[comp.dcom.lans] Running TCP/IP and Novell concurrently under DOS

mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) (01/25/91)

A week or so ago, I asked the net whether or not it was possible to
run TCP/IP and Novell concurrently under MS-DOS, using the same
Ethernet board and cable.  The answer is yes.  To do so, you will need
a packet driver for your Ethernet board and the version of IPX that
uses the packet drivers, plus TCP/IP software for MS-DOS.

Packet drivers can be obtained from Clarkson University, on the
machine sun.soe.clarkson.edu in /pub/packet-drivers.  The
packet-driver IPX is available from Brigham Young University, and also
on sun.soe.clarkson.edu in /pub/novell.  Finally, the TCP/IP software
for MS-DOS is available from many sources.  We use NCSA Telnet v2.3
beta for command line based usage, and WinQVT/Net for Windows 3.0
users.  NCSA Telnet is available from zaphod.ncsa.uiuc.edu in
/NCSA_Telnet/PC.2.3beta; WinQVT/Net is available from
wuarchive.wustl.edu in /mirrors/msdos/windows3.

In order to run TCP/IP and Novell concurrently without reconfiguring
your Novell server to use Ethernet II packets (instead of the default
802.3 packets), you will need at least v7.0 of the packet drivers.  To
bring a system up on the net, do the following:

1. Load the appropriate packet driver, using the -n switch to force
Ethernet II<->802.3 translation mode.

2. Load the packet-driver IPX.COM.

3. Load NET3, NET4, or the appropriate variant.

At this point, you can log onto the Novell server, start up your
TCP/IP software, or whatever.  You can start up your TCP/IP software
before loading IPX and NETx; just make sure the packet driver is
installed first.


--
Marc Unangst               |
mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us  | "Bus error: passengers dumped"
...!umich!leebai!mudos!mju | 

jbreeden@netcom.UUCP (John Breeden) (01/26/91)

In article <qkuaw1w164w@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us> mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) writes:
>A week or so ago, I asked the net whether or not it was possible to
>run TCP/IP and Novell concurrently under MS-DOS, using the same
>Ethernet board and cable.  The answer is yes.  To do so, you will need
>a packet driver for your Ethernet board and the version of IPX that
>uses the packet drivers, plus TCP/IP software for MS-DOS.
>
>1. Load the appropriate packet driver, using the -n switch to force
>Ethernet II<->802.3 translation mode.
>

This works as long as there are no REAL 802.3 traffic on the wire along with
the Novell 802.3 traffic.

If you mix the two on the same wire (re: ISO and IPX), Netware can't figure
out who's packet is who, and in step with The Wonderful World of Netware 
grabs all packets, sooner or later your Netware server dies with an abend
error (at least w/ 2.15, have no idea how 3.X behaves - thought I'd put odds
it's the same).

The solution (besides replacing Netware) is run it as Ethernet 2.

-- 
 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."

donp@na.excelan.com (don provan) (01/29/91)

In article <21947@netcom.UUCP> jbreeden@netcom.UUCP (John Breeden) writes:
>In article <qkuaw1w164w@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us> mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) writes:
>>1. Load the appropriate packet driver, using the -n switch to force
>>Ethernet II<->802.3 translation mode.
>
>This works as long as there are no REAL 802.3 traffic on the wire along with
>the Novell 802.3 traffic.

First of all, let's make clear that Mr. Unangst is providing a
mechanism for continuing to run 802.3/IPX via packet drivers.  That
is, he is discussing the problem from a point in time *after* the
802.3/IPX network has already been installed and, therefore, a priori,
it's already known to work.  In this case, Mr. Breeden's advice might
be taken as a warning not to run real 802.3 traffic on your IPX network,
although i believe he intended the advice the other way around.

>If you mix the two on the same wire (re: ISO and IPX), Netware can't figure
>out who's packet is who, and in step with The Wonderful World of Netware 
>grabs all packets, sooner or later your Netware server dies with an abend
>error (at least w/ 2.15, have no idea how 3.X behaves - thought I'd put odds
>it's the same).

Although i don't personally deal with NetWare 2.15, this is the first
i've heard of NetWare itself having a serious problem with 802.2/802.3
packets.  I have heard rare reports of the reverse: 802.2/802.3
implementations having trouble with IPX/802.3 packets.  In any case,
there are many 802.2/802.3 implementations that don't have any problem
with nor cause any problem for IPX/802.3, so things aren't quite as
bad as Mr. Breeden's post implies.

>The solution (besides replacing Netware) is run it as Ethernet 2.

Personally, i agree that using IPX/Ethernet rather IPX/802.3 is a good
idea.  Unfortunately, it can take quite a bit of effort to migrate an
existing IPX/802.2 network to an IPX/Ethernet network.  Since 802.2
applications are still uncommon and not all interact badly with
IPX/802.3, the effort is not always warranted.
						don provan
						donp@novell.com