Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DOS-Based Lantastic Version 8.0 Help needed

This is topic DOS-Based Lantastic Version 8.0 Help needed in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 05-03-2004, 08:40 PM:

I am adding a DOS based computer on our Lantastic network. The only problem is another computer shares the same name as the one I am adding.

I have insulted the manual, but I could not find a reference where is dictates how to change the mane of the computer I am adding or the other one that collides with it.

Anybody know? Thanks in advance.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 05-03-2004, 10:28 PM:

"insulted the manual"

jeez - do you insult your computers too? [Big Grin]

I really don't know what you need to do. I never had two computers on the same network with the same name. I would say that one name would have to be changed. Most computers names can be changed in DOS....

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 05-03-2004, 10:57 PM:

Dennis, this machine I want to put on the network has to have its name to something else, because there already is one of that name on the network.

The computer used to be the old one that was on there. We need to dedicate that machine as a programmer, and that is basically what I want to call it on the network. [Smile]

And yes, I have insulted that thing to the max when I could not figure out how to change its name on the network. [Big Grin]

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 05-04-2004, 12:23 AM:

Lantastic? I remember that from somewhere around the umm, 80s? Do they still make it? Is this for some old radio traffic software?

I may be recalling this incorrectly, but it seems like Lantastic had all its drivers & setup info in files either in a lantastic directory or the root directory. I'd first poke around to see if there's just some editable text-based .ini, .bat, or something file for lantastic which sets the name. Otherwise, it may have been entered in a setup program on the installation disk which wrote all those in a binary file in some proprietary database structure. If that's the case, you'd need to search the contents of the files for the string of that computer's name (copy it to a floppy, take it to a W9x or later machine & use the Find program with the option Containing Text). Then try editing the file with a hex editor, making note of either a finite field size with unused positions filled with a particular character, or a particular terminating character.

I don't know if there are other things like network addresses, node assignments, whatever, which will also have to be differentiated between the machines.

Two computers named the same sounds like files copied from one computer, put on another, & the two connected on the network.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 05-04-2004, 03:49 AM:

William, yes. They are in the Lantastic directory and the Lantastic.net directory. I must have run the edit on a all the bat files, cfg files, you name it until I was blue in the face. That's when I started insulting the computer.

Lantastic is still in business, but their tech support is limited. And expensive. It is one of those "Have your credit card ready" type deals. [Mad]

Basically we are allowed 10 "Pops" on our Lantastic license. We are presently at eight. We have two more we can add. Although the Lantastic setup is the same, the program we are going to use with it is different. We are licensed to use that program with it.

It'll work, if I can change the name of the computer. I found the necessary program keys and serial numbers to re-install Lantastic on that machine, but it can be a very hairy operation as nobody can really remember some of the hoops that have to be jumped through to make it install correctly. Do to my limited knowledge, I would rather not attempt that unless I have a machine to experiment with or I have no other choice but to run the installation on that machine.

The software developer for the program we are running under Lantastic does remember a little about it, but he was out of the office today. In previous conversations with him, He is willing to help us get it up and running, but he is not really that sure how to do it since it is so old. He is researching it for me. Hopefully, I'll have an answer in the next day or so.

For an old DOS program that is running 24 hours a day without crashing is really noteworthy. I had two crashes in three years. One was because someone accidently deleted an entire directory. I was able to save that by running the DOS Undelete program altough it took several hours to restore it. The other crash was a hard drive failure. That just happened last week when we had some very nasty power bumps with that freak windstorm. The UPS back-up was not able to handle it. In fact, two other computers had some serious problems after those power bumps. Lunched files to be specific.

When the drive crashed, we lost all our ability to program our logs. Luckly, I had a back-up hard drive to get it up and running, but it took a better part of the day to do so.

We are taking steps to have a back-up machine just in case. That's what I am working on now - to get it in place. I can use it like it is, but I have to shut down the computer that has the same name in order to get the backup machine on the network.

That is unacceptable.

What we are doing is completely legal within the scope of the software license.

Posted by Lance C. McFetridge (Member # 95) on 05-04-2004, 07:13 AM:

Paul
Did you try to
cd\c:lantasti
c:lantasti edit sample.inf

look for your computer name
Been too long maybe, but you are right, the most stable lan software with no crashes.
Usually when you install the lan software there is a prompt for the computer name.
Hope this helps
lance
After I posted I noticed you need help on ver 8. I only went as far as version 6 so this may not help

[ 05-04-2004, 09:28 AM: Message edited by: Lance C. McFetridge ]

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 05-04-2004, 05:36 PM:

Problem solved. The software provider of the program we use with Lantastic was able to navagate me through the system and set it up. The reason it didn't work for me when I was trying to do it myuself was because I had to edit two files. One was startnet.bat and change the auto login to a new name ans the other was connect.bat where I had to make a modification in it.

Thanks very much, gentlemen. Yout thoughts are greatly appreciated.