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LETTERS

Imitation Is A Form Of Flattery?

Earle: Hey, Behzad and Ron, check out this On The Wire article in the March 15 issue ("Big RIPoff: Do You Know Where Your Packets Are?," page 103). Is this the way RIP works?

Behzad: Let me see that. (Glances at graphic by Michael Klein.) Hey, these are the same guys who wrote that article on watchdog. I corresponded with them several times to straighten out problems.

Ron: Hmmm Are they saying that both the third-party router and the NetWare server/ router will respond to the RIP request from the local segment?

Behzad: That's the way it looks to me. The router on the local segment will not respond to this RIP request, assuming it is following Novell's IPX routing specification. That's because the router knows that the server is on the same segment as the workstation and, at one hop, is the shortest route, while the router makes the server two hops away.

Ron: And check out what they recommend as a solution. Having the router delay the response to a RIP request forces all traffic through the file server. On a big network, that could cause terrible congestion.

Earle: Besides that, you've got a very expensive router doing nothing, since the file server will now be routing all traffic.

Behzad: This can be easily tested and verified by replacing the router with another NetWare server, then analyzing a trace of the network traffic.

Ron: The only case where both routers will respon d to a RIP request is when they are both the same distance from the server the workstation is attempting to communicate with. In this case, the workstation will use the first one that responds. Let me draw it on the whiteboard:

Behzad: It sounds like they lo oked at a trace. They must have a really old router, or else one that doesn't follow the current IPX specification.

Earle: Do you think we should tell them about this?

Ron: I'm not sure. Do you think it will hurt their feelings?

Behzad: Nah. Like I said, I've worked with these guys. They'll do the right thing and print a correction, I bet.

Earle Wells, Ron Richardson, Behzad Moaddeli
Product Support Engineer
Novell

Bill Alderson and J. Scott Haugdahl reply: Love the response, guys. We will respond to the technical issues in a future column.

Social Skills

I've just finished reading Bill Frezza's column for the second time ("Standing on the Threshold of Social Computing," March 1, page 31). I am one of those who viewed 3-D interactive virtual reality (VR) as "just another cute interface geegaw." After reading Frezza's article, I am convinced it will be as important to the development o f the Internet as a keyboard was to the PC.

I have to disagree with the determination of value in a virtual world. In the real world, scarcity is what creates value. I see no practical need to limit the speed at which one can move around a virtual world. Since the barriers of time and space are removed, why build a model based on an outmoded concept? Why penalize the virtual traveler for the sake of the virtual baron?

There is no way to correlate the value of real-world assets to the virtual worlds they contain. A 4-GB hard drive that holds Las Vegas, Alphaworld is worth far more than $2,000. Since you can simply add capacity ad infinitum to expand virtual worlds, how do you maintain value among virtual urban sprawl? You can't create scarcity with r eal-world barriers to entry.

As often happens with a new discovery, invention or concept, those who are there at the beginning set the rules. Worlds, Inc., and anyone who joins it can easily create boundaries to the universe. Any t rue society will work out the issue of value once the borders have been marked. It's up to you whether you plant corn or build skyscrapers.

Terry Hostetler
Network Consultant
Georgia-Pacific Chemical Division

I Want My PGP

I read Christine Hudgins-Bonafield's article "Laptops Across National Borders" (Network Computing Online, March 1, http://techweb.cmp.com:80/techweb/nc/704/704f3.html). I travel to London on occasions and I have PGP on my laptop. Am I technically breaking the law if I use it for my personal business?

Name Withheld Upon Request

Christine Hudgins-Bonafield replies: You might want to check it out with the State Department. I heard secondhand that the regulation I wrote about creating a personal exemption was accepted. At least in its early stages, the regulation required that you sign your laptop in and out upon leaving the country and attest that you wouldn't sell or otherwise propagate the encryption on it.

Correction

The Telebit FastBlazer 8840 Modem, an Honorable Mention for the Well-Connected Modem Award, is priced at $1,099. The April 1 issue listed an incorrect price, supplied by the vendor.

May 15, 1996