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- Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!cbnewsc!cbfsb!cbnews!gwe
- From: gwe@cbnews.cb.att.com (george.w.erhart)
- Subject: Re: Need info on Chameleon TCP/IP software
- Organization: AT&T
- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 12:41:35 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Nov10.124135.15049@cbnews.cb.att.com>
- Keywords: Chameleon, TCP/IP, Windows 3.x, Windows NT
- References: <xsong.721326802@marcus>
- Lines: 95
-
- In article <xsong.721326802@marcus> xsong@marcus.cs.umn.edu (Carol Xiaohui Song) writes:
- >- Chameleon TCP/IP application package (for Windows 3.x).
- >How do you like the applications it provides such as Telnet, FTP,
- >SMTP/Mail, etc?
-
- In general their applications are okay. IMHO, the next windows telnet interface
- remains QVTNET. The Chameleon telnet is definitely second. The QVT has the best
- cut/paste mouse interface. I have had some trouble with Chameleon, where I
- can cut an item, it appears on the clipboard, but it fails to paste. Chameleon
- seems to like to put a CR/NL after all pasted selections. (This is stupid!)
- Finally, if you have more than 24 lines of scroll buffer defined, when the
- display fills, a scroll bar appears on the bottom of the display. This scroll
- bar uses 1 line of the display. Thus, when you go into VI, the cursor disappears
- under the menubar at the top of the window. You have to select Settings->Reset
- Size to get rid of the scrollbar and get the window back to 24 lines. (This is
- also stupid, I have programmed a "Recorder" macro to automate this process and
- assigned it to F12.)
-
- >For example, can you open multiple telnet sessions? when
- >you open an application like telnet, do you simply click on the icon?
-
- Yes, you click on the icon, then use the connect menu to select the destination.
- Or, you can set up and icon with the destination passed as an argument
- (see the "properties" menu item). (I use the latter in conjunction with
- a freeware program called Dropper that gives me a Norton Desktop ability to
- put program icons on the base window.
-
- >Any features that you like/dislike in particular?
-
- In addition to the above ... the newest version of ChameleonNFS integrates
- NFS into the filemanager. This is great and it seems to work okay. There are
- a few problems.
-
- 1. I could not get it to work with the pcnfsd that came with the
- WIN/TCP 386 TCP/IP package that we run on our UNIX 5.3.2.3 boxes.
- A work around was to self-authorize. (Chameleon allows others to
- mount your PCs drives. It has a built-in pcnfsd.) The problem
- with this is the giant security hole that makes. (I can change
- my own system and authorize myself to mount anything I want!)
-
- 2. The mapping from UNIX long names to DOS 8.3 names has some problems.
- I have a directory on the UNIX box that contains a several days
- worth of weather map GIFs. I have found that the NFS mapping repeats
- some of the names. This means that there are files that I can not
- select some of the files.
-
- 3. They do have a function for finding out what the real name of the
- file was. However, the function is part of the "network" widget on
- the control panel. This makes it a pain to use. The really should
- make it a filemanager extension.
-
- >
- >- Chameleon32 for Windows NT is the developer's release. Has anyone used it
- >already? Is it good (adequate and efficient) for developing software that
- >makes use of TCP/IP?
-
- I have order two copies of this ... if any one is interested, I will post
- a noet about this once I get it running.
-
- >- Is Chameleon TCP/IP software reliable? If you're using one, are you
- >satisfied with their tech support? (competence, efficiency of the technical
- >personnel)
-
- I have purchased and reviewed 6 DOS/Windows TCP/IP packages. I have found
- that Chameleon is very reliable "on my hardware, with my drives". Please note
- that with different hardware and different NDIS drivers, you may have a
- different experience. I have had on-going problems with the PCNFSD mentioned
- above and with sendmail. I believe that most (if not all) of the problems are
- with the UNIX side of things. The folks at NetManage have been very helpful.
-
- >- Anything I should know besides these?
- >The price tag on Chameleon is a little high. I'd like to hear from its users
- >before I decide to purchase the software.
-
- The price is definitely high when compared to QVTNET, but QVTNTE does not
- have:
- NFS client & server
- SMTP mail server
- telnet 3270
- SNMP client
- TFTP client & server
- BIND (domain name server)
- built-in SLIP support
-
- A word on the last item, I have tested various configurations for SLIP with
- most of the TCP/IP packages I tested. The Chameleon implementation is both
- the easiest to setup and the best performing.
-
- Finally, I run the Exceed/W X Window package on top of Chameleon. It seems
- to out perform the same package running on top of FTP's PC/TCP 2.1.
- --
- George Erhart
- AT&T Bell Laboratories
- Columbus, Ohio
- att!archie!gwe or gwe@archie.att.com
-