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From: fks@FTP.COM (Frances Selkirk)
Newsgroups: comp.archives
Subject: [tcp-ip] Re:  NDIS spec.
Message-ID: <1990Dec17.170905.16777@ox.com>
Date: 17 Dec 90 17:09:05 GMT
References: <9012102013.AA10764@ftp.com>
Sender: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti)
Reply-To: fks@FTP.COM (Frances Selkirk)
Followup-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
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Archive-name: internet/msdos/ndis/1990-12-10
Archive: vax.ftp.com:/pub/ndis-mac.v201.txt [128.127.2.100]
Original-posting-by: fks@FTP.COM (Frances Selkirk)
Original-subject: Re:  NDIS spec.
Reposted-by: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti)

NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) is not a card
specification, but, as the name says, a driver specification.
The specification was written by Microsoft and 3Com, to provide,
like the packet driver, a common interface to many cards, which 
send packets to a single stack or demultiplex packets of different
types for two protocol stacks. Although Version 2.0.1 of the spec
came out about a year ago, most available drivers are still 1.0.1
based, and do not support unbinding. 

Both versions of the spec are available by anonymous ftp to vax.ftp.com.
A packet driver to ndis converter, for most software that will run on 
the packet driver to use an NDIS driver, is available also, under the
name "dis_pkt.dos."

Unlike packet drivers, most NDIS drivers are written by hardware
manufacturers, and are owned by those manufacturers. (As far as I
know, however, only Ungerman-Bass charges customers for their NDIS
driver.) They tend to be supported software.


Frances Kirk Selkirk		 info@ftp.com	           (617) 246-0900
FTP Software, Inc.		 26 Princess Street, Wakefield, MA  01880