paulh@sequent.UUCP (Paul Hahn) (03/16/90)
Does anyone know of methods whereby an Novell Lan using ARCNET can be
gatewayed to a TCP/IP environment using Ethernet? Also, are there any
TCP/IP implementations that support ARCNET interfaces?
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Paul Hahn
Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
{uunet|tektronix}!sequent!paulh CES00661@UDELVM.BITNET (Bob Rahe) (03/16/90)
I've seen a diagram showing a Novell server running arcnet stuff
going thru a "Racal/Interlan MT600G Gateway" onto an ethernet. Might
want to check with them.
All I've seen is the diagram (!) 8-)
BobCHRIS@MIAMIU.BITNET (Chris Allison) (03/16/90)
On Thu, 15 Mar 90 19:52:00 GMT Paul Hahn said: >Does anyone know of methods whereby an Novell Lan using ARCNET can be >gatewayed to a TCP/IP environment using Ethernet? Also, are there any >TCP/IP implementations that support ARCNET interfaces? > I have asked this same question several times in different groups. The few answers I did get did not help much. What I do know at this point is the following: 1. You can buy a gateway you place in the server which will allow any Novell Lan type to gateway 16 users. It requires Netware 2.1+. We have not tried it. 2. You can equip a PC with both the ARCNET card and an Ethernet card. This PC can then perform TCP/IP functions using the Novell server disk. You have to do this for each PC who wants access to TCP/IP. We have tried this, it works. 3. I have seen reports of people trying to implement TCP/IP on top of ARCNET. What seems to be the universal problem is the size of the MAX packet. ARCNETs limits require breaking the packets and this seems to be a problem. That is about all I have found to date. Anyone else care to comment?
jbvb@VAX.FTP.COM (James Van Bokkelen) (03/16/90)
If you mean "gateway", as in ISO-ese, where a high-level protocol of one family (e.g. file transfer, remote login) is translated to the equivalent in another family, the only commercial product I know of is the InterLAN TCP/IP gateway. This is an Ethernet board and software which install in your server; you run Netware-based protocols to get to the server and it translates them into Telnet and FTP on the Ethernet. TWG's WIN/PC offers a different approach, that of encapsulating Ethernet datagrams in Netbios datagrams, which get forwarded to a router, which forwards them in the conventional Ethernet encapsulation. Philip Prindeville did a version of the PC-IP freeware which ran on ARCNet while he was at McGill. I don't know if this has been included in the Harvard PC-IP release (on husc6.harvard.edu), or what McGill used as an IP router. He also wrote RFC 1051, defining an IP encapsulation for ARCnet. However, I have heard recent rumblings that some sort of new hack allows ARCnet's MTU to be increased from 508 bytes to something on the order of 1Kb. If this gets widely implemented, it would require that the encapsulation RFC be re-issued, and the drivers revised... James B. VanBokkelen 26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA 01880 FTP Software Inc. voice: (617) 246-0900 fax: (617) 246-0901
nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) (03/17/90)
In article <31338@sequent.UUCP> paulh@sequent.UUCP (Paul Hahn) writes:
Does anyone know of methods whereby an Novell Lan using ARCNET can be
gatewayed to a TCP/IP environment using Ethernet? Also, are there any
TCP/IP implementations that support ARCNET interfaces?
Yes. The latest version of Phil Karn's TCP/IP package, NOS, has ARCNET
support, in conjunction with my ARCNET packet driver. Phil's code is
copyrighted, with free copying allowed by educational and amateur radio
operators. The packet drivers are copylefted. The ARCNET packet
driver will be in the upcoming release 6.x, which will be announced in
these forums.
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--russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu]) Russ.Nelson@$315.268.6667
Violence never solves problems, it just changes them into more subtle problemsjbvb@VAX.FTP.COM (James Van Bokkelen) (03/19/90)
Is the ARCnet packet driver you mention a Class 8 (ARCNet) driver? If so, then most DOS TCP/IPs can't use it, because they don't understand the ARCNet encapsulation. If, on the contrary, it 'fakes' a Class 1 (Ethernet) environment, most DOS TCP/IPs are going to have trouble with the MTU issue. James B. VanBokkelen 26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA 01880 FTP Software Inc. voice: (617) 246-0900 fax: (617) 246-0901
nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) (03/20/90)
In article <9003191416.AA05298@vax.ftp.com> jbvb@VAX.FTP.COM (James Van Bokkelen) writes:
Is the ARCnet packet driver you mention a Class 8 (ARCNet) driver? If so,
then most DOS TCP/IPs can't use it, because they don't understand the
ARCNet encapsulation. If, on the contrary, it 'fakes' a Class 1 (Ethernet)
environment, most DOS TCP/IPs are going to have trouble with the MTU issue.
Yes, it's a class 8 driver. Phil Karn's TCP/IP package can use it, as of
the latest version on flash.bellcore.com.
--
--russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu]) Russ.Nelson@$315.268.6667
Violence never solves problems, it just changes them into more subtle problemsdonp@na.excelan.com (don provan) (03/24/90)
> 3. I have seen reports of people trying to implement TCP/IP on top of >ARCNET. What seems to be the universal problem is the size of the MAX packet. >ARCNETs limits require breaking the packets and this seems to be a problem. > > That is about all I have found to date. Anyone else care to comment? While ARCNET itself has a limit of 504 bytes of data per frame, there is a fragmentation/reassembly standard for exchanging packets up to 60,480 bytes in length. (There's also an older standard which allows packets with 1008 bytes of data carried in two fragments. The older standard is a subset of the newer standard.) Unfortunately, neither scheme is compatible with the ARCNET packet format described in RFC1051. The longer packets make ARCNET quite usable as a vehicle for IP traffic. We're planning on writing an RFC to replace RFC1051, reflecting these fragmentation techniques. If you're interested in ARCNET, feel free to send me input. don provan donp@novell.com