NDSTime

Version PK-2.02
(Nov 22, 1998)


 DISCLAIMER:
     THIS  PRODUCT  IS  SUPPLIED  "AS  IS".  DREAMLAN 
     DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES,  EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED,
     INCLUDING, WITHOUT  LIMITATION,  THE  WARRANTIES
     OF  MERCHANTABILITY   AND  OF  FITNESS  FOR  ANY
     PURPOSE.   DREAMLAN  ASSUMES  NO  LIABILITY  FOR
     DAMAGES,  DIRECT  OR  CONSEQUENTIAL,  WHICH  MAY
     RESULT FROM THE USE OF THIS PRODUCT.

Introduction

NDSTime is a DOS command-line utility that allows an Admin to change the Login Time Restriction attribute value of any NDS user object. This utility has been developed to address two issues:

  1. We have seen in certain situations the Login Time Restriction setting did NOT change with the time of Daylight Savings. This caused the restriction to be "off" by an hour.

  2. A Login Time Restriction setting was not assigned to the User Template object so users created are not restricted. At a later time when this security measure needs to be enforced, there is no easy way to globally change that attribute for all user objects. None of the Novell-supplied utility allows you to make global NDS attribute changes (that can walk-down a tree-branch anyways).

With NDSTime, you can easily lookup and edit a single user's Login Time Restriction, or globally assign the same Login Time Restriction to all users throughout your NDS tree. The use of wild card ("*") and recursing into sub-containers is supported.

This utility is designed to be command-line based, therefore, there is not much user-interface or fancy menu prompts is built into the utility.


What's New


Notes

  1. The only valid keystroke entries during the editing of Login Time Restriction are: <space bar>, <Enter>, and "*"; any other keystrokes are treated as if the <space bar> is pressed.

  2. There is no "mark-and-block" function (like the F5 key in NETADMIN).

  3. From the Edit screen, which looks like the NETADMIN screen for Login Time Restriction, the ESC key will bring up a menu to allow you to save your changes; to discard the changes or exit without saving any changes, use ALT-F10. These two keys are documented on the bottom of the Edit menu screen.

  4. We have not an opportunity, at this time, to test NDSTime on very large trees. We have tested it on trees that has, on average, about 100 user objects per container and with about 3 levels of OUs. Should you run into a memory error, you can work around it by doing it one OU at a time, or use the wild card to change "blocks" of users. e.g. A*, B*, etc. At the same time, we would like to hear from you if you do run into memory problems and will try to duplicate and fix the problem.

  5. If you specify a specific user object name (i.e. without the use of wildcards), the user's Login Time Restriction information will be displayed in a semi-graphical manner. However, if you specify a wildcard, the information will be in an "octal bitmap" format, which is pretty useless.

  6. You MUST correctly set the TZ DOS variable on your workstation in order for the NDS to record time information correctly.

  7. If you are not using a wildcard for the object name, your current context must be set to where the said object name resides. Otherwise, even if you specify the -s option, the object will not be found.

  8. Note that when a user object is created, it does not have a Login Time Restriction bitmap. However, when you examine that attribute using either NETADMIN or NWAdmin, the bitmap is created. This is why sometimes NDSTime will sometimes report an user object of having "no login time restriction" - this happens when the bitmap is not found.


Installation

No special installation steps or program need to be used. Simply copy NDSTime to SYS:PUBLIC of your servers. You must have the Unicode files for the country code and code page that your workstation use available in the respective NLS directories, for example, SYS:PUBLIC\NLS.

Should you install NDSTime into a different directory, you may need a search path to the directory where the unicode files are located.


Usage

You can run NDSTime either with command-line parameters, or allow it to prompt you for input. The allowable command-line parameters are:

NDSTime [-n user_object_name] [-s] [-e] [-c]

where

All of the above parameters are not case sensitive.


Configuration

n/a


Registration

Two variations of NDSTime are available. The version included here is a Freeware version. The subtree (-s), the continuous scroll (-c), and the use of the wildcard ("*") in the object name (-n) options are disabled in the Freeware version.

You are granted an unlimited usage for the Freeware version at no cost. However, you are not allowed to sell or package this utility as part of another software package or service contract. Bottom line: you can not make money using this Freeware version. All standard Freeware limitation applies.

The full version of NDSTime is available by registering on-line through the following Web sites:

The NDS tree name is required as it is used to generate a key. The registration cost is $50 US. Canadian registration is $67.50 CDN plus GST. All other countries, please remit in US funds.

You can also FAX a company Purchase Order to +1 (905) 887-3836. Please make sure you either include your tree name information on the FAX or send a follow up email.

Special site agreements for multiple trees and service providers are available. Although the license does not grant you the right to resell the program (for a profit; but you can charge the customer a service charge for your time). If you are a service provider, you can register copies on behave of your customers (by providing your customer's mailing information -- this is used only for tracking purposes). At the same time, we ask you to send us a separate email indicating that you are registering on behave of your customer and inciate in this email if further software upgrade (free or for a charge) be send to you or the customer directly, and an email address for that purpose.


Other Information

NDSTime is written in C using Microsoft C optimizing compiler and Novell Developer Kit. Some string manipulating routines are from the CXL library and some color routines are from TCIO library.

Inclusion of this utility on CD-ROMs (except for backup purposes) without permission from DreamLAN Network Consulting Ltd. is expressly prohibited.


Revision History