Novell Inc has enhanced NetWare version 4’s support for TCP/IP through new NetWare/IP 2.2 software, which is claimed to integrate seamlessly with NetWare 4.1. The new offering – which is to be made available free to existing customers from Novell’s World Wide Web site and its NetWire on-line service – is aimed at users wanting to integrate NetWare into an existing IP infrastructure, migrate existing NetWare installations to IP or establish a mixed IP and IPX environment. NetWare/IP 2.2 is also said to bring other advantages. Firstly, Novell claims that it simplifies management of IP addresses through a dual-purpose Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol/BootP server: this is said to assign IP addresses dynamically from a central pool on a leasing basis, rather than requiring network administrators to assign static IP addresses manually. It is also claimed to improve the scalability and performance of NetWare over the wide area by eliminating Service Advertising Protocol traffic, and to give NetWare users access to Unix and other IP-based printers, as well as enabling NetWare to be managed by Unix-based network management systems. At the end of last month, Novell was due to ship version 1.2 of the software development kit for its NEST Novell Embedded Systems Technology. Enhancements with the new version will include support for TCP/IP alongside the existing IPX/SPX support, as well as support for Simple Network Management Protocol and NEST Autoroute global document routing. The software developers’ kit is $50,000.
