Working on the principle that the best form of defence is attack, Artisoft Inc is taking on Novell Inc by launching a new version of LANtastic for NetWare software. The new, low-cost product – just UKP370 – offers users of NetWare versions 2 and 3 the benefits of a peer-to-peer network, and enables them to add users to exceed the limitation of their NetWare version by running the program on top of Novell’s NetBIOS. It is configured on top of the NetWare server, from which point users can be added directly to the LANtastic network. The launch mirrors the situation last September when Novell launched NetWare Lite as a direct challenge to LANtastic, and it seems that Artisoft is now fighting back by launching into an area that has, until now, been Novell’s preserve. All of the features on LANtastic 4.0 have been incorporated into the new product, including disk cache, menu-driven installation, context-sensitive help, diskless workstation support, disk sharing, printer sharing up to a maximum of five per server, 5,100 open files per server, CD-ROM networking, audit trails, network security and electronic mail. It also enables users to access other LANtastic features, including voice-mail capabilities via the Artisoft Sounding Board adaptors added to the network personal computers. Artisoft is also pushing the product as a safety net, in that it will continue to operate if the NetWare server goes down, or is being serviced. Some 300 users can be supported. Dave Ball, European marketing director for Artisoft, denies that the launch was a retaliatory action against Novell. Indeed, he sees NetWare Lite as having helped Artisoft by giving the peer-to-peer network the backing and credibility of a big name, saying that what we’re finding is that it is adding credibility to the market. As with the original concept behind LANtastic, he also thinks that in LANtastic for NetWare, Artisoft has identified an untapped market share in providing users of complex local networks with a simple, low-cost way of adding basic enhancements to their networks. Artisoft is also looking to Japan as another potentially lucrative market. It has gone into a joint venture with its Japan distributor, AALL Technology Group, to form Artisoft Japan KK. As one of its first products, it is to launch a Kanji-character version of the LANtastic network for NEC and IBM-compatible personal computers.
