Netra and Instant Internet connect LANs to the Internet
Ben Smith
It's a simple problem: You want Internet access for your LAN. The solution, too, can be straightforward. Drop a turnkey box on your LAN and plug in to the world. But when vendors with divergent viewpoints start marketing Internet products, you can end up with very different solutions to the same problem. Performance Technology's Instant Internet and Sun Microsystems' Netra Internet Server, for example, are both dedicated systems that connect your LAN to the Internet. The
two products even look similar
--pizza boxes with communications ports and no keyboard or monitor--but that's where the similarity ends.
Netra Internet Server (Netra i for short) is a SparcStation running Solaris (Sun's Unix); Instant Internet
is a 486SX-based system running a proprietary NOS (network operating system). Netra i delivers Internet access to any LAN workstation with a TCP/IP stack; Instant Internet works only for PCs running IPX/SPX protocol and Microsoft Windows. These basic differences mirror the two companies' interpretations of both how Internet services should be provided and what constitutes a typical LAN.
Sun doesn't expect you to configure and maintain your Netra. You buy Netra through a qualified Sun reseller, who delivers the necessary support and additional software that your installation may require, such as firewall software for Netra, TCP/IP stacks for LAN clients, and Internet browsing software.
This is just as well, given the difficulty and complexity involved in installing Netra, particularly on something like the PPP-, modem-based Internet connection that we required at BYTE. The reseller shields you from Netra's complexity, creating the impression of instant installation. Of course, the price of a Net
ra installation increases to reflect what the reseller adds to the product.
By contrast, you buy Instant Internet directly from a dealer and install it yourself. Although it supports only Windows systems, it does provide some security, a few Internet tools, and easy installation--almost plug-and-go.
What's Your LAN?
To Sun, a LAN is a network of workstations that use the TCP/IP protocol. After all, Sun systems are the most common TCP/IP network clients and servers in the world, and the Internet is primarily a network of TCP/IP subnetworks and servers.
As for Internet clients that don't run Unix, Apple Macintosh computers can use TCP/IP, although they traditionally use AppleTalk and EtherTalk. Windows- and DOS-based PCs can use TCP/IP, although they more commonly use Novell NetWare's IPX. Even Digital Equipment's VMS systems and IBM mainframes can speak TCP/IP in addition to their proprietary network protocols. The Internet client programs--gopher, FTP, Telnet, and
WWW (World Wide Web) browsers--are all thought of as TCP/IP programs (although, in fact, they only require sockets services, a higher layer in the protocol stack). Therefore, it would seem that Sun's assumption that all LANs can use TCP/IP is a safe one.
In reality, the most common LAN consists of Microsoft-based PCs connected through NetWare and speaking IPX. For these client workstations, TCP/IP is a second protocol stack that you must install and manage. Installation might be fairly trivial, but management can be a burden, especially in a large organization.
This is the view that Performance Technology takes. Its Instant Internet uses IPX to provide TCP/IP services to the LAN.
Instant Internet
is a Windows-only provider of Internet services. Macs and VMS-based systems gain nothing from it. Also, pure DOS-based PCs can't use it, because the client applications require WinSock services. Nonetheless, Instant Internet provides an easy solution for most Internet clients.
Performance Technology is not alone in providing low maintenance TCP/IP services to IPX LANs. FireFox and Novell also ship TCP/IP, but through NLMs (NetWare loadable modules) that run on a NetWare server. The Instant Internet box is its own server and runs independently of NetWare servers.
Access Servers
Instant Internet and Netra are not Internet servers in the expected sense, because they don't provide services to the world Internet. Instead, they provide Internet access services to the LAN, acting as bridges between a LAN and the Internet.
Instant Internet provides nothing more than TCP/IP to an IPX LAN (and also to Performance Technology's own PowerLAN peer-to-peer network). It connects to the IPX network through its internal Ethernet transceiver (which is built into its 33-MHz 486SX motherboard) and out to the Internet through either a router on the LAN or a SLIP/PPP connection using its internal U.S. Robotics V.34 modem. Instant Internet doesn't run any other
network services, such as E-mail queuing, Internet Usenet news transfers and services, or other Internet server demon processes.
Sun's Netra i does not provide TCP/IP-to-IPX gateway services, but it does include programs for Internet E-mail and Usenet news. E-mail runs on even the simplest Netra configuration, but Usenet news requires much more disk space than the low-end version of Netra provides (535 MB). We tested a Netra i configuration with an 85-MHz MicroSparc II processor, 32 MB of RAM, and a 1.05-GB hard drive--basically a SparcStation 5 without a keyboard or monitor. All Netra i models come with floppy and CD-ROM drives but no modem. Netra can run other Internet services, such as gopher and WWW server demons, but as value-added options that your Unix system administrator or the Sun reseller installs.
Instant Installation
We installed Instant Internet as a PPP-TCP/IP server for BYTE's PC LAN. We plugged a 10Base-T wire into the unit's Ethernet port, a phone line
into the internal modem, and the power cable into a wall outlet. Instant Internet has no keyboard or screen, and it boots from an internal (and inaccessible) floppy drive. Four LEDs provide status information. We configured it running the bundled Windows software from a NetWare workstation.
Installation and configuration (including putting the client software in a shared NetWare directory) took about 10 minutes. You don't need knowledge of TCP/IP, Unix, or IPX. You just install a Windows application and copy files onto a NetWare server. Performance Technology had already requested log-in script information from us and from our Internet service provider (MV Communications, Litchfield, NH), created and tested the log-in script, and included it on the configuration floppy disk, along with the scripts for over 100 other service providers.
