From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Feb 19 14:11:18 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id OAA28507 for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 19 Feb 1996 14:11:18 -0800 (PST) Received: from etinc.com (etinc.com [165.254.13.209]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id OAA28491 for ; Mon, 19 Feb 1996 14:11:02 -0800 (PST) Received: from ppp-082.etinc.com (ppp-082.etinc.com [204.141.95.142]) by etinc.com (8.6.12/8.6.9) with SMTP id RAA10103; Mon, 19 Feb 1996 17:13:37 -0500 Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 17:13:37 -0500 Message-Id: <199602192213.RAA10103@etinc.com> X-Sender: dennis@etinc.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 2.0.3 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: Terry Lambert From: dennis@etinc.com (dennis) Subject: Re: BSDi : Internet Gateway for Novell Networks Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk >> > One of these was a system called the BSDi Internet gateway for novell >> > networks. it sells for $1595 for 5 users and comes with www/ftp etc, >> > but the bit that caught my attention was the fact that it can be used >> > for leased-line/dialup routing and (if the article is correct) no >> > tcp/ip support is needed on the local n/w at all !! >> >> Yep! A few people tell me that Novell admins love this since it lets >> them keep their networks "pure" - no icky TCP/IP frames on their >> lovely little IPX networks (and, of course, the clients don't need to >> run TCP/IP stacks). >> >> I think it would definitely be a well-regarded feature for FreeBSD if >> we supported TCP/IP encapsulation like this. I don't know how much >> work is involved, but.. > >I do. I did a product proposal for this type of thing at Novell. Even >did some preliminary code. 8-). > > >The biggest pain is setting up the server engine to advertise itself >and respond to "GetNearestServer()" requests of the apropriate type. > >You will need a NetWare developer kit for the client API on the >Windows box. > >The largest amount of grunt-work is in writing the Winsock-over-IPX >tunnel. This is not quite traditional tunneling. > >Anyone have a full set of client developer red-boxes? This is really quite silly (clearly an opinion)....haven't any of you heard that Windows '95 is here? I think that BSDI (and you) missed the boat on this one....now that Windows comes with a stack...and you have to be a real moron not to be able to install it..the usefulness of this "gateway" product has substantially diminished. Struggling with ODI on DOS boxes.....now i really could have used it then, but now it doesnt cost me anything for TCP/IP and its a snap to install and configure. Anyway...isn't Novell supposed to be moving toward an IP based link layer? Dennis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emerging Technologies, Inc. http://www.etinc.com Synchronous Communications Cards and Routers For Discriminating Tastes. 56k to T1 and beyond. Frame Relay, PPP, HDLC, and X.25 for BSD/OS, FreeBSD and LINUX