Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!ucbvax!NUSVM.BITNET!CCECL From: CCECL@NUSVM.BITNET ("L. Chandra") Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc Subject: Re: PC Networks based on TCP/IP Message-ID: <9105221012.aa04311@louie.udel.edu> Date: 22 May 91 16:00:29 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 42 X-Unparsable-Date: Wed, 22 May 91 22:05:20 SST We are trying 3+Open TCP (from HP) here. It has an utility to poke the local NetBios cache to add a remote NetBios name, so that a workstation can locate a server across routers. It works much like 3+Open XNS's REMSERVE/3NB. Currently the utility (Addname) allows you to add up to 4 remote NetBios names, this is still better than 3NB which can only REG one name at a time. I am told that PC/TCP's NetBios interoperates with LAN Manager but it does not have any utility to allow "Internet NetBios". There are some problems which we need to resolve: 1. 3+Open TCP stack is much fatter than 3Com's NBP stack. On a 286 PC with Himem.sys we get about 460k of free memory. This is slightly better than 435k of 3+Open XNS. But 460k is still not good enough for some RAM hungry DOS applications. 3+Open TCP is able to take advantage of shadow RAM, expanded memory, etc. But our 286 PC's do not have these. On a 386 PC, with the help of a 386 memory manager (such as 3COMEMM), memory is not a problem. PC/TCP NetBios is slightly fatter than 3+Open TCP (by 10-20k) and does not know shadow RAM and expanded memory. I am told that it can be loaded high on a 386 but I have not tried that. 2. Assigning an unique IP address to each PC is a pain. PC/TCP has Bootp client. 3+Open does not. We tried to implement a Bootp client but there isn't any IFCONFIG utility to assign IP address on the fly. Bootp client would have to modify PROTOCOL.INI (the ip address is hardcoded there), unload the TCP stack, reload the stack to reread PROTOCOL.INI. It's quite a pain. It also slow down the boot time, especially if you boot from a floopy disk. As it is, LAN Manager boot up time is already very slow as compared to Novell Netware. 3. Performance of 3+Open TCP is not as good as NBP. We ran PC Magazine LAN Benchmark to compare 3+Open TCP vs NBP using 8MHz 286 PC, I do not have the figure in front of me but I recall in certain test, that speed of TCP workstation is about 30-40% that of NBP. It is not so bad if the workstations are fast 386's. I did not test the performance of PC/TCP. 4. If you use 3+Open TCP, you lost the ability to run PC/TCP, CUTCP, ka9q... and the applications which come with 3+Open TCP is not that fantastic. Big *sigh*. -Chandra Liem