morrison@accuvax.nwu.edu (Vance Morrison) (04/10/89)
Hello, I have had several requests to post the PCroute software in a way that people who are not directly on the Internet can gain access to it. For those who came in late, the PCroute software is code that I have written that will turn an XT into an IP router for about $450. Since you can buy a monitorless XT for $400 this means you can make an IP router for < $900. For those on the Internet you can pick it up from accuvax.nwu.edu (129.105.49.1) in the directory pub/pcroute. It is called pcroute.tar or pcroute.tar.Z (compressed) I am posting PCroute to the 'comp.binaries.ibm.pc' newsgroup in the next day or two. Anyone not on the Internet but who gets this newsgroup can pick it up there. I realize that this still may not cover everyone, but I know of no way of doing that. Any suggestions? In the mean time I will mail the shar to anyone who can not get it any other way (it is 77K). ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS 1) Will it support SNMP? No. SNMP is to complicated. 2) Will it support RIP? Yes I am working on that now 3) Will it support SLIP? It could if someone wrote the driver we have no use for this but if someone wants to write it I will point the right direction. 4) What is the Atalk support? I have written a driver that allows the router to send IP packets over Apple localtalk. This is very nice for us because with Phonenet, this allows us a Cheap method to use twisted pair wiring to get IP in and between building (~5000 ft) in a star config, at speeds (230Kbits/sec) better than slip or X.25. 5) What is it written in? Assembler, my own interesting style which takes some disipline on the part of the programmer, but ultimately make assembly code a tolerable programming environment. 6) What about source? I have not distributed source at because I am still working on major additions to the code and I don't want to have to deal with supporting and explain and merging my code with others. In about 3 months I will release source. Until then, people who what to just look at it or use it for other purposes (making a bridge for example) can ask me for it. 7) Can I write a 3Com driver? Well, Yes and No. Yes you certainly can do it, but I am not sure of its speed. One big reason I used WD is because it does on board queueing in dual port ram. Thus I use no interupts or DMA. This also means the most time critical part of the operation (input packet queueing) does not involve (slow) CPU. My recommendation is just to buy the WD8003 cards (after all they are only $225 a piece) and use your 3Com cards somewhere else. Vance Morrison <morrison@accuvax.nwu.edu> [ The above software will be posted in comp.binaries.ibm.pc on April 13, 1989. Rahul Dhesi -- moderator, comp.binaries.ibm.pc. ]