Chesham, Buckinghamshire-based Chipcom Europe Ltd has announced version 2.0 of its ONdemand Network Control System, which adds support for Hewlett-Packard’s OpenView and Digital Equipment Corp’s PolyCenter network management systems. Chipcom has also been appointed as a Premier Partner in Hewlett’s OpenView Partners Programme, and as a member of DEC’s PolyCenter Partners Programme and says it has also recently become a member of the Desktop Management Task Force. Other enhancements in version 2.0 of ONdemand include the ability to manage network groups, regardless of their location, and a new Port Database, enabling network administrators to identify an end-station, concentrator port characteristics, Internet Protocol and Media Access Control addresses or cable with a particular user. Network managers now also have the ability to remove, enable and disable ports within a Token Ring or Ethernet module through a new Port Grouping feature, while for high security environments the administrator can also restrict access to confidential resources. An improved graphical interface includes an auto discovery mechanism, which is claimed to detect Chipcom hubs and management agents on a network automatically and is said to eliminate the need to build or update configuration files manually. New diagnostic tools, such as a link test tool, station maps for Token Ring and FDDI as well as new graphing and pie charts for displaying specific Token Ring status are also included. ONdemand Network Control System 2.0 is scheduled to ship in 60 days for SunNet Manager and the DEC PolyCenter Network Manager 200 and SNMP Manager 300 systems, and 90 days for the HP OpenView system. No word on list price, but existing users registered with the Chipcom software subscription service will get the new version automatically.
