Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!lanai!ron
From: ron@Eyring.COM (Ron Holt)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.pcnet
Subject: Re: Documentation for Novell
Keywords: Novell Protocol
Message-ID: <1990Nov2.181132.2250@Eyring.COM>
Date: 2 Nov 90 18:11:32 GMT
References: <1990Oct31.223449.11458@pac.uucp>
Organization: Eyring, Inc.
Lines: 33

In article <1990Oct31.223449.11458@pac.uucp> abels@pac.uucp (Meno Abels) writes:
>Hallo
>
>Is there some documentation(specification) available for Novell LAN-protocols? 
>

It depends on which layers of their protocols you are interested in.  The
lowest levels (IPX, SPX) are documented by Novell and available from them.
These protocols are derived from Xerox's XNS, though I don't believe
XNS and IPX/SPX are totally interoperable (if at all).

The situation is different with NCP.  The Novell Netware Core Protocol
(NCP) is considered proprietary by Novell.  An outline of what NCP does
is covered in one of their technical reference manuals (sorry, I don't
remember which one).  I do recall reading in the Netware Technical
Journal about a year ago that the NCP specification could be purchased,
but that it cost many thousands of dollars.  I've been told by one of
the Novell engineers that NCP could probably be figured out by using a
Network General "Sniffer" network protocol analyzer.  The Sniffer can
recognize and decode NCP packets.  However, this guy's boss immediately
pointed out in our discussion that Novell's lawyers would become
even richer if some tried to reverse engineer NCP and build a product
using it without licensing the protocol from Novell.  They defended
this position by contrasting their views with that of Sun and
NFS.  Sun's valued "intellectual property" was contained in their
client side code, not in their server code.  The opposite is true from
Novell's point-of-view.  They give away code to use Netware as a client
but consider their server technology and protocol proprietary.

Anyway, hope this helps.
-- 
Ron Holt	ron@Eyring.COM  uunet!lanai!ron
Eyring Inc.	+1 801-375-2434 x434