NICFIND Version 2.1 (updated to correct envrionment variable problems)

My name is Shane Kent ( SHAKEY1980@HOTMAIL.COM ), I am a Canadian and live in 
what is referred to as Silicon Valley North (Ottawa, Ontraio, Canada). I currently 
work on contract to Compaq Canada. I started out working for Digital Equipment 
providing support for Micosoft's Canadian customers, Microsoft contracted Digital 
to provide some of the support for their Canadian customers. Currently I provide 
technical knowledge to several support groups at Compaq (both consumer and commercial).

Aside from providing technical information to telephone support personal, I 
occassionally program (mostly C/C++ and Assembly language). NICFIND is the fourth 
of many freeware tools I plan to release. The NICFIND tools is well tested and has 
been in use for a couple of months. I will release more tools as freeware after 
sufficient testing and debugging has been done. 

The NICFIND tool is used to scan PCI devices in search of PCI network adapters, and 
then set the results of it's findings to environment varabiables. The environment variables 
are for use in DOS batch files to control the configuration of the Windows NT DOS Client 
software. The NICFIND tool will identify PCI Version 2.0 (and higher) network adapters.

The NICFIND tool supports the use of one network adapter with the DOS Client software, 
and will prompt to select a network adapter when multiple are found. The NICFIND tool has 
a text (TXT file) based database to provide friendly names for the manufacturer and model 
of network adapter(s) found.

Until a future release avoid the use of the /I switch to set the NIC's IRQ.

The NICFIND tool supports a /I command line switch to force the IRQ on network adapters 
that are not assigned IRQs during the hardware's POST and initialization routines. This 
feature will fail on most systems as of NICFIND version 2.0, and if possible will be fully 
functional in NICFIND version 2.5 and higher. This feature is a "wish-list" feature that may 
be removed in a future version if the ability to set IRQs is not consistent on all X86 PCI 
platforms. The reason for this switch is that when some BIOS are set to PNP OS they do not 
appear to assign an IRQ causing the NIC to fail at DOS. Disabling the PNP OS typically 
resolves the problem, and this problem is independent of the NICFIND tool.

The two accompanying TXT files, NIC_VEND.TXT and NIC_DEVS.TXT are required by the NICFIND tool 
to provide descriptive names for the adapters it supports. The files are TXT based and the 
structure is simple, so the tool can be easily updated as newer PCI nics become available. The 
TXT files provide friendly names for most common network cards. The NICFIND tool will look in 
the folder containing NICFIND.EXE for the two TXT files containing NIC vendor and device names.


Example:
NICNUM=80861229
SLOTNUM=2
DEVNUM=3
BUSNUM=0


The NICNUM= reported by NICFIND is a combination of the Vendor (manufacturer) and Device IDs, 
thus providing a ID unique to a specific NIC. The other values are sometimes required by a 
NICs driver at the bottom of the PROTOCOL.INI file.

The GSAR.EXE tool (Global Search And Replace) can be used from BAT file(s) to 
replace the contents of INI (text) files. Gsar.exe (1994) is by Tormod Tjaberg 
(tormod@oslonett.no) and Hans Peter Verne of Norway. Freely available on the 
Internet in the gsar110.zip file.

This tool is ideal for use with the Microsoft EXTRACT.EXE program, used to extract 
compressed files from a CAB file. The MS CABARC.EXE program is used to create 
CAB files. This tool can be used to control a batch file to extract files specific
to a NIC.

NICFIND is freeware tool written in Borland Turbo C++ version 3.
The programming is a combination of C++ and Assembly languages.

Although NICFIND has been well tested and I feel confident in it's functionality, 
here comes the generic message I am sure most of the computer world is used to seeing. 
This program is provided as is, I accept no liability for any damages or loss of data 
incurred during it's use. This program in no way writes to drives so data should not 
be lost as a result of it's use.

Should you have any questions or feedback, please send email to the hotmail address I 
noted above.

Designed and written by: Shane Kent
Co-designed and tested by: Lewis Brewer
Date: Sept 2001
