PBM Terminals

Español Castellano Portuguese

The PBM (Pharmacy Benefit Management) terminals are computers directly connected to the network of DPRX. They are equipped with network card connected to the network of DPRX System and can be accesses via a modem or via a PC running PC Anywhere working as a gateway.

Installation of PC-DOS 7.0 is straight forward and will not be covered here. Ask from your system administrator for help on how to install DOS on your PBM machine. What we will cover here is how to install "Clients for Microsoft Network" on this machine. The terminal needs to login to the Windows NT Server Domain Controller and it needs some network applications and software to be able to do this. One of the headaches of setting up networks is when you still have clients that use legacy operating system like DOS or Windows 3.x. The Network Client Administrator is an integral part of the Windows NT Server 4.0 and will be use to connect DOS clients to our server easier. The network card that should be use for the terminal should be the ones listed in the CD so that we’ll have an easy installation. Although other network card can be use, just be sure that there is a driver included for "Clients for Microsoft Networks" or driver for LAN Manager. On DPRX System, we used 16 bit LAN cards manufactured by Intel. Drivers for these network card type are included in the Windows NT 4.0 Server installation CD. To make a network installation disk, follow these procedures:

Execute this on any Windows NT Server machine

The network Client Administrator opens up. See Figure 22

Figure 22 (Network Client Administrator)

In Figure 23, I have opted to used the existing share name, "Clients" that I already configured on the server. You can also use "Copy Files to a New Directory, and then Share" option. You must fill in the "Destination Path" and "Share name" field. If you

choose this option, files will be copied from the CD-ROM to the destination path.

Figure 23 (Network Startup Disk Configuration Dialog Box)

• Files=30
• Device=a:\net\ifshlp.sys
• Lastdrive=z
• DEVICE=A:\NET\HIMEM.SYS
• DEVICE=A:\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
• DOS=HIGH,UMB
• Path=a:\net
• a:\net\net initialize
• a:\net\nwlink
• a:\net\net start
• net use z:\Server\Clients
• z:\wfw\netsetup\setup.exe

After a short period of time, the operating system will be loaded and you will be connected to the server and installation of Network Clients software will start. If you get some errors connecting to the server, try to analyze the error. It could be that you are unable to connect to the server because initialization of the network card failed. The errors could be attributed mostly to wrongly configured network card, network protocol, interrupt settings, iobase, memory related problems and the likes. You may have to do some trial and errors for the configuration to work properly.

If you choose "Make Installation Disk Set" (Figure 22), you may need up to four (4) floppy disk. This procedure will take longer time to create but can be use on any other workstation in contrast to the previous procedure which is for a particular workstation. The procedure on how to do this will not be covered here. Please see you Windows NT Server documentation for details or ask your system administrator for assistance.

The following listings is a sample AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS used for Novell Netware Server login by a PBM terminal

AUTOEXEC.BAT

• @echo off
• SET TEMP=C:\DOS
• SET IBMAV=C:\DOS
• CALL C:\DOS\IBMAVDR.BAT C:\DOS\
• PROMPT $p$g
• PATH C:\DOS;
• CD \NETWORK
• LSL
• U20odi.com
• IPXODI
• VLM
• CD \
• cd \aw5
• aw_host -m=a
• cd \
• f:

The entries highlighted in red are the ones used to connect to the Netware Server. The "aw_host –m=a" entry is the same as the DOC clients connecting to a Windows NT Server. It activates the PC Anywhere Host in the background and restart the terminal after the user logs off.

