800 baud. At higher speed you might lose both characters in NOTIS Terminal (the terminal emulator) and during file transfer.

Colours, fonts, cursor. The Settings icon (page 21) sets the colour of normal, inverse and dimmed text and the background, the screen font, the cursor type (block or line) and how many lines the screen scrolls per step. Recommended fonts, page 22:

Screen Font
EGA EMUL-8X12 FONT
VGA EMUL-8X14 FONT
Cornerstone 19" Publisher EMUL-16X32 FONT
Wyse 700 EMUL-8X19 FONT

The font list drawn in the dialog on page 21 reads EMUL-16X32, 8X12, 8X10, 8X8, 8X19, which does not include the 8X14 the table recommends for VGA; the two pages of the manual disagree and there is no third source here. The error-message section (page 27) says only that "Normally, there should be five different fonts listed here", and that fewer than five means WinLink was not installed correctly.

Clipboard. Page 7: choose Edit/Copy in the terminal window, drag over the area, and confirm in the "Copy to clipboard?" dialog, then paste into any Windows program. The limit:

You can only copy ANSI characters to the clipboard. Graphics, special characters, tab settings, etc, will either not be copied, or will be translated to ANSI characters and distorted.

Disconnecting. Page 8: "The safest way to disconnect from the host is to press EXIT or give the SINTRAN command LOG." ALT+F4 ends the terminal session after a confirmation, but "you will still be logged in on the host". The same page notes you must stay logged in for WinPrint and EasyLink to work, so if you only want those, close the terminal window rather than logging out.

5.2.3 File transfer - EasyLink

The file-transfer program in the WinLink package is EasyLink (EASYLINK.EXE on disk 1). ND-860452EN1 pages 9-19 describe it; no protocol is named anywhere.

  • Start it only after logging in through the terminal, then close the terminal window (page 9). For users of the older DOS EasyLink: "Do not press the SYS key to return to the PC."
  • The dialog lists three file systems on each side: MS-DOS, NOTIS-DS, SINTRAN (page 10). Transfers always run left to right; to go the other way choose Reverse Direction from the Session menu (pages 14 and 19).
  • Names are truncated to the PC's 8+3: "The SINTRAN file name NEWSLETTER:TEXT becomes NEWSLETT.TXT in MS-DOS" (page 13). Text files convert correctly; other extensions may not.

  • Extension mapping is configurable in WIN.INI (page 18). Under the heading [ND EASYLINK] the installed entries are

    TEXT=TXT
TXT=TEXT

    and you add pairs in the same syntax, the manual's example being SYMB=SMB / SMB=SYMB. The constraint: "The SINTRAN and NOTIS-DS file-type extensions must have four characters. The PC file-type extensions cannot have more than three characters." - Deleting is off by default: Delete ON from the Options menu enables it, Warnings ON/OFF controls the confirmation (page 15). - Advanced use (page 19): wildcards by leading letters or extension in the File: box (89:XLS); another SINTRAN user with (NEW-USER)d; a remote SINTRAN system with the same syntax as within SINTRAN, though "The files cannot be listed in the dialog box"; the destination list is deliberately not refreshed after a transfer; and "If the PC is rebooted, EasyLink will assume that you are logged off." - The character set used for national characters in file names "will depend on the UE language on the host computer" (page 13). - To hang a fixed transfer off the WinSMX menu (page 17): Change System Menu, name the item, pick EASYLINK.EXE under ND-OWS / ND-UTIL, and put NOTIS-DS MS-DOS under Startup Parameters.

On backup: README.md §3 lists "back up PC files to the server" among WinLink's functions, after ND-610-1-EN. ND-860452EN1 page 9 describes that as an ordinary EasyLink copy - "You can copy PC files to the host to make them available for other users, or as a backup" - and names no separate backup program.

