From: CRDGW2::CRDGW2::MRGATE::"SMTP::CRVAX.SRI.COM::RELAY-INFO-VAX" 12-DEC-1989 03:12 To: MRGATE::"ARISIA::EVERHART" Subj: Re: tcp/ip software surveys Received: From YMIR.CLAREMONT.EDU by CRVAX.SRI.COM with TCP; Mon, 11 DEC 89 23:07:03 PDT Received: from FRIDAY.A-T.COM by YMIR.BITNET; Mon, 11 Dec 89 20:02 PST Date: Mon, 11 Dec 89 19:59 PST From: "Kevin V. Carosso" <@YMIR.CLAREMONT.EDU:KVC@FRIDAY.A-T.COM> Subject: Re: tcp/ip software surveys To: info-vax@sri.com Message-Id: <0E25DCDEC79F8014C4@YMIR.BITNET> X-Vms-To: in%"info-vax@sri.com" Mike Dorl writes: > I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has done a > survey of the vms tcp/ip software market. I'd like to > see a list of what's available listing services provided, > pmdf support, cost, and actual user experiences. Here's the ones I know about, with some biased personal comments attached. I don't know costs of any of these. We never thought PMDF would grow to the point that "PMDF support" is near the top of the "requirements" list, but we do love flattery! :-) -------- MultiNet, from TGV, Inc. (Adelman@TGV.COM) The best of the bunch. Largest repetoire of facilities and services. Built by people who really know TCP/IP and VMS and really want to offer the best. Great performance and very nicely integrated with VMS. The network kernel is built on the latest and greatest Berkeley code. They've figured out how to stuff it into VMS without looking like a bag stuck onto the OS. Most of the utilities have been rewritten for VMS and are not simple ports of UNIX apps. Needs work on the documentation end but they're addressing that now. Supports a large number of devices, DEC and other ethernet, SLIP, Hyperchannel, ACC, IP-over-DECnet (as well as DECnet-over-IP which is extremely useful!) and a host of others I don't recognize. NFS server (very fast) with NFS client (!) in test. They also provide support for Chaos and PUP protocols. Supported by PMDF 'cause that's what we use at Innosoft. -------- FUSION from NRC (@NRC.COM) [dunno who, try postmaster] VMS technical support is good, they've got VMS people who know what they're doing. The network kernel is unusual in that it is NRC's own, not based on Berkeley code. FUSION was not originally written for VMS (NRC sells it for DOS, XENIX and other systems as well) so it suffers somewhat from growing up in a foreign kernel and not being integrated with VMS as cleanly as MultiNet or UCX. FUSION also supports XNS protocols instead of, or alongside, TCP/IP. Supports DEC ethernet, someone's (Proteon maybe?) token ring, DDCMP (DMR, DMV, async), ACC and SIMPACT X.25. Didn't do IP-over DECnet or DECnet-over-IP when I last looked. NFS server supported, though not terribly fast. Pretty good collection of utilities. Utilities could be better integrated with VMS (they use UNIX style commands and switches). Documentation (last I looked/wrote) is ok, could be better. Customer support seems to vary widely. Sometimes good, other times not so good. I used to work on FUSION and it's gotten a LOT better in the last two years or so. (That corresponds with when I started, not when I left :-) PMDF does have a FUSION channel. -------- WIN/TCP, The Wollongong Group (@TWG.COM) [dunno who] Probably the most widely used. Been on the market the longest and garnered the most market share. Originally written by the MultiNet folks (who learned a lot, then did MultiNet). Berkeley code inside coerced into VMS. Could be cleaned up and integrated a lot better but I don't think that Wollongong has the VMS internals know-how to do it. Applications look like simple ports from UNIX, with UNIX style commands and switches. Wollongong seems to "take and sell" or "port and sell", I really haven't seen much innovation or original development out of them. Supports a large number of network devices. Don't know about SLIP. I think they do IP-over-DECnet but I don't know about DECnet-over-IP. NFS server available, don't know it's performance. Good variety of utilities, probably second in number only to MultiNet. Wollongong has had a reputation over the years of being particularly unresponsive in the customer support arena. They were trying to clean up their act, however. Having never dealt directly with them, I can't say if they really were that bad or if they've fixed it. PMDF supports Wollongong because it's call-compatible with MultiNet. They use the same channel code. -------- VMS/Ultrix Connection (or UCX), Digital Equipment Corp. A nicely done implementation of the Berkeley (Ultrix, actually) network kernel for VMS. Integrates very nicely with VMS, as clean or cleaner than MultiNet. Performance is quite good. The design center for the first release of UCX concentrated on providing NFS server capabilities for VMS. This they did quite well. Unfortunately, it means that the other network applications and services that people expect are not there yet. Currently you get the network kernel (accessible through a documented QIO interface or socket library calls in the VAX C Run-Time Library as of VMS V5.2) the NFS server, FTP client and server, and some management utilities. DEC says TELNET and other applications will be forthcoming in subsequent releases. It could be a while, however, before they have some of the more complex facilities like Domain Names. Supports DEC ethernet devices only. PMDF supports UCX (and is, in fact, the only way to get electronic mail with UCX since Digital doesn't provide an SMTP server or a VAX MAIL interface with their own TCP/IP product). -------- CMU/Tek IP/TCP, Carnegie-Mellon University [not sure the email address] A "cost of distribution only" implementation. Originally developed by Tektronix and enhanced/distributed in recent years by CMU. This is a VMS only implementation of TCP/IP, done from scratch. You get the source code but it is in BLISS. Well integrated with VMS. Performance is not stellar but for many people it gets the job done. No formal support but Bruce Miller at CMU seems to work his heart out. There is also a mailing list which deals with a lot of front-line support issues (much as PMDF is handled). A good package if you've got the "do-it-yourself" attitude and don't need performance and support of a commercial product. Not too many utilities, basic FTP, TELNET, and SMTP (mail) applications and services. Supports DEC ethernet, SLIP, and X.25 devices that I've heard of. I think the latter two are user-contributed, may not be in the base package. No NFS server, though there are noises about doing one. -------- Process Software They've got TCP/IP for VMS and RSX-11. Haven't heard much recently, though they did exist a year ago. Not an extensive set of apps or services. Odd in that it appeared that you bought each one separately. (i.e. you bought FTP, and/or TELNET, etc...) We don't have a PMDF channel for it as we've never seen it, but they bought PMDF once so maybe they've done a channel. -------- LightSpeed TCP, Brian Catlin and Associates (I think was the name) Was a native implementation of the protocols for VMS. I think written in BLISS. Heard about it a year or so ago, but haven't heard anything since. Not many user-level apps or services. ======================================================== Hardware based products: These are cards with TCP/IP protocols on the board and some software on VMS to communicate with the board and provide user applications and services. Can provide greater performance than host-based TCP/IP, but they are ethernet only, have no gateway capabilities, and may not be available for all VAX systems. Individually, I don't know too much about these, so I'll just list the companies I know have a board-level TCP/IP product for VMS. Excelan, CMC, MICOM (used to be Interlan I believe) and possible Xyplex. I believe CMC has an NFS server. I think there is a PMDF channel for the Excelan board as MultiNet has an Excelan emulation driver we can use to develop/test it. This list is probably not extensive. I'm sorry I don't have more information on the board-level products, but I never followed them too closely as I've always needed more capability than they can provide. /Kevin Carosso kvc@friday.a-t.com Innosoft kvc@ymir.bitnet