USING STARSQL WITH PC SUPPORT AND COMPATIBLE ROUTERS StarWare StarSQL 1.04 September 19, 1995 Copyright 1995, StarWare Connectivity Software, Inc StarSQL can be used with any PC Support/400 compatible router that supplies the EHNAPPC.DLL interface, including: * IBM PC Support DOS Extended (Client Access/400 DOS Extended in OS/400 v3rX) * Novell NetWare AS/400 Router for PC Support * IBM Client Access/400 for Windows * NetSoft NS/Router * IDEA APPC Router There are two versions of the StarWare support for PC Support: * PC Support can be used with all implementations, but is recommended for use with DOS-based (TSR) implementations such as IBM PC Support DOS Extended and Novell NetWare AS/400 Router for PC Support. * PC Support Turbo is recommended for use with Windows-based implementations, as it is designed to enhance performance on Windows-based implementations such as IBM Client Access/400 for Windows, NetSoftNS/Router, and IDEA APPC Router. The StarSQL communications DLL for DOS-based PC Support inserts the following lines in the ODBC Data Source : QryBufSiz=512 CmdBufSiz=512 These limited buffer sizes are used by StarSQL when using the DOS-based PC Support Router due to DOS RAM limitations;since Windows-based routers do not require as much DOS-based RAM, these limitations are usually unnecessary and StarSQL will use the default sizes(32.767) for these parameters for optimal performance. Some Windows-based routers do require a small amount of DOS RAM; If you experience difficulties when using PC Support Turbo, try using the PC Support selection instead and experiment with increasing the buffer sizes in the ODBC Data Source to enhance performance. Configuring StarSQL to use the PC Support Router or PC Support Router Turbo: A dialog is displayed during Data Source Setup. At the bottom of the dialog there is a list box that allows you to select the Network. You are provided with several choices; select PC Support Router (for DOS- based routers) or PC Support Router Turbo (for Windows-based routers) and click Setup. Another dialog appears that allows you to enter the Host System Name. The default is the first TRLI entry in your config.pcs file (for IBM PC Support DOS Extended) or the connection that has the "Default" checkbox marked (for other routers). If your router is configured for multiple connections and you want to connect to other than the default entry, enter the system name in the Host System Name box. NetSoft NS/Router: When you use the NetSoft Router over a direct 802.2 connection (using IBM LAN Support), you may encounter Function Sequence Errors in your ODBC applications. This behavior is due to the NetSoft Router "yielding" time to Windows. To avoid this, edit the NS/Router configuration file (suffix .RTR) with a DOS or Windows text editor, and change PEEKMESSAGE=1 to PEEKMESSAGE=0. IBM PC Support (Client Access) DOS Extended & Novell NetWare AS/400 Router for PC Support: For instructions on installing IBM PC Support DOS Extended, see PC Support/400: DOS Installation and Administration Guide, SC41-0006. This manual also contains information on PC Support memory requirements. Similar documentation is available in v3rX for Client Access DOS Extended. Chapters that will be of particular interest: Chapter 4 - "Installing and Using PC Support/400 with Microsoft Windows" Chapter 14 - "Managing PC Support/400 with Microsoft Windows" Chapter 30 - "PC Support/400 Error Logging Function" Appendix A - "Using Expanded or Extended Memory with PC Support/400" Appendix B - "PC Support Memory Requirements" The following information is covered in the above chapters but is worth noting here as well: To use PCSupport/400 with Microsoft Windows you need: * 1 MB of space available on your hard disk * to use the extended DOS option of PC Support * to start PC Support/400 before running Windows ThePCSWIN program must be installed and active on your personal computer before you can run PC Support/400 with Microsoft Windows. This is automatically added to your startpcs.bat when you use the PCSupport/400 installation or configuration program (CFGPCS) to set up PCSupport/400 to run with Microsoft Windows. PCSWIN has a parameter thatspecifies the number of kilobytes to allocate in conventional memory for communications buffers. The default is 16 KB. A table is provided in Chapter 13 stating the amount of memory in KB for each PC Support-type function. In addition to this list of supplied PC Support functions, StarSQL requires 1 KB of memory for each StarSQL connection that you use. In addition, you will need a number of DLL's such as EHNAPPC.DLL, EHNTAPPC.DLL and related files in your PCS folder; these are copied when you configure PC Support/400 to run with Microsoft Windows. If you encounter problems while using PC Support, you can display the PC Support/400 error log by typing PCSLOG at the DOS prompt. For additional help on error messages, position the cursor to the message number, and press Enter. The QIWSTOOL folder of IBM-supplied unsupported tools contains a couple of tools that may be useful for troubleshooting: RTRTRACE & RTRTRAC2 (for tracing API calls to the Router), and PCSSTAT (for examining PCSWIN RAMutilization). If you receive an"allocation error-retry" message when using StarSQL with more than one application and with a non-IBM router, increase the buffers specified on RTRMAP in STARTPCS.BAT. The buffers can be specified in increments of from 1 to 64K; the default is 4K. We found that using RTRMAP /S=8 works well for two applications.