From: gwe@cbnews.cb.att.com (george.w.erhart)
Subject: Re: Need info on Chameleon TCP/IP software
Organization: AT&T
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 12:41:35 GMT
Keywords: Chameleon, TCP/IP, Windows 3.x, Windows NT

In article <xsong.721326802@marcus> xsong@marcus.cs.umn.edu (Carol Xiaohui Song) writes:
>- Chameleon TCP/IP application package (for Windows 3.x).
>How do you like the applications it provides such as Telnet, FTP,
>SMTP/Mail, etc?  

In general their applications are okay. IMHO, the next windows telnet interface
remains QVTNET. The Chameleon telnet is definitely second. The QVT has the best
cut/paste mouse interface. I have had some trouble with Chameleon, where I
can cut an item, it appears on the clipboard, but it fails to paste. Chameleon
seems to like to put a CR/NL after all pasted selections. (This is stupid!)
Finally, if you have more than 24 lines of scroll buffer defined, when the
display fills, a scroll bar appears on the bottom of the display. This scroll
bar uses 1 line of the display. Thus, when you go into VI, the cursor disappears
under the menubar at the top of the window. You have to select Settings->Reset
Size to get rid of the scrollbar and get the window back to 24 lines. (This is
also stupid, I have programmed a "Recorder" macro to automate this process and
assigned it to F12.)

>For example, can you open multiple telnet sessions? when
>you open an application like telnet, do you simply click on the icon?

Yes, you click on the icon, then use the connect menu to select the destination.
Or, you can set up and icon with the destination passed as an argument
(see the "properties" menu item). (I use the latter in conjunction with 
a freeware program called Dropper that gives me a Norton Desktop ability to
put program icons on the base window.

>Any features that you like/dislike in particular?

In addition to the above ... the newest version of ChameleonNFS integrates
NFS into the filemanager. This is great and it seems to work okay. There are
a few problems.

	1. I could not get it to work with the pcnfsd that came with the 
	   WIN/TCP 386 TCP/IP package that we run on our UNIX 5.3.2.3 boxes.
	   A work around was to self-authorize. (Chameleon allows others to
	   mount your PCs drives. It has a built-in pcnfsd.) The problem
	   with this is the giant security hole that makes. (I can change
	   my own system and authorize myself to mount anything I want!)

	2. The mapping from UNIX long names to DOS 8.3 names has some problems.
	   I have a directory on the UNIX box that contains a several days
	   worth of weather map GIFs. I have found that the NFS mapping repeats
	   some of the names. This means that there are files that I can not
	   select some of the files. 

	3. They do have a function for finding out what the real name of the
	   file was. However, the function is part of the "network" widget on
	   the control panel. This makes it a pain to use. The really should
	    make it a filemanager extension.

>
>- Chameleon32 for Windows NT is the developer's release. Has anyone used it
>already?  Is it good (adequate and efficient) for developing software that
>makes use of TCP/IP?

I have order two copies of this ... if any one is interested, I will post
a noet about this once I get it running.

>- Is Chameleon TCP/IP software reliable? If you're using one, are you
>satisfied with their tech support? (competence, efficiency of the technical
>personnel)

I have purchased and reviewed 6 DOS/Windows TCP/IP packages. I have found
that Chameleon is very reliable "on my hardware, with my drives". Please note
that with different hardware and different NDIS drivers, you may have a 
different experience. I have had on-going problems with the PCNFSD mentioned
above and with sendmail. I believe that most (if not all) of the problems are
with the UNIX side of things. The folks at NetManage have been very helpful.

>- Anything I should know besides these?
>The price tag on Chameleon is a little high. I'd like to hear from its users
>before I decide to purchase the software.

The price is definitely  high when compared to QVTNET, but QVTNTE does not
have:
	NFS client & server
	SMTP mail server
	telnet 3270
	SNMP client
	TFTP client & server
	BIND (domain name server)
	built-in SLIP support

A word on the last item, I have tested various configurations for SLIP with
most of the TCP/IP packages I tested. The Chameleon implementation is both
the easiest to setup and the best performing. 

Finally, I run the Exceed/W X Window package on top of Chameleon. It seems
to out perform the same package running on top of FTP's PC/TCP 2.1.
-- 
George Erhart
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Columbus, Ohio
att!archie!gwe or gwe@archie.att.com
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip