Artisoft Inc has announced that LANtastic v5.0 – which adds communications to a wider range of systems, and enhanced network administration, security and printing facilities – is to ship this month. As well as increasing the maximum number of users per server to 500 from 300, the new version enables them to bridge to OS/2, High Performance File System, write-once optical disks and other devices by setting up the connection as a LANtastic shared resource. Another new feature will be its ability to connect with Unix Network File System servers through a LANtastic server that is also a Unix client. A similar trick is used to enable connection to NetWare servers. Version 5.0 also includes a modified NetBIOS, which makes this previously unroutable protocol routable. The result is that different networks such as ARCnet and Ethernet can be tied together into a single LANtastic internet. An IPX routing option also enables the use of Novell Inc IPX-compliant routers, while a global resource feature enables users that log into one server to use multiple servers’ resources, a feature designed to ease resource management. New network administration features will enable administrators to set up all user accounts on a single server, which can share information with other servers – something NetWare 3.X users could do with. The Tucson, Arizona company has also added a remote server management feature, enabling users to edit a remote server’s accounts or resources, and a batch de-spooling feature enabling users to de-spool commands to a remote server from a local personal computer and specify when these commands should be executed. In the security arena, Artisoft has extended privilege assignment within an Access Control List group down to particular files on servers, so each member of an Access Control group can be assigned specific additional rights above those of the group as a whole. On performance, LANcache, the disk caching program included with the new version, enables users to cache multiple drives in a single personal computer, and specify different LANcache sizes for MS-DOS and Windows, while the company says it can be configured to use just 10Kb of memory. An auto re-try on disconnect feature automatically attempts re-connection of broken server links for improved resilience, while deferred NET LOGIN and NET USE commands enable users to set up connections to several servers when they are not currently running: users are automatically logged in when the servers come on line. Print features include delayed de-spooling (enabling users to set the time and date for printing), support for COM3 and COM4 and remote de-spooling. For Windows users, the company has introduced the LANtastic for Windows Scrapbook (enabling users to share text, graphics and sound items), and – via the Artisoft Sounding Board – voice chat for communications between two personal computers, and LAN Radio for broadcasting messages across the network. In order to encourage take-up, Artisoft is offering new Starter Kits comprising the operating system, two LANtastic NodeRunner 2000/C Ethernet adaptors, cabling and documentation: these are to cost UKP450 for either Windows or MS-DOS users. Prices for the adaptor-independent operating system are to start at UKP80 for a single MS-DOS node, UKP100 for a single Windows-MS-DOS node.
