Newsgroups: bit.listserv.big-lan
Date:         Tue, 21 Jul 1992 11:54:18 EDT
From:         BIG-REQ@SUVM.BITNET
Subject:      BIG-LAN Digest, Volume 4, Number 49, Tuesday, July 21, 1992

BIG-LAN DIGEST            Tuesday, 21 July 1992        Volume 4 : Issue 49

Today's Topics:

         Administrivia: Not everyone got Volume 4 Numbers 47 & 48
                          Banyan Vines to RS6000
                    How to detect PC network cards (A)
                           Re: Network Adaptors
                                 SCO Unix

Moderated by John Wobus, Syracuse University

Relevant addresses:
                                  Internet                BITNET
Submissions:              big-lan@suvm.acs.syr.edu     BIG-LAN@SUVM
Subscriptions:    big-lan-request@suvm.acs.syr.edu     BIG-REQ@SUVM
LISTSERV/Archives:       listserv@suvm.acs.syr.edu    LISTSERV@SUVM
Moderator:                jmwobus@syr.edu              JMWOBUS@SYREDU
Anonymous ftp archives:           syr.edu

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"redistribution" list, you will need to remember its owner.

syr.edu also has a copy of the BIG-LAN "FAQ" memo (answers to frequently
asked questions) under the path information/big-lan/big-lan.faq

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:      Tue, 21 Jul 1992 11:40:38 EDT
From:      BIG-REQ@SUVM
Subject:      Administrivia: Not everyone got Volume 4 Numbers 47 & 48

BIG-LAN's distribution mechanism ran into a snag again so a lot of people
did not get Volume 4 Number 47 and Volume 4 Number 48.  I think the problem
is solved, but I will watch this issue to see if it is distributed properly.
Then I will resend the other two issues.

If you received Numbers 47 & 48, then you will receive a second copy.
Sorry about that.  If you want to see them sooner or if you are missing
Number 45 or 46, then you can retrieve them from the archives.

John Wobus
BIG-LAN Administrator

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Date: Fri, 17 Jul 92 21:42:24 -0300
From: Rob Spellman <rob@mother.bates.edu>
Subject:      Banyan Vines to RS6000


>We are trying to connect an IBM RS6000 machine running an AIX 3.2 operating
>system and a BANYAN VINES network . I need help about the whole procedure
>Any suggestions ?

First of all, there is a mailing list which is dedicated to Banyan
Vines.  The address of the mailing list is banyan-l@vm1.cc.uakron.edu
(I think the bitnet address would be akronvm, but I'm not certain).
To subscribe to this list, send the following to
listserv@vm1.cc.uakron.edu:

subscribe banyan-l <your name>

As for connecting your vines lan to your rs 6000, you have two options
that I know of.  In the first option, you but some software from FTP
Software called PCTCP that will coexist with the vines protocol stack,
and allow your pcs to speak tcp/ip directly onto the lan.

The second option requires you to purchase the tcp/ip routing option
for one of your vines servers, and a different version of the FTP
software.  With this version, the tcp/ip is encapsulated within a
vines packet, and then sent to the tcp/ip routing server, which strips
the vines headers, and then forwards the tcp/ip packet on.  One of the
benefits of this option is that it will work over any network that is
supported by vines, including arcnet and starlan.  This would mean
that your pcs on an arnet could speak tcp/ip.

You must be careful when purchasing the PCTCP software.  You want to
make certain that you get the correct version.  I'm sorry that I can't
tell you versions since I'm away from the office right now, but if you
send me email, I can send the information when I return to my office.

Rob Spellman
rob@mother.bates.edu
Computing Support Services
Bates College
Lewiston, Maine

-------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 20 Jul 92 11:00:55 GMT
From: ccdps@lux.levels.unisa.edu.au (Dan Shearer)
Subject:      How to detect PC network cards (A)

>  I am posting this question for our network technician. He would like to know
>  if anyone has come up with a way to determine what network adaptor (NIC)
>  exists in a PC through the software before logging into a network. For
>  example, the PCs on our campus will have either token ring or Ethernet cards
>  -- is there a way to check ahead of time which kind of card exists in the PC
>  before accessing the network?

