REVIEWS

TGV's MultiNet All Decked Out For The Windows TCP/IP Stack Race

by Ron Anderson

Yet another contestant has entered the Windows TCP/IP stack race. However, this one comes from TGV, a vendor who traditionally plays in Digital Equipment Corp. environments, and who is trying to bring that success into the world of Windows. TGV's MultiNet for Windows is a TCP/IP stack and IP applications suite that offers Internet basics for Windows users in a fast, easy-to-install, but pricey package.

Since MultiNet is a Windows-only package, you won't need to deal with the messy world of DOS Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) programs and DOS memory limitations. The IP stack runs on top of ODI, NDIS2 or NDIS3 network card drivers or over dial-up lines via Serial Line IP (SLIP). We tested the NDIS3 installation over Windows for Workgroups. TGV includes a "standard" suite of Internet applications and an integrated NFS client. It also includes Kerberos authentication. Large Internet sites will notice that BOOTP and DHCP IP address management are absent. For most large sites, this lack of address management is a show-stopper, but TGV plans to release an update this month that will include both of these features.

Performance Characteristics We ran into a couple of problems with FTP client file displays. When we connected to the Windows-based WFTPD and the FTP server included with Novell's NFS Services for NetWare 4.1, MultiNet's FTP client was unable to display file and directory information correctly. A popular FTP client, WS_FTP, was able to resolve this listing correctly. TGV indicated that it would be looking to fix these problems for v1.2.

We did some simple benchmarking. Using MultiNet's FTP client over MultiNet's stack, we transferred slightly more than 6 MB of mixed files in 117 seconds, or about 52 Kbps. Using MultiNet's IP stack and WS_FTP, we achieved 190 Kbps (32 seconds), leading us to conclude that the stock installation of MultiNet's FTP client needs to be tweaked a bit to improve speed.

In fact, that's the case, as we found out from TGV. In our previous TCP/IP performance testing, we left the products at their default settings, and did so here with MultiNet. The documentation does explain how to change the default TCP window size, but insists that the default settings will be appropriate for most users. Many users won't be changing these anyway.

Nevertheless, throughput of 190 Kbps puts MultiNet at the top of the heap compared with the others we've tested. We also tested WS_FTP over Microsoft's Windows for Workgroups IP stack for comparison. Throughput was down to 145 Kbps (42 seconds) with this configuration.

Ron Anderson is the manager of Microcomputer Network Services at Syracuse University. He can be reached via e-mail at rbanders@syr.edu.

October 15, 1995