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In addition to aliasing, InterDrive also has the most useful shell extensions. We were pleased to find that NT Explorer's files and mapped drives properties tab reveals all NFS-related information. From it, we were able to toggle adaptive network settings, such as read and write buffer sizes, on the fly as well as file locking and sharing. In addition, we could view and ch ange security parameters such as user ID and group ID on a drive-by-drive basis. Settings are immediate and no remapping of the drive is necessary (as is required with Maestro and Reflection).

Although we found InterDrive chock full of great options, like a "hide dot files" check box, it lacks other necessary features, such as NIS support and NFS utilities. And, unlike Reflection and NFS Maestro, it lacks a helper application to facilitate connection to NFS exports.

WRQ Reflection NFS Connection For NT v6.1
Narrowly outperformed by FTP Software's InterDrive, Reflection NFS Connection provided a few more useful NFS utilities and options. Specifically, we liked its NFS Administrator because of its ability to relay file and NFS information to the user in an easier-to-read format. A lthough Reflection's lack of stability during some tests and lack of extensive configuration options didn't help, its performance and feature set kept it a close second.

At the heart of the Reflection NFS Connection is the NFS Administrator application. With it we were able to view, in an Explorer-like interface, file and drive information. In only a few clicks of the mouse, we could view, modify file attributes and verify NFS user and export information.

Additionally, we found that the file-listing window reveals the NFS, Windows NT and DOS file names--particularly useful in the event that one of the three differs or if you happen to have many different files with the same prefixes.

For example, if your current project files begin with "NFS Presentation," their converted 8.3 names would begin with "NFSPre~x." The NFS Administrator application clarifies naming, ensuring you get the right one. Unix attributes are also indicated as well as the user and group names of the file.

After the installation's mandated reboot, we set the global NFS information in the control panel and mounted our test export. We were able to verify our NFS settings simply by right-mouse clicking on the drive letter and selecting the properties tab. In NFS Maestro, this would have required another program or the control panel applet to verify these settings.

In general, we liked Reflection's NFS utilities location and its layouts. However, as we performance-tested the clients, WRQ was the first to produce the dreaded blue-screen of death. A short conversation with WRQ's technical support lead us to conclude that the adaptive network settings were at fault. After disabling them, Reflection completed the performance testing with outstanding numbers.

Hummingbird Communications NFS Maestro Client
Hummingbird Communications' NFS Maestro was a close contender in the client portion of this review. With performance slightly ahead of WRQ's NFS client and high marks in m ost other areas, NFS Maestro was hurt only by its price. We found that Hummingbird Communications h as implemented important features, such as NIS mappings and authentication mechanisms, extremely well. In addition, it has seamlessly integrated these features into the Windows NT shell.

After installing Maestro and rebooting, we were able to browse through the network neighborhood and view all exports on our test server. We mapped a drive to our NFS file system and verified the NFS settings for the new Windows NT drive via the NFS Network Access program. This program displays information revealing group and user information as well as read/write sizes and UNC (Universal Naming Convention) network path. NFS Maestro lets users establish or remove connections from the command line, explorer shell or Hummingbird's Network Access program.