Each workstation must run an installation program to set up the special WinSock that makes Instant Internet work. Although existing WinSock applications can immed
iately use the WinSock, Performance Technology includes an FTP and Telnet client, Gopher, NewsReader, and mail client, as well as a WWW browser.
Within 30 minutes of taking Instant Internet out of the shipping box, we had happy PC users surfing the Internet. Since that time, the only necessary administration has been to change the PPP activity time-out to zero so that the PPP link on BYTE's dedicated dial-up connection remains up continuously. Offices that have time-metered Internet access would do better with a time-out setting of several minutes.
Netra Experience
There is no "instant Internet" for Sun's Netra without the setup, software services, and support provided by a VAR. There are good reasons for this. One is that Netra configuration requires experience with Unix system administration, and more important, with Netra's cryptic configuration software. Another is that Netra Internet Server, as supplied by Sun, doesn't include much more than E-mail and Usenet news c
apabilities.
We spent a good deal of time and effort attempting to install Netra ourselves, without help from Sun and without the benefit of the training and experience a Netra reseller would have. The reseller would normally handle most of the difficulties we encountered, thus probably saving the customer from grief. We eventually resorted to several visits from Sun technical people, who demonstrated the normal reseller installation procedure and provided several critical bug patches.
Our test Netra worked but wouldn't hold a permanent PPP connection, despite the administrative hack of periodically forcing activity across the PPP connection. Nor would it reestablish connection after it disconnected from the service provider. This is a problem that Sun and the reseller would work out for the customer, but we ran out of time. So, we finally installed Netra to work through a router; that's a much easier configuration process.
When you receive Netra from the Sun reseller, it comes with a tai
lor-made configuration floppy disk. As with Instant Internet, you only need to plug it in to your network, connect a modem, insert the disk, and turn it on. There is no need for an external workstation, keyboard, or screen, since voice clips played through the internal speaker inform you of the success of the Netra's boot sequence. (However, the voice clips don't give diagnostics if Netra isn't properly configured.)
Different Needs
For plugging a NetWare LAN of Windows-based PCs into the Internet, Instant Internet is a good fit. It requires only a single IP address routed through the Internet service provider. Because it achieves its TCP/IP through a proprietary protocol carried by IPX communications, Instant Internet offers a natural barrier to intruders. You can maintain other IP domains on the same Ethernet; if you don't route these other IP subnetworks out to the Internet, there is little need for a firewall to protect them. At the same time, IPX-connected PCs have full acc
ess to the outside world.
Instant Internet provides Internet connectivity for most, but not all, systems at BYTE, as it would for many other businesses. It is far simpler and less expensive than providing individual dial-up IP accounts and high-speed modems for each workstation. Instant Internet with a single-LAN license sells for $3495.
Sun's Netra, because it is completely TCP/IP based, can meet all the needs of an entire heterogeneous LAN. However, one could argue that Netra, as it is supplied to the VAR, doesn't provide any value beyond that available from any other Unix server: Unix E-mail and Usenet news. What Netra does provide is a foundation on which a VAR can build the Internet access and security services your organization requires, and the price will rise accordingly.
As a result, a Netra installation will easily cost you upwards of $10,000 because you are paying for a Sun workstation plus what the reseller adds. You should budget for software (OS and application) support from
the reseller as well. If you already have Unix systems administration expertise, you might consider the less expensive alternative of buying a PC and installing BSDI Unix. Or, if all you need is PPP connectivity for your LAN, consider something such as a Telebit Netblazer.
The differences between
Sun's Netra and Performance Technology's Instant Internet boil down to your network environment. If all you need is an inexpensive shared connection to the Internet for Windows PCs on a NetWare LAN, Instant Internet is a simple, effective solution. If, on the other hand, you want a Unix-based Internet server for your TCP/IP network, but you don't want to hire Unix experts to manage it, then invest in a Netra with custom installation and a maintenance contract from a Sun VAR.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Instant Internet $3495
(single LAN license)
Performance Technology
San Antonio, TX 78230
(800) 784-4638
(210) 979-2000
fax: (210) 979-2002
info@instant.net
Netra Internet Server
70-MHz MicroSparc II, 16 MB RAM, 535-MB hard drive $6149
85-MHz MicroSparc II, 32 MB RAM, 1.05-GB hard drive $8499
60-MHz SuperSparc, 32 MB RAM, 1.05-GB hard drive $13,199
(VAR prices, before services added)
Sun Microsystems
Mountain View, CA 94043
(800) 821-4643
(415) 960-1300
fax: (415) 969-9131
Instant Internet
-- User-installable
-- IPX/SPX clients running Windows only
-- No client TCP/IP required
-- $3495
-- Moderately secure through isolation
-- Client browsing software
Netra Internet Server
-- VAR installs
-- Any TCP/IP client
-- Requires TCP/IP on client
-- $6149 (plus substantial VAR costs)
-- FireWall-1 optional, but secure
-- Internet E-mail and Usenet news software
Instant Int
ernet is simpler to install and less costly for smaller installations but works only with NetWare Windows clients. Since it has more flexibility, Netra is a better foundation for larger installations that don't have Unix expertise.
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Sun's Netra Internet Server (bottom) and Performance Technology's Instant Internet are single-box solutions for LAN Internet access.
screen_link (27 Kbytes)
Instant Internet configures over the network with a Windows program. The installation program comes with a list of existing service providers and the setup parameters they require. If a log-in script for your service provider isn't on the list, Performance Technology will add it before shipping the unit.
Ben Smith is an Internet consultant, a former BYTE testing editor, and the author of Unix Step-by-Step (Hayden Books, 1990). You can reach him on BIX as "bensmith" or on the Internet at
ben@ronin.com
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Short-Order Internet Access