• lastdrive=z
• BUFFERS=10,0
• FILES=60
• dos=high
• FCBS=16,0
• device=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
• device=c:\dos\emm386.exe noems ram x=a000-b0ff i=b100-b7ff x=b800-c7ff i=c800-efff x=f000-f7ff h=64 a=7 d=64
• device=c:\dos\ramboost.exe load
• SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS /e:4096 /p

\NETWORK directory on the DOS Client

• LSL.COM
• E100BODI.COM
• IPXODI.COM
• NETX.EXE
• NET.BKP
• STARTPRO.BAT
• NWODIDOS.TXT
• VLM.EXE
• AUTO.VLM
• BIND.VLM
• CONN.VLM
• FIO.VLM
• GENERAL.VLM
• IPXNCP.VLM
• NDS.VLM
• NETX.VLM
• NWP.VLM
• PRINT.VLM
• REDIR.VLM
• RSA.VLM
• SECURITY.VLM
• TRAN.VLM
• U20ODI.COM
• E100BODI.INS
• E100ODI.COM
• EXP16ODI.COM
• NET.CFG
• NGRPCI.COM

The *.COM files are executable files supplied by network card vendors that support the netware network protocol.

Listing 2. AUTOEXEC.BAT

• @echo off
• SET TEMP=C:\DOS
• SET IBMAV=C:\DOS
• PROMPT $p$g
• PATH C:\DOS;c:\net;
• net init
• NET LOGON pbmhost /YES
• NET LOGOFF /yes
• CD \
• cd \aw5
• aw_host -m=a
• cd \
• c:
• Echo Type "Login" and press Enter

The text font in red color is essential to our connectivity to the server and other initialization of the PBM terminal.

• Net init – Starts the network initialization files but does not connect to the network yet. It just load some files and the network protocol.
• NET LOGON pbmhost /YES – Connect a dummy user called pbmhost. Answer YES to other questions asked by the software.
• NET LOGOFF /YES – Log off the dummy user pbmhost and answer YES to questions asked by the software. These two NET commands will start logon/logoff a user and at the same time starts the workstation service. It does not however stop the workstation service when the pbmhost user logs off. This feature will be use by PC Anywhere when starting since it is acting as a host and it needs the workstation service before it can initialize itself as a host.
• Cd\aw5 – Change the current directory to PC Anywhere
• aw_host –m=a – Starts the PC Anywhere a host PC. The flag "–m=a" will reboot the PBM terminal when the user logs off from the PC Anywhere application.
• C: - Change the current directory to the root directory.
• Echo Type "Login" and press Enter – Just print this text to the screen so the user will know what to do next.

Listing 3. CONFIG. SYS

• lastdrive=z
• BUFFERS=10,0
• FILES=60
• dos=high
• FCBS=16,0
• device=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
• device=c:\dos\emm386.exe noems ram x=a000-b0ff i=b100-b7ff x=b800-c7ff i=c800-efff x=f000-f7ff h=64 a=7 d=64
• device=c:\dos\ramboost.exe load
• SHELL=c:\DOS\COMMAND.COM A:\DOS /e:4096 /p
• SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS /e:2048 /p
• device=C:\NET\ifshlp.sys

The following entries are important to the PBM terminal:

• Lastdrive=z
• Buffers=10,0
• Files=60
• Device=C:\dos\himem.sys
• Device=C:\Net\ifshlp.sys

Of course, the other files are also needed during boot up but having these entries on the CONFIG.SYS ease up your connectivity to the server.

When using DOS clients to access a Novell Netware Server or a Windows NT Server, make sure that you have sufficient conventional memory on your client machine. Use some memory manager drivers to load other applications and drivers to the upper memory block (See sample CONFIG.SYS). This will give more conventional memory to the Teleclaim application and minimized the insufficient memory errors.

PC’s running win 32 operating system such as Windows 95, 98 or Windows NT workstation can be use to connect to the File Server running either Windows NT Server or Novell Netware Server.These machines can act as a PBM Terminal. They must be using the same username as the DOS Clients for the login script to properly execute. Running Win 95/98/NT to connect to a Windows NT Server must use the same process like the FEP, ADJUDICATOR or the DUR machines since they have the same operating system. Win 9x need some files and libraries discussed earlier to properly execute the login script on the server. Connecting them to a Novell Netware Server is much easier as only the login script is required on the Novell Server.