5.2.4 How WinLink reaches the host - what these manuals do and do not say

Neither manual names a network protocol. There is no mention of TCP/IP, Telnet, FTP, sockets or any packet format in ND-891092EN1 or ND-860452EN1. The statement in README.md §2 that the Ethernet terminal session is Telnet against a SINTRAN Telnet server therefore stands on its existing sources (ND-211297-1-EN and ND-895061-2-EN) - these two manuals neither confirm nor contradict it.

What they do state about the path to the host:

  • The Ethernet case is "connected to an OpenLAN network (Ethernet)" (ND-860452EN1 page 20); the serial case is "connected to the host via a serial cable" (page 23).
  • Ethernet runs through the Connect Module's CONNECT, loaded at boot: the error "No contact with communication medium" is answered with "CONNECT may not be loaded in AUTOEXEC.BAT. It could also be a hardware error." (page 27). That is the same %nd-ows%\comms\connect line quoted in §3.
  • The PC-side terminal path goes through a VKM library installed by the Starter Kit: the error "No communication with the DOS VKM library" is answered with "Install PC Starter Kit again." (page 26).
  • The terminal emulation is ND terminal type 93 (page 5).
  • File transfer is EasyLink, with the mechanism unstated.
  • The two transports differ in one visible way, page 26 under "No access to host computer": "Check that you are not in a program on the host. This only applies if you are connected via a serial line."

5.2.5 Error messages, limits and gotchas

From ND-891092EN1 page 2:

Message What the manual says to do
"Not enough disk space to install product" The installation is interrupted. Delete files to make room, then try again.

From ND-860452EN1 pages 24-27:

Message What the manual says to do
"There is not enough memory for communication" Too many programs running at once; close some.
"Not enough memory to run the program" / "Low on memory" Same cause and same answer.
"This program has not been installed correctly" "You must use the original diskette when you install the program."
"Cannot find the font file: Path/filename" The nationality in CONFIG.SYS no longer matches the nationality of the font files. Either put CONFIG.SYS back, or install WinLink again in the matching language version.
"The connection has been terminated" Log in again; if that fails, reboot with CTRL+ALT+DEL and log in again.
"No access to host computer" Check you are logged in; check you are not inside a program on the host (serial lines only); ask the supervisor to check the communication servers.
"No more ports available" Wait a few seconds and retry, or reboot and log in again.
"No connection to the host" / "No contact with host computer" Contact the system supervisor.
"No communication with the DOS VKM library" Install PC Starter Kit again.
"No contact with communication medium" CONNECT may not be loaded in AUTOEXEC.BAT; could also be a hardware fault.
"Configuration file missing" PC Starter Kit is not installed correctly; install again.
"No font entry in NDCONFIG for this screen resolution" Check the Settings font list: fewer than five fonts means WinLink is not correctly installed; five fonts means the screen has no matching font type.
"Invalid font entry in NDCONFIG for this screen resolution." Error in NDCONFIG; install WinLink again.
"Unknown host" Choose another host computer with Select Host.

Three behaviours that are not error messages but are worth knowing (pages 23-25):

  • The PC slows down when WinLink runs alongside several other programs; close some.
  • The cursor disappears while the terminal screen is being repainted, and does not come back until the repaint finishes - which can take a while on a graphics-heavy screen.

  • Graphics come out the wrong size in host graphics programs (the manual's example is "Nortext with graphics option"). The fix edits NDCONFIG: ATTRIB -R NDCONFIG to make it writable, open it in NOTEPAD, find the section SYSTEM-NAME : OWS. and the line OWS-SIZE-MONITOR= ., note what is there, and set

    OWS-SIZE-MONITOR=NON-STANDARD;273;163

    where 273 is the width and 163 the height, then save and restart the PC. The manual recommends doing this only for Cornerstone 19" Publisher screens, where the useful range is roughly 270-280 by 160-170; for EGA and VGA screens it gives 250-260 by 140-150 as the normal values.

5.3 WinPrint

Diskette 30211NO1A00: INSTALL.EXE and BIN with SPRINT.SYS, LPT2SPR.SYS, SPRINT.EXE, NDSELSPR.EXE. INFOPRIV.TXT shows what the installation does:

w SMX UTIL ND &WinPrint;<WINPRINT>\NDSELSPR.EXE
d <COPYFILE><NETINST><ND-OWS>\DRIVERS\SPRINT.SYS
d <COPYFILE><NETINST><ND-OWS>\SPRINT.EXE
d <UPDAUTOEXECBAT>
  • adds WinPrint to the SMX utility menu
  • copies SPRINT.SYS into ND-OWS\DRIVERS and SPRINT.EXE into ND-OWS
  • updates AUTOEXEC.BAT

Run NDSELSPR.EXE to choose which printer in the host's SPRINT system this PC prints to. The host must therefore have SPRINT (ND-211056, version >= A02) and, for PC access, the SPRINT Server half of the OWS Access Server - see README.md §5.

6. The MS-DOS alternative: Desk Top Manager

If the machine is not to run Windows, ND's DOS-side environment is Desk Top Manager (ND-230025) - terminal emulation, file transfer and a menu, described in ND-250-3-EN as the program the OWS-85 was sold with. The archive holds 10 DTM diskettes (30025NO1C02, 30025NO2C02, 30025SW1C00, 30025SW2C00, ...), and one of them carries the configuration template that names the version:

* 230025-C00-EN; NDCONFIG C0C : template file for DTM C
* DTM Section
SYSTEM-NAME : DTM

The same disk installs the "STREAM" program for the ND Butterfly tape streamer.

7. Order in one page

1  boot MS-DOS from floppy                     DOS5 / Ericsson system disk
2  FDISK, FORMAT C: /S, copy DOS to C:\DOS
3  ND PC Starter Kit          -> C:\ND-OWS     PCSTART-NO2      reboot afterwards
4  ND keyboard drivers        -> ND-OWS\DRIVERS 380952XXA0
5  ND Connect Module (Ethernet only) A:INSTALL CONNECTB00       -> \ND-OWS\COMMS
6  MS-Windows 2.10 + ND drivers                INSTALL1..4, ND-DRIVERE
7  WinSMX (starter)                            30212NO1A00
8  WinLink (+ font disks)                      30210NO1A00..NO5A00
9  NDETHSEL (Ethernet) or NDSERSET (serial)
10 WinPrint, then NDSELSPR to pick the SPRINT printer   30211NO1A00

Host side, in parallel: SINTRAN III with TCP/IP + Telnet server (or the OWS Terminal Line Server for serial), plus SPRINT for printing and the OWS Access Server for DS/UE/SIBAS.

One source disagrees with this order. ND-891092EN1 "How to install WinLink", page 3, states: "The programs must be installed in this order: 1. Windows 3 2. PC Starter Kit 3. ND Connect Module, if Ethernet communication 4. WinLink" - Windows first, then the ND PC software. The list above puts the Starter Kit and Connect Module before Windows, because it was assembled from the individual product sheets, none of which mentions Windows at all. See §5.2.1.

8. What is not documented here

  • The exact SETUP.EXE dialogue on the ND-OWS system diskette. No sheet in this repository walks through its screens, and the program has not been run.
  • Which DOS version ND shipped with which OWS model. The archive holds MS-DOS 5.00, Ericsson system disks from 1984, and IBM-DOS disks, but no sheet ties a version to a model.
  • Hard disk sizes and partitioning advice. Nothing in these sheets specifies them - and neither WinLink manual gives a memory or disk size either (§5.2.1).
  • ~~WinLink's own ND product number~~ - answered. It is ND 230210, stated in both ND-891092EN1 page 2 and ND-860452EN1 page 4. What is still unexplained is how it relates to the media number 30210 on the diskettes.
  • Which Windows version WinLink actually needs. ND-891092EN1 page 2 says Microsoft Windows 3; ND-610-1-EN says Microsoft Windows/286 and /386 version 2. No document here says whether these are two releases of WinLink or one statement is wrong (§5.2.1).

See also