HANK@BARILVM.BITNET (Hank Nussbacher) (09/22/88)
When building a network, one is confronted with myriad solutions
to PCs. The problem is determining which solution is best for each
scenerio. In order to do that properly, I believe a table would
be helpful.
What I am attempting to do is similar in nature to the Pc/Ip Scorecard.
Below are a number of tables. The rows represent various popular
PC networking solutions. It is not expected be to an "all-inclusive"
list, rather a short list of the most popular ones. The columns
represent services that a user and a computer center would expect
to receive from a PC networking solution.
As a first go-around, I would like to solicit everyones help to
make the table as best as can be under the limiting circumstances.
If you can think of columns or rows that need to be included then
please contact me. At this point, I am not requesting people to
fill in boxes, but rather to make a critique on the table itself.
Please send all your replies directly to me.
Thanks,
Hank
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
1) Each box is rated from 0-4
0 - not supported
1 - supported, but not recommended since it is either buggy,
slow, unusable or lacks certain key features
2 - fair, but nothing to brag about
3 - good, but not the best
4 - excellent, has all the features, is the fastest implementation
when performing the function, the ultimate solution for this
particular problem
2) Certain boxes have additional comments that appear at the end of
each table. Refer to the comments before reading the table.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE I
+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|X-Window| Peri. | 3270 | E-mail | Tcp/Ip |
| | sharing | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Kermit | | | | | |
v | | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
WD8003+ | | | | | |
NCSA | | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
D-link | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Banyan Vines | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Novell Netware | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
TOPS | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Starlan | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
3com | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Irma - 3270 | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
ECF | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
1) X-Window: self explanatory
2) Peri. sharing: refers to the ability of the protocol to support
peripheral sharing such as printer sharing. A top score of
4 indicates that this protocol handles all sort of peripheral
sharing, not just printer sharing.
3) 3270: refers to the ability for the PC to logon in fullscreen
mode to an IBM mainframe.
4) E-mail: refers to the ability of the said protocol to support any
sort of electronic mail sharing between PCs. This is not SMTP
mail and may in fact have no ability to talk to "RFC822" mail
systems. In the event that the system supports X.400, the box
will contain the phrase "X.400".
5) Tcp/Ip: support refers to the 3 basic Tcp/Ip functions of FTP,
ARP, ICMP, UDP and ASCII Telnet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE II
+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|Gateways| Speed | Token | Ether- | Twisted |
| | | Ring | net | pair |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Kermit | | | | | |
v | | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
WD8003+ | | | | | |
NCSA | | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
D-link | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Banyan Vines | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Novell Netware | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
TOPS | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Starlan | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
3com | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Irma - 3270 | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
ECF | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
1) Gateways: in this case the numbers are not from 0-4 but rather
1 - Tcp/Ip
2 - DECNET
3 - SNA
4 - X.25
5 - NETBIOS
2) Speed: refers to the speed of the network. This can be a range
if the program can function on slow speed (9.6kb) as well as
high speed (10Mb) physical networks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE III
+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|RS-232 | Apple- | PC | PS/2 | MAC |
| | talk | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Kermit | | | | | |
v | | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
WD8003+ | | | | | |
NCSA | | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
D-link | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Banyan Vines | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Novell Netware | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
TOPS | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Starlan | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
3com | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Irma - 3270 | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
ECF | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE IV
+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
| File | Hebrew | | | |
|transfer| | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Kermit | | | | | |
v | | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
WD8003+ | | | | | |
NCSA | | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
D-link | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Banyan Vines | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Novell Netware | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
TOPS | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Starlan | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
3com | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Irma - 3270 | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
ECF | | | | | |
| | | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
1) File transfer refers to the particular package having the
capability of file transfer.
2) Hebrew - Ignore.