NetWare Core Protocol
Encyclopedia
The NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) is a network protocol used in some products from Novell, Inc. It is usually associated with the NetWare
operating system, but parts of it have been implemented on other platforms such as Linux
, Windows NT
and various flavors of Unix
.
It is used to access file
, print
, directory
, clock synchronization
, messaging, remote command execution and other network service functions. TCP/IP and IPX/SPX
(obsoleted, technical support
is provided only for NetWare
platform) are the supported underlying protocols. TCP/IP implementations use TCP
/UDP
port 524 and rely on SLP
for name resolution.
Novell eDirectory
uses NCP for synchronizing data changes between the servers in a directory service
tree.
Novell NetWare
NetWare is a network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, with network protocols based on the archetypal Xerox Network Systems stack....
operating system, but parts of it have been implemented on other platforms such as Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, Windows NT
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
and various flavors of Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
.
It is used to access file
File server
In computing, a file server is a computer attached to a network that has the primary purpose of providing a location for shared disk access, i.e. shared storage of computer files that can be accessed by the workstations that are attached to the computer network...
Print server
A print server, or printer server, is a device that connects printers to client computers over a network. It can accept print jobs from the computers and send the jobs to the appropriate printers....
, directory
Directory service
A directory service is the software system that stores, organizes and provides access to information in a directory. In software engineering, a directory is a map between names and values. It allows the lookup of values given a name, similar to a dictionary...
, clock synchronization
Clock synchronization
Clock synchronization is a problem from computer science and engineering which deals with the idea that internal clocks of several computers may differ. Even when initially set accurately, real clocks will differ after some amount of time due to clock drift, caused by clocks counting time at...
, messaging, remote command execution and other network service functions. TCP/IP and IPX/SPX
IPX/SPX
IPX/SPX stands for Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange. IPX and SPX are networking protocols used primarily on networks using the Novell NetWare operating systems.-Protocol Layers:...
(obsoleted, technical support
Technical support
Technical support or tech support refers to a range of services by which enterprises provide assistance to users of technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other electronic or mechanical goods...
is provided only for NetWare
Novell NetWare
NetWare is a network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, with network protocols based on the archetypal Xerox Network Systems stack....
platform) are the supported underlying protocols. TCP/IP implementations use TCP
Transmission Control Protocol
The Transmission Control Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is one of the two original components of the suite, complementing the Internet Protocol , and therefore the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP...
/UDP
User Datagram Protocol
The User Datagram Protocol is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol network without requiring...
port 524 and rely on SLP
Service Location Protocol
The Service Location Protocol is a service discovery protocol that allows computers and other devices to find services in a local area network without prior configuration. SLP has been designed to scale from small, unmanaged networks to large enterprise networks...
for name resolution.
Novell eDirectory
Novell eDirectory
Novell eDirectory is an X.500-compatible directory service software product initially released in 1993 by Novell for centrally managing access to resources on multiple servers and computers within a given network...
uses NCP for synchronizing data changes between the servers in a directory service
Directory service
A directory service is the software system that stores, organizes and provides access to information in a directory. In software engineering, a directory is a map between names and values. It allows the lookup of values given a name, similar to a dictionary...
tree.
Client-side implementations
- Novell Client for Windows Vista from Novell.
- Novell Client for Windows 2000/XP/2003 from Novell.
- Novell Client for Windows 95/98 from Novell.
- Novell Client for Linux from Novell.
- NetWare Clients for DOS from Novell - no longer supported.
- NetWare Client for Mac OS X from Prosoft Engineering.
- ncpfs, an open-source NCP client implementation for LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
. - Client Service for NetWare from MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
.
External links
- NCP specification without description of underlying Netware RPCRemote procedure callIn computer science, a remote procedure call is an inter-process communication that allows a computer program to cause a subroutine or procedure to execute in another address space without the programmer explicitly coding the details for this remote interaction...
framework - Wireshark (an open source protocol analyzer) Documentation - Fields of the NCP packet
- Making Mac OS X play nicely with Novell