tr@samadams.princeton.edu (Tom Reingold) (07/13/90)
Not familiar with Starlan. Want to know if you can talk IP (as in
TCP/IP) over it while regular Starlan messages are going over it. Will
this interfere or what? My question is based on the fact that you can
run IP, Decnet, and Chaosnet over ethernet hardware.
--
Tom Reingold
tr@samadams.princeton.edu
rutgers!princeton!samadams!tr
201-577-5814
"Brew strength depends upon the
amount of coffee used." -Black&Deckerjbreeden@netcom.UUCP (John Breeden) (07/14/90)
In article <1042@rossignol.Princeton.EDU> tr@samadams.princeton.edu (Tom Reingold) writes: >Not familiar with Starlan. Want to know if you can talk IP (as in >TCP/IP) over it while regular Starlan messages are going over it. Will >this interfere or what? My question is based on the fact that you can >run IP, Decnet, and Chaosnet over ethernet hardware. Starlan10 is full IEEE 802.3/10baseT Draft10 (ie: It's 10mb 802.3/Ethernet over Twisted Pair wire), and, in fact will interoperate with any other vendor's product that conforms to the 10baseT Draft 7 or later. Also, Starlan is HARDWARE, not SOFTWARE. Ther are two flavors of Starlan. Starlan1 is 1mb 802.3/Ethernet over twisted pair and conforms to IEEE 802.3 1base5 (1 mb baseband, 500 meters) and Starlan10 which is 10baseT (10mb, baseband, twisted pair). AT&T's PC NOS is called StarGROUP, it is Lan Manager ported to Unix (Lan Manager/X), same protocols as 3Com 3+ Open, UB Lan Manager, HP Lan Manager/X etc. Consequently, Starlan can transport any protocol that can travel over ethernet (ie: TCP-IP, DECnet, XNS, Lan Manager, Vines, etc, etc). AT&T also manufactures PC interface cards w/ Twisted Pair connections on the card (the 10baseT MAU is built on the card) called PC NAU (Network Access Units). TCP-IP raw drivers exist for FTP, Woolongong and Beame & Whiteside TCP-IPs. Both the Clarkson Packet Driver and an NDIS driver exist for the cards allowing the Public Domain TCP-IPs from NCSA and KA9Q to run on top of the cards. The use of the packet drivers and NDIS drivers also allow multiple protocol stacks to run simultanously (ie: TCP-IP-Lan Manager, TCP-IP-Netware, TCP-IP-Lan Manager-LAT, Lan Manager-Novell to name just a few possible combinations). So, to summarize. Starlan is NOT a propriatory protocol, it is based on open standards. It supports the complete range of ethernet protocols and AT&T offers a wide range of drivers for their cards (Novell, Vines, Lan Manager, TCP-IP, LAT, PCSA, Clarkson Packet Driver and NDIS driver). And yes, you can talk StsrGROUP (Lan Manager) and TCP-IP simultanously (FTP TCP-IP, Generic Ethernet Version, StarGROUP LM/X V3.3 and NDIS driver). -- John Robert Breeden, netcom!jbreeden@apple.com, apple!netcom!jbreeden, ATTMAIL:!jbreeden ------------------------------------------------------------------- "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from. If you don't like any of them, you just wait for next year's model."
david@twg.com (David S. Herron) (07/18/90)
In article <1042@rossignol.Princeton.EDU> tr@samadams.princeton.edu (Tom Reingold) writes: >Not familiar with Starlan. Want to know if you can talk IP (as in >TCP/IP) over it while regular Starlan messages are going over it. Will >this interfere or what? My question is based on the fact that you can >run IP, Decnet, and Chaosnet over ethernet hardware. Starlan-the-physical-medium is simply a version of ethernet. The 1-mbit-per-second version is simply ethernet-running-at-1-mbit. The 10-mbit version is `regular' ethernet. These are over something which is basically (or really is) twisted pair. Starlan-the-networking-protocol-suite is simply one of the many protocols which can run over ethernet. Ethernet's frames (packets) contain as one of the header fields a protocol field. Protocol numbers have been assigned to all the protocols you mention above, as well as others. Assumably inside the OS between the device driver and the protocol level is a switch routine which takes that protocol number and hands it off to the bottom of the right protocol stack. Note that the ability to run both inside one SysV machine is a moderately recent innovation. Under some previous version of SysV this was not possible .. I just don't remember how far back in the mists of time that is. -- <- David Herron, an MMDF weenie, <david@twg.com> <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david@ms.uky.edu> <- <- Sign me up for one "I survived Jaka's Story" T-shirt!