LETTERS

High Tide For The FCC?

Thanks to Bill Frezza for an intriguing piece on the role of redundant regulators in an era of irrevocable change ("The FCC: Standing at a Crossroad," September 1, page 37).

Let me add to this prognosis that the tides of change are not limited solely to the U.S. The European Union, too, is grappling with the same situation across this continent, and many believe that attempts to stratify the telemedia markets are as pointless, pathetic and prohibitively expensive as those across the Atlantic.

The problems of defining terms of reference are even more fraught in Brussels, where more than a dozen national legislative frameworks have to be harmonized to achieve the so-called deregulation of the telecommunications market. What is worse is that trying to keep a lid on Pandora's box will cost the taxpayers billions while achieving little in terms of service to the customer or any social altruism. Technological changes will drive the pigs to market, and entities that purport to police the information highways and skyways will end up dragging progress' coattails rather than promulgating it.

Paul Quigley
Chairperson
Synergis
Manchester, England

Platform Pressure

Regarding the comments from John H. Newton, a network administrator for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ("VINES Are NOSes, Too," Letters, June 1, page 18), I wonder: Why does the military always do it a different way? While 60 percent of the commercial market uses NetWare, Mr. Newton claims that 60 percent of the government market uses Banyan VINES.

I'm a net administrator of a multif ile server LAN on an Air Force base somewhere in Texas. Most of the LANs here are using Novell 3.11 or 3.12. Our WAN guys are pushing everyone to upgrade Novell NetWare to Banyan VINES NOS (as opposed to upgrading to NetWare 4.1). Is using VINES just someone's personal preference or is there a benefit to moving over to Banyan VINES?

It makes more sense to stay with an operating system that has 60 percent or more of the market share. Direct vendor and third-party support of your NOS seem to support this train of thought. I have added many third-party products to my network (that is, Fax Press, Net Modem, Net CD ROM, Net Virus Scan and so on), and my biggest worry about changing would be compatibility with my current equipment and planned upgrades. Most vendors appear to support the NetWare NDS, but I couldn't say that about VINES StreetTalk.

An Administrator Deep in the Heart of Texas

Making The Right ISDN Connection

Bruce Robertson and Jeff Newman's article, "ISDN Does It All!" (May 1, page 62), detailing the options for ISDN connectivity, was clear and concise. I currently have a PRI (MIP) card in one of the Cisco 7000 routers that is being used for backup of our WAN. I would like to use the spare capacity on this PRI for remote access and have started to review ISDN terminal adapters for the remote end.

The Cisco MIP requires CHAP and supports PPP, but not MP or MLP as of yet. I would like to assign addresses dynamically, but I am curious as to how this will affect DNS or Internet sites that validate the IP address against DNS name. Most of our users would be Windows-based and our current protocol stack is Novell TCP/IP client (not LAN WorkPlace for DOS). We will be migrating to Windows95 and would prefer to avoid additional costs. I would prefer the TA be internal vs. external. My first inclination is to use Cisco products on both ends, but they are expensive. Any suggestions or direction?

Name Withheld

Bruce Robertson replies: We have not tested any Cisco single-user equipment, but we are working on testing some small office routers (like the small Ciscos, Ascends, Combinets and such on ISDN). Results will be in the magazine soon. We're also working on a BitSurfer review, to come out soon.

If you wait for Windows95, you also have to wait and see what it supports in ISDN equipment. There's nothing out there now. I still believe that you'll want a PPP/MLP device and not just a TA, though, in Windows95's case, you'll be using Microsoft's TCP/IP stack and it does not yet do MLP. So, my best suggestion is to wait for the products that come out with native 32-bit support for Windows95 and for Microsoft to add MLP to the PPP stacks. Then you'll be able to make a good choice for the future.

Corrections

In "And the NICs Just Keep on Coming: 18 PCI Card Options for Your Network," (July 1, page 136), Racal InterLan should receive a 3.5 in the Workstation Performance portion of the report card, giving it a score of 4.15.

We misprinted the capacity of 8-mm tape in "Developing Network Backup Solutions" in the May 15 issue (page 151). The correct capacity of Exabyte's 8-mm tape is 7 GB.

In the June 1 buyer's guide on Internet Connectivity Providers (page 177), IBM's Global Network should have been priced as follows: 56 KB--$1,000 month/$2,000 installation; 128 KB--$2,000/$3,000; 256 KB--$2,300/ $3,000; 512 KB--$3,000/$3,000; T1--$3,500/$3,000; and T3--on request.

October 15, 1995