With the announcement at Networks ’90 of 3+Open Connection for NetWare (CI No 1,450), MS-DOS users will be able to do what has been available to Macintosh users for some time now – namely, access files and applications from both the Novell NetWare and 3Com 3+Open environments. 3+Plus Open for NetWare was developed by 3Com for one overriding reason: NetWare controls an estimated 60% of the local area network operating system market; furthermore, there is, states 3Com UK managing director Richard Joyce, a large base of NetWare-specific applications and a large amount of NetWare investment that people are not prepared to throw away. 3+Open uses both 3Com’s Demand Protocol Architecture and Novell’s IPX protocol stacks so that files and applications can be accessed transparently from 3+Open, NetWare 2.15, NetWare 386 and 3+Share networks; at the moment, however, 3+Open users cannot use Novell NetBIOS, and there is a memory hit of around 50Kb when both stacks are lined up. 3+Open for NetWare will be available through 3Com’s distribution channels from August at UKP250 for a single user licence, UKP1,000 for up to 10 users and UKP2,000 for a server licence.
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