Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ub!clarkson!grape.ecs.clarkson.edu!nelson From: nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc Subject: Re: Question about packet, NDIS, Clarkson, BYU, etc Message-ID: Date: 4 May 91 03:28:17 GMT References: Sender: usenet@grape.ecs.clarkson.edu Reply-To: nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu (aka NELSON@CLUTX.BITNET) Distribution: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc Organization: Clarkson University, Potsdam NY Lines: 57 In-Reply-To: millar@rocket.uucp's message of 2 May 91 15:00:44 GMT In article millar@rocket.uucp (Jeff Millar) writes: [ John, do you think you should add these to the FAQ file? -russ ] - What is NDIS, what is it used for? NDIS stands for "Never Do It Simply", or "Now Don't It Suck", or maybe "Network Device Interface Specification", or something like that. It's Yet Another Standard promulgated by that great ignorer of defacto standards, Microsoft (and I guess 3Com had something to do with it also). All sarcasm aside, it does basically the same job as the packet drivers. The technical details are a little different, and you can argue until you're blue in the face about which is better. As a practical matter, LAN Manager requires an NDIS driver, so NDIS isn't going away. And I'm a crazy man, so the packet drivers aren't going away either. - When would I use a Clarkson packet driver? Ahem. They're the Clarkson *collection* of packet drivers. We didn't write them all, in fact we've only done about half. But anyway, you'd use a packet driver with a packet driver client, like NetCure, or its follow-on product, the Beholder, or Netwatch (or it's much-improved descendent Lanwatch from PC-FTP Software), or KA9Q, or PC-NFS, or NCSA Telnet, or CUTCP, or WATTCP, or ICE-TCP, or B&W (no, not Black&White, but Beame & Whiteside), or Win/TCP etc.... All of the above have their own built-in drivers, but given that a company can write *one* packet driver and run with any of the above packages, you can guess what a company will do... - When would I use a BYU what-ever-it-is? You mean the BYU packet driver shell? It's a bit of software that convinces Novell's IPX to use a packet driver instead of going directly to an Ethernet card. That gives you two advantages: you can use a card that doesn't have a Novell driver (that's the null set, just so'd you know), and (more importantly) you can use TCP/IP while also running Novell. - Why does FTP Inc. ship all that public domain software with their product? They're from MIT, it's in their blood. Not to mention the fact that the software enhances their product. Oh, and by the way, the Clarkson collection of packet drivers aren't public domain. They *are* freely copyable, but copyrighted with the "copyleft". The copyleft prevents anyone from failing to distribute the source if they distribute the executables, and it also prevents them from making the program non-freely copyable. Well, actually, it doesn't *prevent* them, it just makes it illegal. -- --russ I'm proud to be a humble Quaker. It's better to get mugged than to live a life of fear -- Freeman Dyson I joined the League for Programming Freedom, and I hope you'll join too.