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REVIEWSFull-Duplex 25-Mbps ATM NICs Bring Low-Cost Connectivity To The DesktopJoel Conover |
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All the hype, acronyms and buzzwords surrounding ATM technology have kept many network administrators away from this powerful switched technology. As vendors roll out standard compliant ATM NICs and switches, much of the fog surrounding ATM technology is beginning to lift. If t he thought of a 25-Mbps full-duple x connection to every desktop sounds appealing to you, read on. We tested 25-Mbps ATM adapters from five vendors, focusing on OS support, ease of installation and configuration, performance and price. We found that significant progress has been made in simplifying the setup and configuration of an ATM network, but the job is far from complete. We tested 25.6-Mbps ATM adapters from Adaptec, Efficient Networks, FORE Systems, IBM Corp. and Madge Networks. We tested only drivers that offered LAN Emulation (LANE) 1.0 support, and benchmarked throughput in DOS, Windows95 and Windows NT--when drivers were available. When choosing an adapter vendor for your network, keep close tabs on its driver support--several products we tested lacked drivers for DOS, while some offered only Classical IP drivers for Windows NT. Windows95 driver support was a mixed bag--with some vendors having native solutions, others offering 16-bit real-mode drivers, and some, such as IBM, offering n o Windows95 drivers at all. All o f the cards tested breezed through our benchmarks with flying colors. Our overall average throughput was 21.5 Mbps, very close to the theoretical maximum for a 25-Mbps ATM card in a LANE environment. Complexity of installation varied, with FORE's ForeRunner LE being the easiest to install. Adaptec also offers a well-rounded driver set, all at a highly competitive price, putting it nose to nose with the FORE adapter. Our overall impression of 25-Mbps ATM technology is positive, but the products we tested had plenty of room for improvement in at least one of our review criteria. Especially frustrating was the troubleshooting portion of our installation process. Cryptic error numbers and missing support messages leave one wondering if the LANE server is misconfigured, the adapter is malfunctioning or the configuration files are incorrect.
 Installing the ANA-5910 hardware was a snap, but so ftware installation was more troublesome than most of the adapters we tested. Windows NT gave us no problem, but installing the DOS Open Data-Link Interface (ODI) drivers was a chore. The Adaptec ODI driver is actually a Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) with an ODI shim. The inst allation program for the ODI driver required c ertain programs from the DOS directory to be present on the local hard drive. If the local DOS directory is missing, the installation will fail to properly install the software, but report that everything was successful. Installation went smoothly after we traced our install problems to the local DOS problem. The ANA-5910 ships with drivers for DOS ODI (via a |
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Updated September 24, 1996
