lataz@warwick.ac.uk (Mr T T Green) (07/14/88)
I've been very interested in the recent discussions concerning TCP/IP and methods of providing access to its facilities from local area networks. At the LTC we currently have 12 PC's connected to a Compaq 386/20 (60Mb Disk) using BICC ethernet cards and Novell Netware 2.0A. We are in the process of expanding this network to over 40 machines and two fileservers. The BICC cards do provide multi protocol support, which enables them to run Netware and say FTP Inc's PC/TCP concurrently. However the BICC cards cost 100 pounds more than say Novels NE 1000 ethernet cards. Most of these machines will be in academics offices, who only need to use Telnet and say smtp occasionally. Telnet would be used to connect to LEXIS via our local area switching system which supports TELNET and PSS as well as providing access to our local mainframes and various PADS. Access to our unix machines could of course be established directly over ethernet using TCP/IP. I am considering various ways of providing access to TCP/IP's facilities via all the machines on our local lan. Method One: FTP inc's PC/TCP Advantages: This method does work - # tried it out. Other protocols can be made available on every machine e.g. PINKBOOK. Disadvantages. Cost of the BICC ethernet card - 310 pounds plus. Cost of 40 plus copies of PC/TCP $7000 Cost of a Bridge to isolate local net from campus backbone. Method Two: Public Domain PC/TCP Advantages: Lowercost than method one for software. Other protocols can be made available on every machine e.g. PINKBOOK. Disadvantages: Last time I looked at this the software was unreliable - However this was more that a year and half ago. Cost of the BICC ethernet card - 310 pounds plus. Cost of 40 plus copies of PC/TCP $7000 Cost of a Bridge to isolate local net from campus backbone. Method Three: Micom TCP Gateway Advantages: No need to purchase a Bridge. Can use any type of networking between PC's and Server. Commercial Product = Good support? Disadvantages: Cost, 4000 pounds by the time I upgrade to Netware 2.11 and by the gateway. Only provides TCP/IP gateway - no PINKBOOK. Method Four: netbios to dedicated PC Gateway. Only know what # read on the net about this method. Sounds quite promising though. Any one using this method. How much does it cost? Advantages: Can use Netware's netbios - hence any Netware compatible card for the PC's! Do the PD or commercial systems based on this method work with netware's netbios support? Don't need to purchase a bridge. Disadvantages: Tie up one PC as gateway. ?????????????????????????????????????? Some more related questions Do any of the Telnet implementations come with a script language. Do any of these implementations support commercial or PD terminal emulation packages e.g. Kermit (kermit can talk via netbios to a Comms server). How many PC's can be supported from say a Compaq Deskpro 386/20. Any tips on optimizing Netware's performance. Are there any good books on Novell Netware. Are there any PD programs that allow a PC to become a print or Comms server on a Novell based network. What do you think about Novell's NE 1000 ethernet card. What do you think of WD's ethernet card. PS/2's and ethernet I am looking for PS/2 ethernet cards with Netware 2.0a or 2.11 drivers. MICOM claim to have some available now for around 399 pouds. Has anyone used these cards in a Novell setup? Is the Deskpro 386/20 a better server than the IBM PS/2 model 80 (300MB disk version) - what's your opinion. Tim Green Consultant Programmer Law Technology Centre for UK Law Schools University of Warwick Coventry England. cuddb@uk.ac.warwick.sol
jbvb@VAX.FTP.COM (James Van Bokkelen) (07/19/88)
The Novell NE1000 is a close relative of the National Semicomductor demo board, and PC/TCP has a driver for it. Regrettably, PC/TCP can't co-exist with Netware on the NE1000, because noone has done an interface-sharing driver for it. The MICOM-Interlan NI9210 does support co-existence between Netware and PC/TCP, via the Packet Driver spec. James VanBokkelen FTP Software Inc.