CCIIPX Machine Name

This is a parameter that only needs to be specified by CCI client applications.

There are two aspects to the use of Machine Name

• Clients for later versions of the old 16-bit broadcast based CCIIPX and the new CCIIPX for 32-bit Windows installations support the use of a 'Machine Name' parameter when calling CCI Client initialization functions.

  The broadcast based CCIIPX modules support the string format:

  • '<network>.<node>.<port>' - where the service port address is known.
  • '<network>.<node>' - where the service port address is unknown.

  For example, "33c251.1" for a NetWare Server based CCIIX32.NLM hosted service, where the NetWare Servers internal network number is "33c251" and the logical "node" address for the server is "1".

  The new 32-bit Windows hosted CCIIPX modules support the use of 'machinename' in exactly the same manner as the older broadcast based CCIIPX modules, however the SAP based module also support the use of ',' as the name element separators

  For example, "33c251,1" for the NetWare Server in the example above.

• The 32-bit Windows hosted CCIIPX modules use the Novell NetWare Service Advertising Protocol (SAP) to detect the presence of CCIIPX services, without the direct need for 'machinename' information.

  The Service location detection is done by querying the contents of the NetWare Server which the client is attached to at the time. However if a large number of connections/disconnections are to be made with the same service, this SAP look-up can take up an appreciable amount of the overall time spent in using a connection.

  If the application using CCI supports this style of access, one such application is AAI, it is possible to avoid the requirement to search the SAP information on the connected NetWare Server and make the connection directly and thus speed up the connection time.

  This is done as follows:

  Set 'Machine Name' to "FFFFFFFF,FFFFFFFFFFFF,FFFF"

  The contents of the data area which holds this set of values will be over-written with the correct location of the server on the first successful connection attempt. If the same information is then passed back to the CCI Client connection call on the next connection/disconnection loop by the application, the CCI Client connection call will attempt to connect directly to this location, and avoid using the NetWare Servers SAP table completely.

  If three attempts to connect using this method are ignored (this takes 12 seconds during CCI Client connection execution time), the client will then use the NetWare Server's SAP tables and attempt to locate the service in the usual fashion. This technique provides a backup connection path, should the location information in the 'Machine Name' area become stale.

  Please note: the use of "FFFFFFFF" parameters in any other format or combination with other groups of numbers is invalid, and will result in a parameter rejection message being returned by CCI.