Easy LAN installation and peer services make IBM's OS/2 Warp Connect a serious network contender
Barry Nance
To stem the tide of Windows 95, IBM has sweetened the OS/2 pot. IBM reasons that if OS/2's technical strengths don't overwhelm you, the boatload of networking and application software in the Warp Connect upgrade will be more persuasive.
OS/2 Warp Connect bundles LAN requesters, peer-to-peer networking, groupware and E-mail, Internet access, a full-featured word processor, a spreadsheet, a personal information manager, a fax utility, remote access, communications programs, and other goodies. Curiously missing from Warp Connect is an NFS client for connecting to Unix servers; you have to buy NFS separately.
The new Warp is robust, reliable, and responsive. That's not surprising,
since the underlying OS/2 technology has had years to mature.
Warp Connect ($299) costs significantly more than the $89 basic Warp product, and it requires roughly twice as much disk space and RAM.
Warp Connect takes from 25 to 90 MB of disk space and at least 12 MB of RAM, depending on which features you install. IBM recommends at least 8 MB, but we found performance is much better with 12 MB.
Almost all of Warp Connect's features, including the requesters, LAN Distance, CID (Configuration, Installation, and Distribution), and the Bonus Pack of applications, have been around for a while; Warp Connect brings them together in one box. However, the peer-to-peer networking is new, as is the installation program for network options.
We installed Warp Connect on a dozen PCs (mostly 486s and Pentiums). The peer-to-peer networking services worked well and offered better security and reliability than Windows for Workgroups. The peer networking and LAN Server requester features let Warp Co
nnect access files, printers, and CD-ROM drives on computers running Warp Connect itself; IBM's LAN Server and PC LAN Program; Microsoft's Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, and LAN Manager; and Artisoft's LANtastic. Warp Connect peers and LAN Server clients can even use the same modems via shared serial port access to PCs running OS/2-based communications software. These Peer Services are, in fact, a superset of the LAN Requester in all ways except one: To run the LAN Server graphical administration tools, you must use the LAN Requester instead of Peer Services.
When we added the NetWare Requester, the resulting dual-protocol stack consumed extra extended memory, but it still left nearly 640 KB of conventional memory for each DOS and Windows session. Trying to use multiple protocols in a DOS or a DOS-plus-Windows machine, however, left us with insufficient memory to run applications. The only problem the NetWare Requester exhibited was slow access to NetWare drives assigned through the Network folder
. Drive mappings that were established through the NetWare Tools utility behaved normally.
For smaller networks (typically 10 or fewer PCs), or for a decentralized campus environment, Warp Connect's Peer Services are useful and productive. Beyond eight or 10 clients, you'll need a separate file server running a product such as NetWare or LAN Server.
The networking utilities in OS/2 Warp Connect include Network SignOn Coordinator, a help database, and LAN Distance Remote. Network SignOn holds log-on names and passwords and sends them out to the various services. The help database lets you perform keyword searches for frequently asked questions, setup guides, and descriptions of known problems. LAN Distance Remote is a client for a LAN Distance Server that lets your PC use a modem to access server files, just as if your modem were a LAN adapter.
Warp Connect's Peer Services also deliver auditing, logging, and an interface to REXX, the OS/2 scripting language. You can monitor access to share
d peer resources and write REXX scripts to automate routine tasks. The Network Clipboard/DDE lets you cut and paste clipboard data across the LAN or--if you use NetBIOS over TCP/IP--across the Internet. Peer Services also includes an OS/2 program for playing chess across a network. And the Person to Person application lets you do workgroup and videoconferencing (
see the screen
).
The Installation Ceremony
IBM has really improved OS/2's much-criticized installation procedure. The system's tool for detecting LAN adapters (see the sidebar "Sniffing Out LAN Hardware") correctly identified most network cards we tested, failing only with the difficult-to-identify Eagle NE2000 card: An NE2000 adapter (or clone) doesn't offer software a clear-cut ROM address or I/O port signature for identification purposes. The installation program easily recognized (and configured Warp for) cards from such manufacturers as Thomas-Conrad, Madge, IBM, Intel, and SMC.
You are of
fered three ways to install Warp Connect: easy, tailored, and hands-off. The hands-off installation method (called CID) is appropriate for large organizations that want to seed Warp onto many LAN-connected PCs quickly and painlessly. CID is an IBM-designed, over-the-wire software distribution mechanism that creates a redirected installation environment.
To quickly install a CID-enabled product such as Warp Connect across a LAN, you modify a template script supplied with Warp Connect and run the LAN CID utility. A component called the Service Installable File System (SRVIFS) handles file redirection between the code server and the client workstation. We found the CID scripts easy to set up and run.
A server-based LAN CID REXX program identifies the products that you want to install. Individual product-response files contain the menu selections and choices of features that you otherwise would have to provide interactively. A SRVIFS configuration file sets up the code server. The bottom line is tha
t you can install Warp Connect (or another CID-enabled product) on about 300 PCs in a single day.
Wrapping It Up
We can't go without faulting the single input message queue, which makes it possible for one badly behaved Presentation Manager application to prevent other applications from receiving event-queue messages. Also, Warp Connect needs an intelligent maintenance utility for CONFIG.SYS statements, especially since network software can increase the number of such statements to more than 100. The lack of an NFS client is a glaring omission. And the installation program gets confused if there's more than one LAN adapter in your PC (though you can fix such problems by editing the CONFIG.SYS, NET.CFG, and PROTOCOL.INI files by hand).
Overall, though, OS/2 Warp Connect has a lot to offer. The combination of in-the-box networking with a mature 32-bit operating system that runs Windows, Win32s, DOS, and OS/2 software makes this a productive, useful environment. Warp Conne
ct offers all the essential features of both Windows 95 and Windows NT while adding features (such as the Bonus Pack and Notes Express) that the competition lacks.
Product Information
OS/2 Warp Connect 3.0 $299
(CD-ROM only; includes Windows)
IBM
Armonk, NY 10504
(800) 342-6672
(914) 765-1900
fax: (313) 225-4020
screen_link (24 Kbytes)
IBM's Person to Person software can now be run with Warp's new Peer Services to provide peer-to-peer videoconferencing.
Contributing editor Barry Nance has been a programmer for 25 years. He is the auth
or of Using OS/2 Warp 3.0, Introduction to Networking, and Client/Server LAN Programming. You can reach him via the Internet at
barryn@bix.com
.
Networking at Warp Speed
