morgan@jessica.stanford.edu (RL "Bob" Morgan) (08/14/90)
Those of you who have followed the PC network software interface spec wars over the last couple of years know that there are three competing proposals in the market now: FTP Software's Packet Driver (which suffers from not having a 3- or 4-letter acronym), 3Com/Microsoft's Network Driver Interface Spec (NDIS), and Novell/Apple's Open Data-Link Interface (which may be ODI, though that may be tm of somebody else). This is a classic case of the unpleasant thing about standards being that there are too many to choose from. In my limited experience with trying to put together nets with brand-X PCs, brand-Y network cards, and brand-Z network software, I've run into products using all of these specs. You need to have support of a particular spec from all the products you want to stick into a particular PC for them all to work, of course, which turns out to be tricky at best. Who supports what is entirely political, it seems. In looking at 10Base-T cards recently, 3Com and HP both supply only NDIS drivers, since they're both Lan Manager vendors. Their ideas of what to put in the PROTOCOL.INI file seem to be at odds, though. Cabletron supplies a PD driver, with a curious extra bit of software to allow NDIS to run on top too. Of course, PD software for zillions of cards is available from Clarkson, etc. The Wollongong WINTCP software that we use supports both PD and NDIS, which is nice, but not ODI. ODI only shows up when you use AppleShare PC, which won't work with PD or NDIS. It's my understanding that the server part of Netware 386 also demands ODI. Curiously, Netware client software doesn't use Novell's ODI spec. Most people who are into this stuff seem to use PD with Netware clients. I've spent a few days now being amused that it takes years of experience and considerable clairvoyance to install a network board and some software and actually do something (and I'm only interested in making Telnet work). Consulting opportunities abound, clearly. So: 1) Are vendors of network boards producing ODI drivers? Does anyone know of any? 2) Are vendors of IP software for PCs producing ODI interface software for their packages? Does anyone know of any? 3) Has anyone produced AppleTalk software for PCs that uses one of the more mainstream specs (ie, not ODI)? I personally think it's quite stupid of Apple not to have done this already, but then, maybe they have a vested interest in this stuff failing . . . - RL "Bob" Morgan Networking Systems Stanford