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From: OWEN@DUCVAX.AUBURN.EDU (Larry Owen)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc
Subject: TCP/IP, PC LAN, and token ring
Message-ID: <BD013E60A0000D82@ducvax.auburn.edu>
Date: 4 Feb 91 21:25:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 30

Hello.  I am the campus network manager at Auburn University.  Like most
universities, our campus net is a tcp/ip-based internet.  Currently, all
the constituent nets are ethernets, but we are fixin' to (as we say down
here) connect our first token ring to the campus net.  We use CUTCP/NCSA
for PCs on ethernets, and packet drivers to deal with Novell, but this 
new token ring presents a problem for us.  This department runs the IBM
PC LAN network operating system, and uses an OS/2 server.

I am far from an expert on PCs, but my understanding of the issues in
putting a tcp/ip stack on these machines is that there are 2 basic
approaches:
  1. NetBIOS-over-tcp/ip.  I don't like this one much because of
     a) the performance hit, and b) I don't know of anyone offering
     the server side (ie. OS/2) implementation.
  2. A stack written to the ASI interface, allowing NetBIOS traffic
     to be multiplexed with the ip traffic (using IBM's device drivers,
     which, if I understand IBM's marketing, is the PC LAN Support
     Program).  The vendors that I *think* support this are FTP,
     Wollongong, and IBM.  Is this correct?  Are there others? 
     What about U. of Maryland's stuff?
I guess what I'm looking for is a sanity check on my concept of this
particular little corner of the universe.  Is there anything obviously
wrong-headed or factually incorrect about the above?  Are there other
ways of achieving PC LAN and tcp/ip coexistence?  Thanks in advance
for shedding any light you can.  Replies to me, and I'll summarize
to the list.

Larry Owen                           Bitnet:   owen@auducvax
Campus Network Administrator         Internet: owen@ducvax.auburn.edu
Auburn University                    Phone:    (205) 844-4110