weissh@NEXTADM.CC.VT.EDU (04/04/91)
Hi; I have been following the discussion lately regarding running LANtastic and TCP/IP concurrently using 1 ethernet card. Steve Bour from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock asks: >>> Anybody out there have or know about a Clarkson-compatible packet driver >>> for the Artisoft AE-2 ethernet card running in its native mode (the card >>> can also emulate an NE-2000)? Cris Shuldiner of FTP Software, Inc. Technical support replied: >>> I don't know of any AE-2 packet driver, but is there any reason that you >>> need to run Lantastic over the card directly? Artisoft has a version >>> that is independaent of the adaptor (ie: it runs over any netbios). >>> This version is 3.2 /AI (although there may be later versions by now). >>> We have tested it out over our RFC 1001/1002 netbios, but it should >>> run over anybody's netbios. >>> Using this setup, you would be able to run the card in NE-2000 mode with >>> the Clarkson Driver. The only caveat is that every node that wished to >>> run Lantastic would have to be running it over netbios over TCP/IP. Samuel Lam at Balliffe Intersystem, Vancouver, B.C., Canada adds: >>> If the TCP/IP you plan to use could provide a NETBIOS over TCP/IP service >>> [] and you are using the AI (adapter-independent) version of Lantastic, >>> you could run LANtastic on top of NETBIOS/TCP/IP and thus run Lantastic >>> and TCP/IP concurrently. Now, my question. Is the picture below an acurate representation of the solution discussed above?? ---------------------- --------------------- | LANtastic | | TCP/IP capable of | ---------------------- | using a packet drvr | | nb.com from Clarkson | | to access network | ----------------------------------------------- | ne2000 Clarkson Packet Driver | ----------------------------------------------- | Ethernet Adapter Card (ie ne2000) | ----------------------------------------------- | The Ethernet Or am I completely lost?? The way I understand the solution, you would take the following steps. 1. Load the packet driver giving the necessary command line parameters for the specific card you're using, say an ne2000, since most LANtastic owners would probably have an AE-2 that they would put into ne2000 mode. Say the software interrupt you choose for this step is 0x61. 2. Load nb.com from the Clarkson Packet Driver collection specifying 0x61 as the software interrupt. 3. Load the TCP/IP TSRS for whatever package you're using, say MD-DOS/IP from Maryland. 4. Load and start the LANtastic software, telling it in whatever way is necessary, to use the Netbios interface instead of going directly to network card. I've used packet drivers before with MD-DOS/IP and CUTCP/CUTE so I'm very familiar with them. I've seen LANtastic used in its native mode. I don't have any experience with Netbios, though. I understand how LANtastic communicates with a Netbios interface (I am assuming this is the same concept as how an application program communicates with a packet driver -- it is a well defined interface with specific things in specific places that all applications can find). I also understand how an application like MD-DOS/IP or CUTCP communicates with the packet driver -- through the software interrupt that both halves know about. The one piece that I'm unsure of is how a program providing the Netbios interface to LANtastic communicates with the packet driver. Does the nb.com program from Clarkson do this?? I'm assuming it does because whan you start it, you specify a software interrupt. I don't think the Netbios side needs this, so I'm assuming you specify this software interrupt so nb.com can talk to a packet driver. Is this correct?? If not, what am I missing?? The more I think about this, the more I think the above picture is wrong. Nb.com is for "going the other way". That is, nb.com provides a packet driver interface to some TCP/IP applications and then uses the Netbios/ASI/IBM Network (or Token Ring) to transport IP packets across one of these types of NON Ethernet networks. Nb.com is not for transporting Netbios "packets" across a TCP/IP connection. I think the diagram that more acurately shows the solution that has been discussed recently is probably more like the one below: --------------------- -------------------- | LANtastic | | Telnet FTP LPR etc | --------------------- -------------------- | | NetBios API Socket API | | ----------------------------------------------- | TCP/IP software providing both a Netbios API | | for LANtastic and some other API (sockets) for| | the usual TCP/IP applications (FTP, Telnet) | ----------------------------------------------- | ne2000 Clarkson Packet Driver | ----------------------------------------------- | Ethernet Adapter Card (ie ne2000) | ----------------------------------------------- | The Ethernet Well, now I'm really confused. I don't know which is right. I will post this question in hopes that someone can point me in the right direction. Any info/tips/pointers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Sorry for the length, but I thought the diagrams would eliminate any misunderstandings. -Hugh Weiss -Virginia Tech Computing Center - Distributed Computing Group -weissh@nextadm.cc.vt.edu OR weissh@vtcc1.cc.vt.edu
skl@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca (Samuel Lam) (04/07/91)
Of the two diagrams you shown, the second one (the one included below) is what was being discussed. ...Sam > --------------------- -------------------- > | LANtastic | | Telnet FTP LPR etc | > --------------------- -------------------- > | | > NetBios API Socket API > | | > ----------------------------------------------- > | TCP/IP software providing both a Netbios API | > | for LANtastic and some other API (sockets) for| > | the usual TCP/IP applications (FTP, Telnet) | > ----------------------------------------------- > | ne2000 Clarkson Packet Driver | > ----------------------------------------------- > | Ethernet Adapter Card (ie ne2000) | > ----------------------------------------------- > | > The Ethernet -- <skl@wimsey.bc.ca>
cws@FTP.COM (Cris Shuldiner) (04/08/91)
This is both to clear up some of the misconceptions about this subject and to make sure that Seth Olitzky gets his answer (his mail address keeps bouncing from our location). In January I tested LANtastic over PC/TCP and Netbios. I used version 3.2/AI (Adaptor Independent) of LANtastic and version 2.05 of PC/TCP and Netbios. I found this setup to work fine. I let Artisoft know about the results and they have told me that it will appear in the next rev of their compatibility sheet. It should also be noted in the next rev of our compatibility sheet. This version of LANtastic should work over any RFC 1001/1002 compliant Netbios. Aside from ours, I know Beame and Whiteside, and Wollongong have one. NOTE BENE: There was an early Adaptor Independent version that did not work over RFC compliant Netbios, but would only run over Artisoft's AILANBIOS. This was Adaptor Independent relative to the Network Card, but not the Transport Stack! If you have any questions on this subject, please feel free to mail direct to me. Cris Shuldiner Technical Support cws@ftp.com FTP Software, Inc. Ph: (617) 246-2920 Fax: (617) 245-7943 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ljm@FTP.COM (leo j mclaughlin iii) (04/09/91)
>Now, my question. Is the picture below an acurate representation of the >solution discussed above??... Either of these two pictures will work: --------------------------- ----------------------------- | LANtastic Redirector | | Telnet, FTP, LPR, and | --------------------------- | whatever other TCP/IP | | NetBIOS over TCP/IP | | applications used | --------------------------------------------------------- | TCP/IP software Native API | --------------------------------------------------------- | Any supported driver (including ne2000 Packet Driver) | --------------------------------------------------------- | Network Interface Card (e.g. ne2000 or IBM TR) | --------------------------------------------------------- Which requires every LANtastic node to run TCP/IP OR ----------------------------- | Telnet, FTP, LPR, and | | whatever other TCP/IP | | applications used | ----------------------------- | TCP/IP Native API | --------------------------- ----------------------------- | LANtastic redirector | | nb.com from Clarkson | --------------------------------------------------------- | Any NetBIOS (including LANtastic's NetBIOS over AE-2) | --------------------------------------------------------- | Network Interface Card (e.g. ne2000 or IBM TR) | --------------------------------------------------------- Which requires a router such as PathWay ROUTE or KA9Q to de-encapsulate the TCP/IP within NetBIOS packets. enjoy, leo j mclaughlin iii Author, RFC 1088 -- IP over NetBIOS ljm@ftp.com