colin@tenset.UUCP (Colin Manning) (11/22/89)
Does anyone know if there exist packet drivers for token ring hardware ? - Colin -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | colin@tenset.uucp or | Post: Tenset Technologies Limited, | | ..!ukc!acorn!tenset!colin | Norfolk House, | | Phone: +44 223 328886 | 301 Histon Road, | | Fax: +44 223 460929 | Cambridge CB4 3NF, UK. | -----------------------------------------------------------------------
jbvb@VAX.FTP.COM (James Van Bokkelen) (11/22/89)
Perhaps I should put together this as a canned reply: There are no 802.5 packet drivers that I know of. There are two reasons for this: 1. RFC 1042 encapsulation is quite a bit different from standard RFC 894 (IP on Ethernet). The MTU is different, the headers are different, and to work right in an environment with IBM source-routing ring bridges, your ARP implementation has to cache the RIF as well as the hardware and protocol addresses. You can't just fool an Ethernet-based protocol stack by claiming to be a class 1 Packet Driver, you need a customized 802.5 protocol stack (a bunch of work). 2. Very few people write drivers for 802.5 cards anyway, except the vendors. The vendors supply their drivers with the cards (or as an extra-cost item), and they all conform to a standard (written by IBM) specification called Adapter Support Interface (ASI). On IBM cards, this is implemented by TOKREUI (old) or LAN Support Program (new). This provides hardware-independence and interface sharing, just like the Packet Driver, so all the 802.5 TCP/IPs I know of (PC/TCP, IBM's, the CMU and UMD IBM-funded versions of PC/IP, and the 'consulting special' PC/NFS) use it. So do most LAN OSs, like VINES and Netware. James B. VanBokkelen 26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA 01880 FTP Software Inc. voice: (617) 246-0900 fax: (617) 246-0901