  Kathie,

  There are a number of ways of doing this, depending on what your network is
  and what level of detail you want. One of the simplest methods relies on
  your network vendor having a device driver installed corresponding to the
  particular network card in that machine (which is almost certainly the case.)
  You can check the existence of device drivers from DOS, so if the driver
  for your card happens to be called ELNKII$ you can say:

      IF EXIST ELNKII$ ECHO   There is a 3Com Etherlink II card installed

  If you don't know what the driver is called, a simple way to find out is
  to use DOS 5's MEM /D command, which lists the names of all drivers loaded.
  You can also use this method to determine the existence of extended memory,
  expanded memory, and so on. It is a very crude check, no staus info etc but
  works quite well.

  If you are using a packet driver you can query the packet driver for it's
  setup using an interrupt call - see Ralph Brown interrupt list for more
  details, or use CHECKSYS.EXE from Garbo or Simtel in the batch-file
  utility directories. CHECKSYS will do this for you, and return various
  errorlevels and also message.

  Another alternative is to write a program to detect network cards in much
  the same way as programs check for video cards. I have not seen a program
  that does this, but a resource would be the source code for all the
  different packet drivers which is readily available, if you were wanting
  to do it.

- --
 Dan Shearer                            email: Dan.Shearer@UniSA.edu.au
 Computer Centre                        Phone: +61 8 302 3479
 University of South Australia          Fax  : +61 8 302 3385

-------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 20 Jul 92 11:22:29 -0400
From: jbvb@ftp.com  (James B. Van Bokkelen)
Reply-To: jbvb-tech@ftp.com
Subject:      Re: Network Adaptors


     ... the PCs on our campus will have either token ring or Ethernet cards
     -- is there a way to check ahead of time which kind of card exists in
     the PC before accessing the network?

For the general case, the problem is so big that nobody has tried to solve
it (although it is solvable).  There are hundreds of different network cards,
and few, if any of the vendors have bothered to make them easy to identify
from software on the PC.  However, it might be easier to do what your site
needs.

If you can assume that the hardware has been installed right on the PC,
and you use standard drivers (Packet, ODI, NDIS), you just write a little
program that finds the driver and asks it what media it supports.  Even if
this isn't true of your Ethernet hardware, everything that talks 802.5 uses
standard software drivers (either IBM's LAN Support Program or NDIS or ODI),
so you can always recognize a correctly-installed 802.5.  Then, the scale
of your problem on Ethernet is mostly a matter of how many different kinds
of cards your people are allowed to buy.

James B. VanBokkelen		26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA  01880
FTP Software Inc.		voice: (617) 246-0900  fax: (617) 246-0901

-------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1992 13:50 EST
From: 01WJGREENWOO@BSUVAX1.BITNET
Subject:      SCO Unix

I need to know what would be required to run SCO Unix on an Intel 486.  Is
SCO Unix the best version of unix to run on an intel box?  (Yes it must be
an intel box.)  Is there public domain software available fo nameserving,
bootp etc. and where do I get it?  Who do I contact to acquire SCO Unix?
What are the hardware requirements?

We have a rapidly growing campus wide network composed of ethernet segments
connected to Cisco routers.  Currently nameserving is running on an IBM
mainframe under VM.  We would like to move nameservering off the mainframe
and onto a Unix based platform.  At the same time we would like to begin
providing additional services such as RARP and Bootp.  Another possible
application is a mail server.

I would like to hear anyone experiences with this approach. (using SCO Unix)

Thank you for your time and help.

Bill Greenwood
Network Analyst
Ball State University
Bitnet:  00wjgreenwoo@bsuvax1
Internet:  00wjgreenwoo@bsu.edu

-------------------------------------------------------


End of BIG-LAN Digest
*********************
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