Ports to Connect IFS drive to Windows...

[jrjuiliano]

I have a small router between two offices that I use to connect them over TCP/IP directly to an iSeries OS/400.

Everything works fine with Client Access and Operations Navigator, but a user can't map a network drive from Windows XP to the IFS drive we have available in QDLS. A local user on the server-side of the router has no problems connecting a network drive.

Can anyone tell me what ports need to be opened to map a network drive from Windows? The only bit I found so far has mostly to do with virus issues, but I want to make sure I only open up what is needed.

Thanks for any help...

J.R.

 

[os400]

JR,

Here an exerpt from the full article at

http://www.mcpressonline.com/mc/.218b7543

Complex Environment Considerations


AS/400 NetServer uses TCP/IP to participate in the Windows Network Neighborhood, since there is no native NetBIOS stack on the AS/400. This adds some complexity to the networking process used to make the AS/400 NetServer appear in the Windows Network Neighborhood. The Windows implementation of Network Neighborhood was originally designed to operate directly on top of the NetBIOS protocol, which forwards computer announcement messages across routers. Think of an announcement message containing text such as “I’m here in the network and I have services available.” However, if you are using TCP/IP for AS/400 NetServer, or other TCP/IP-based systems, these announcement messages are usually not forwarded across routers, in order to reduce network traffic. Unfortunately, depending on the complexity of your network topology, this may result in your AS/400 NetServer not showing up in the Network Neighborhood. There are several possible solutions, some listed here, that avoid the loss of this information.


• Contain your domain in a single subnet, so announcements do not have to be forwarded to another subnet.


• Use the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) for your network computer name-TCP/IP address resolution strategy. WINS was created specifically for network topologies like this one.

• Configure TCP/IP routers so that broadcast datagrams are forwarded across subnets in the same way they are forwarded for NetBIOS.

In any case, the AS/400 NetServer and client PCs should be configured for the same domain (workgroup).

You may rest assured that the Start/Find/Computer button sequence on your Windows desktop (shown in Figure 6) will work in all situations, regardless of whether you implement one of the solutions listed.

The AS/400 NetServer uses the services of the AS/400 Network Print Server (NPS) to handle all print requests. Because of this fact, NPS must be active to process AS/400 NetServer print requests. Use the Start Host Server (STRHOSTSVR *NETPRT) command to start NPS.


HTH


Mike Butler
Iseries + Sun + PC = Tired Guy
"Never put off 'til tomorrow what you should have done yesterday

 

[jrjuiliano]

Mike,

Thanks for the link and the description. Very informative...

My solution ended up being pretty simple. I just had to open up ports 137 through 139 and 8743 (tcp and udp for some reason), and it worked. I only need it for a couple of clients. Once I pour through the logs I can find out exactly what I need to close it up a little tighther.

This router is sort of an internal network to internal network setup. Keeps the other side out of our subnet, while giving them direct access (do not pass Go, do not collect $200) to the iSeries.

J.R.