Starlan Monitor Wanted

[Robert C. White Jr.]

In article <120 at westmark.UUCP>, dave at westmark.UUCP (Dave Levenson) writes:
> ... connected by Starlan, and running MS-DOS. ...
> I've heard of test equipment that monitors a lan and records or
> displays the traffic, and performs analysis, etc.  They tend to
> be rather expensive, given that I'll probably only need it once.

	I am using Starlan quite extensively, and had the same
intrest some months back.  Being a member of TCA [Telecommunications
Association] I ravaged the convention looking for someone who
was selling a starlan protocol analizer.  The most positive
response I got is "We are planning to develop one for the faster
implementation [due in june] when it comes out."

> I can probably monitor the net from one of the workstations, using
> the Starlan board already provided, and some software that listens
> and records what it hears without transmitting.  Does anyone know
> of any software for this purpose?  Does anyone have any suggestions
> on this?  Am I crazy to even think of doing such a thing?  Is it
> worth the effort?

I never found any software which could monitor the network reasonably.
It would seem doable, byt I don't think anybody has bothered to try
it.  I think you will find that the network is very binary, that is
it either all works, or none of it does.  The only problem I have
had to date happened when someone went and re-aranged one of our
labs.  The plugged a long "leash to nowhere" into the system which
scrabled everything.  [Long wires act like an antena sometimes, which
can introduce unaccptable noise on the LAN making it look "always
busy"]  Other than this catstrophic type of failure I havn't had
any problems, and a protocol analizer wouldn't have helped at all.

Working with Starlan, the most useful accessory is a map of the
physical routing.  The second most useful accessory is a server
implemented under UNIX, as you can often find things out from
the unix behavior, while the MS-DOS systems mostly go " 't don
work.. " which is of little help.

Durring instalation "netstat /name=<remote name> /cont" will be
your best friend.


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