

                          QuickLink Documentation
                (C) Copyright Daniel Doman 1986, 1987, 1988
                           166 East 96th Street
                           New York, N.Y. 10128

     QuickLink is copyrighted by, and is the sole property of Daniel B.
 Doman. You are hereby granted a single user license to use QuickLink. You
 may not modify QuickLink, resell, or otherwise charge for its use without
 violating this license.


                             What QuickLink Is

     QuickLink is a network mapping utility. It sets and resets network
 device redirection. All network operating systems supply similar utilities, but
 they are usually not as fast, and flexible, and the utilities from one network
 operating system cannot work on another network operating system.
     QuickLink can work in just about any local area network. It has been
 tested under IBM, Novell, Vines, 3Com, Waterloo, and Network-OS. Most
 network mapping utilities can map one item at a time, but QuickLink can
 perform several operations from one command line. You can map both
 directories and shared printers from the same command line.
     QuickLink has been designed to be as small and fast as possible. There
 is scant online help. It is intended for the experienced network user. The
 command line syntax is necessarily terse. This documentaion does not
 attempt to teach local area network theory. It assumes that you already
 understand basic operations.


                           How To Use QuickLink

                             Compound Commands

     You can give multiple commands to QuickLink by separating each
 command with a semicolon. You can string as many commands together as
 DOS will permit on a command line.


                                  Linking

     The basic syntax of all network redirection is "map this local `thing' to
 that network 'thing'. The local `thing' is the name of a local device such as
 a drive letter or a printer device such as LPT1: or PRN. The network
 `thing' is the sharename created by such and such a network server. The
 verb to redirect something varies from one network manufacturer to
 another. Some say "MAP", some say "USE" and others say "LINK". They all
 mean the same thing. An example of IBM mapping syntax is shown below:

     Net Use E:   \\NETSRVR\PROGRAMS
     Net Use F:   \\NETSRVR\DATA
     Net Use PRN  \\NETSRVR\PRINTER1
     Net Use 

               The Equivalent QuickLink syntax is below

 QL E:  \\NETSRVR\PROGRAMS; F:  \\NETSRVR\DATA; PRN  \\NETSRVR\PRINTER1; -L


     Most network utilities will complain if you try to link a network
 sharename to a local device which is already linked to something. If the
 local name that you are linking the network sharename to is already linked
 to something, QuickLink will automatically delete it.
     QuickLink can link both directory and printer sharenames on the same
 command line. Some networks such as 3Com and Novell require separate
 utilities to map printers and directory sharenames.
     Each network utility has slightly different syntax, but QuickLink uses
 the same syntax on all networks.



                                 Passwords

     If a sharename has a password, you must supply the password on your
 command line. QuickLink will simply return an error if the password is
 missing or incorrect. It is also an error to give a password where none was
 required. Below is an example of linking to a network sharename with a
 password.


 QL F:  \\NETSERVER\SECRET Yomomma



                           Listing Current Links

     To list current redirection (mapping), you give QuickLink a "-L" on the
 command line. If you feel more comfortable spelling out -LIST you can, but
 QuickLink only cares about the first letter. The command above might thus
 look like:


 QL E: \\NETSRVR\PROGRAMS; F: \\NETSRVR\DATA; PRN \\NETSRVR\PRINTER1; -L




                              Deleting Links

     Deleting a network Link is easy. Just give the local device name and
 then a "/d" for delete. For example:

 QL D: /D; PRN /d; E: /d; LPT1 /d

     QuickLink will not complain if you delete redirection from a local device
 that was not in fact redirected. The net result will be the same - the local
 device is no longer redirected. An older version of QuickLink used an
 exclamation point instead of the "/d" switch, and this version of QuickLink
 accepts that syntax as well. For example:

 QL D: !; PRN !; E: !; LPT1 !


                            Deleting All Links


     You can delete all active network links by giving an asterisk for the
 local device name. Below is an example..

 QL * /d

                        Mapping To A Novell Network

     Most people do not realize that Novell networks maintain IBM compatible
 sharenames. Sometimes the sharenames are not obvious. You can get a better
 feel for the sharenames that Novell uses if you LIST your current links
 after logging in. The shared printers on a Novell server are typically called
 PTR0, PTR1, and so forth.
     Once you understand the IBM style sharenames that the Novell server
 has generated, you can use QuickLink instead of the more cumbersome Novell
 utilities.
     The syntax to see your current network links is below:

     QL -L



                        Mapping To A Vines Network


     Banyan Vines networks maintain IBM style sharenames and redirection
 tables. The naming conventions are the same as Vines "StreetTalk" names.
 The trick in discerning the IBM style name is the same as for a Novell
 network. Link to some drives and printers, and then LIST your links to see
 what the IBM style sharenames are.



                         Mapping To A 3Com Network

     3Com networks use a naming scheme that is almost identical to the IBM
 style. One 3Com oddity that QuickLink demonstrates is that there is no real
 security in a 3Com network. You can continue to link to network sharenames
 even AFTER logging OFF of the 3Com network! What is really frightening is
 that you can link to objects that you should not be able to access. Enough
 said about this!



                          Making QuickLink Quiet

     If you want to put QuickLink into "quiet" mode, just redirect its output
 to NUL. For example:

 QL d: \\NETSERVER\FILES; PRN \\NETSERVER\NETPRN >NUL

