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From: romkey@ASYLUM.SF.CA.US (John Romkey)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc
Subject: A glossary of commonly used terms (fwd)
Message-ID: <9012021551.AA07542@asylum.sf.ca.us>
Date: 2 Dec 90 23:51:00 GMT
References: <9012022222.AA24045@wubios.wustl.edu>
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   From: "David J. Camp" <david@wubios.wustl.edu>
   Date: Sun, 2 Dec 90 16:22:34 CST
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   >In article <21910@well.sf.ca.us> shiva@well.sf.ca.us (Kenneth Porter) writes:
   >>	packet driver

   This name refers to the specification developed and published by FTP
   Inc. for a standard interface to Ethernet cards on IBMPC compatibles.
   The full text of the standard is available via anonymous ftp from 
   vax.ftp.com.

It's more general than ethernet; the packet driver is intended to
allow access to any packet-oriented network interface. Packet drivers
are available for token ring and some other non-ethernet media as well.

It also allows multiple protocol stacks to share one network
interface, something that's tough to do with linked-in drivers. There
is an example of how to do this with Netware floating around on the
net. It is not designed to allow two different implementations of one
protocol stack to share an interface, though (for instance, running
two different TCP's over one packet driver isn't likely to work at all).

Also, Clarkson University has put together a collection of packet
drivers for most of the ethernet cards you can get for a PC. You can
find all this stuff on vax.ftp.com or look on sun.soe.clarkson.edu.

   >>	BWNFS

Beame & Whiteside NFS, one of the commercial TCP's for the PC.

		- john romkey			Epilogue Technology
USENET/UUCP/Internet:  romkey@asylum.sf.ca.us	FAX: 415 594-1141