How doth our resident Marketing gurus plan to address this???
From Communications Week Online -- Current Issue (for entire story)
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We take Novell's IP to task in an often hair-raising configuration process
By JAMES E. GASKIN
Since the Web captured the imagination of the non-computer world in early 1994, even in the networking industry all things Internet are considered "good" while all things non-Internet are considered "bad." This has led to a massive repositioning of many computer companies' marketing schemes, even if it meant only changing labels to conform to the Internet hysteria. (Click here for related stories)
Part of the Internet tidal wave is the TCP/IP protocol suite. The only protocol allowed on the Internet since Jan. 1, 1983, TCP/IP is now considered "good" and non-TCP/IP protocols are considered "bad."
Unfortunately, for both computer companies and their customers, we're finding out that TCP/IP support requires more work than slapping an "Internet Ready" label on existing product boxes.
Novell's IPX/SPX protocol is still the world's most popular protocol, despite what the TCP/IP hype would lead you to believe. An estimated 55,000,000 computers worldwide use IPX to communicate, and much
more than 3,000 applications are programmed to use IPX. Early complaints about WAN performance have been answered by implementing more efficient IPX WAN interaction technology between servers
and clients as part of the NetWare 4.1 release 18 months ago.
So what's wrong with IPX? It's not TCP/IP. To bridge this "gap" and answer fans of both TCP/IP and NetWare, Novell released the first version of NetWare/IP to run with NetWare 3.12 as an extra price option. Today, NetWare/IP version 2.2 is bundled with NetWare 4.11. TCP/IP fans are no longer forced to choose between NetWare and TCP/IP;
NetWare/IP provides a full, TCP/IP protocol suite for all client to server communications.
Does free mean worthless? Not at all. Is running TCP/IP something many NetWare users should consider? Again, not at all. NetWare/IP fills a specific niche for a small group of large NetWare customers. However, with the Internet frenzy still running high, many companies want to standardize TCP/IP as their networking protocol, and NetWare/IP can make this possible.
In this article we'll take a hands-on, nuts-and-bolts gander at NetWare/IP and also look at alternatives from Novell and third-party vendors that let NetWare clients connect to TCP/IP and the Internet.
(LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF TECHNICAL JUNK CLIPPED AT THIS POINT)
The Bottom Line (THAT'S ALL *I* CARE ABOUT)
Although NetWare/IP performs as advertised, it desperately points out the need for an upgrade in Novell's installation and configuration tools. Rarely is the user interface factor between Windows NT and
NetWare as obvious as when performing major configuration operations. The C-Worthy interface has long outlived it's usefulness, although it's still tolerable for quick installation operations. Microsoft's NT
Server, while not as flexible as NetWare 4.11, looks like a major leap forward in functionality because of its graphical nature. Face it, Novell, it's now a GUI world, and Microsoft is far ahead in this area.
The bottom line is if you use NetWare/IP for the narrowly defined goal of replacing IPX with TCP/IP for all client to server communications, you will be successful. If you use NetWare/IP for some other reason,
your mileage may vary.
James E. Gaskin is a Dallas-area network consultant, columnist and author of in-depth NetWare books (The Complete Guide to NetWare 4.1 from Sybex) and books connecting NetWare to the world
(Integrating Unix and NetWare Networks from Novell Press, and NetWare to Internet Gateways from Prentice Hall). His latest book is Corporate Politics and the Internet: Connection Without Controversy, also from Prentice Hall. He can be reached at james@gaskin.com.
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Joe <????> |
