jhp@briar.philips.com (Jan H. Poesse;6534;3.92;$0351) (05/15/89)
Does anybody know about efforts going on to implement TCP/IP for OS/2 (Standard and/or Extented Edition)? Thanks, Jan Poesse Philips Laboratories Briarcliff Manor, New York jhp@philabs.philips.com
jbvb@VAX.FTP.COM (James Van Bokkelen) (05/16/89)
I know of 3 active development efforts, none of which, as far as I know, have resulted in visible code (demoed at a show, or somewhere where someone posted about it) yet: Microsoft has been moving Excelan's EXOS board-resident TCP/IP into the OS/2 kernel, pretty much according to the book (NDIS spec v1.0.1) as I've heard it. The initial goal is likely to be LAN Manager NETBIOS transport, instead of the Internet applications. I would also assume that the applications, when they appear, are quite likely to use the Presentation Manager. HP and 3Com have announced that they are collaborating on a TCP/IP. I don't know whose stack they started with, or how it is structured, or when it will be ready, or what it will contain. We're porting PC/TCP to OS/2. Once we finish, it will have everything DOS PC/TCP has, except the NFS protocol (unless Microsoft relents, and makes the redirector interface public, so you aren't stuck with SMB only). We're much more interested in the Internet applications than LAN Manager NETBIOS, but that is in the pipleline, too. The first release probably won't use the PM. When? I wish I knew. We're sending packets, but there is a lot of work left to do. We'll know more in a few months. In addition, there was a posting a month or two ago from a European site where someone said they had "ported the IBM DOS TCP/IP that comes with FAL to OS/2". He gave no details, and hasn't posted again; my first guess is that he got it to run in the compatibility box, but who knows... James B. VanBokkelen 26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA 01880 FTP Software Inc. voice: (617) 246-0900 fax: (617) 246-0901
RTB@CERNVM.BITNET (Rainer Toebbicke) (05/18/89)
I have ported the IBM TCP/IP to OS/2 SE 1.0. It was a straightforward hack just to be able to telnet to our IBM, not a decent implementation. I've got telnet (IBM's tn3270) and ftp running over a 3C501 card. One at a time, of course, each program re-implementing all the layers. But at least it runs as a normal OS/2 task, therefore you can switch away into something else without the danger of timing out as there would be in the DOS box. I have heard that IBM is working on a sort of layered TCP/IP with TSR kernels. That may be a more interesting starting point for a proper implementation, something in line with the LAN manager. Rainer Toebbicke CERN, Switzerland
ISSKO@NUSVM.BITNET (Kace Ong) (05/24/89)
From this net we have come to know that many groups of people are indeed porting (or have ported) pcip to os/2. Some, like myself, are doing it because we need a piece of working code to fill our own urgent needs. Others, like FTP and Microsoft/HP, are developing products to sell to others. Given a choice I'm sure we'll all rather buy a supported, debugged program than to have to roll our own but at this moment there is no product available. I think one reason why there has been an uncommonly long delay in the port is because we all want this version to be "right", i.e. not to repeat the same mistakes of the DOS version. The OS/2 port should have these features: (1) separates the network drivers from the tcp codes, (2) uses OS/2 threads to support tcp tasks, (3) provides DLL call bindings for application in a logical way a la Unix (sockets? streams?) (4) provides applications -- telnet, ftp -- that works with OS/2 VIO,KBD calls. In addition, a commercial offering may also have to provide Netbios and Named Pipes over Tcp/ip. ----------------------------------- Kace Ong Inst of Systems Science ISSKO@NUSVM Singapore -----------------------------------
romkey@asylum.sf.ca.us (John Romkey) (05/25/89)
Actually, I think the major reason for that TCP/IP will be available so long after OS/2 became available is that there's just not much demand (causing either people to do for-free ports, or companies to invest in the development). - john