QUICKNET SOFTWARE - THE EPROM There is an EPROM on the QuickNet board which contains both a SANA-II compatible device and the QuickNet networking software. You may choose one or the other by simply changing a switch on the back of the board. QUICKNET SOFTWARE - THE MASTER SIDE... In addition to the software in the EPROM, there is a special software to be installed on the "master-server", which is the machine that is likely to be rebooted the least. You need to install the software only on this machine. The disk-sharing process for all "slave" machines is done completely from here. Each board has its own "physical" address which is used to recognize the board on the network. Once the "master-server" is completely installed, all the "slave" machines will display a requester when they boot, containing a "username" and a "password" field. Then, the remote machine may use any of the shared disks on the network just as if the disk were in the remote machine itself. The device recognises the ".backdrop" icons of the WorkBench 2.x and all the snapshots made. The network is completely transparent to the user! For each user, you may set up different access levels, different configurations, and different shared disks. You should do this only on the "server" machine. If you need to add a machine, you need to change only the configuration of the "master-server" to add the address of the new board in the list. On some diskless machines, you may boot remotely from another machine on the network. This is VERY useful to save money! No hard disk is required on the slave!! AREXX PORT QuickNet has an ARexx port. It allows you to send ARexx scripts on other machines in the network! You may, for example, pilot a slideshow on all machines of the network from a single machine. You could also use it in schools so the teacher may run tutorial software on the students' machines, etc.... SANA-II DEVICE - WITH ENVOY Yes, there is also a SANA-II device. I tested it with Envoy (not included in the package) which is another networking software package done by Commodore. Envoy works only on Workbench 2.0 and higher. The purpose of this review is to test QuickNet, not to test Envoy! I'll not talk a lot about this software, except that it works fine with QuickNet, is a bit easier to install, but is not fully transparent to the user. Envoy is a LOT slower than QuickNet, but the about the same speed of any other Ethernet board.... SANA-II DEVICE - WITH AMITCP/NetNFS Here again, I'm not going to test AmiTCP nor NetNFS in this review, but I want to point out a few things: I was able to set up an NFS network with a PC compatible, running a NFS master software (on OS/2). AND IT WORKED FINE!! Actually there is no Master-NFS available for the Amiga computer. On the other side, you HAVE to have a multitasking machine or a dedicated singletasking machine to run the master-NFS software (that's why I used OS/2 which allows multitasking). The installation of AmiTCP and NetNFS was a lot harder than that of QuickNet of Envoy, and of course I had to install NFS software on the PC compatible. The speed is also "as slow" as Envoy, just like any other Ethernet board. DOCUMENTATION QuickNet comes with printed documentation. The documentation is written for beginners, but there still are a few points that are not well explained (or not at all). But overall, I was able to figure everything out myself. LIKES - ARexx Port !!! - I only had to set up one machine. - I was able to boot with diskless machines. - The QuickNet networking software is REALLY fast!!! - I was able to set up a network even with other brands of computers. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS - The manual could be more complete. - QuickNet doesn't detect the addresses of the boards by itself. You have to enter them manually. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS The strong point of the QuickNet software is its SPEED. It is significantly faster than any other board I tested. Besides, very few boards have the "boot on another computer" feature. And NONE have that very useful ARexx port!! BUGS None seen... a few were corrected in a ROM update. WARRANTY 1 year. CONCLUSIONS This is a very good Ethernet board. It is fast, reliable, completely transparent to the user when using the QuickNet software, and perfectly usable in other networks with other machines than Amigas with its SANA-II compatible device. » QuickNet QN2000 release « TITLE QuickNet(TM) - Fast Peer-to-Peer Networking System for the Amiga COMPANY Resource Management Force Pty Ltd 70-74 May Street St Peters NSW 2044 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 2 550 4244 Fax: +61 2 550 4284 EMAIL: cbmaus!rmf!danielk@rmf.adsp.sub.org AUTHORS Neil Dugan Daniel Koch Norman Pakes DESCRIPTION QuickNet is a proprietry AmigaDOS-based networking system, using both hardware and software, that has been heavily optimised for speed. In brief, it has the following major features: * IEEE 802.3 standard compatible. * Thick Ethernet, Thin Ethernet (Co-axial) and Twisted Pair compatible. * Versions include Zorro II (released), Zorro III, A500 expansion bus, A1200 trapdoor, CD32 trapdoor. * High speed 32 bit transfers with ZorroIII, A1200, and CD32 versions. * Peer-to-peer sharing of hard/floppy disks ram drives, CD-ROM drives, tape drives, and other filing devices. * Printer sharing and spooling. * Fully Autobooting! Can be used with completely diskless computers. Supports individual Preferences and user-startup files. * Fully WB 1.3/2.x/3.x compatible. * Supports record locking. * Supports ARexx message passing, for inter-computer communication, synchronised multimedia productions, comprehensive multi-computer applications and much more!! * VERY FAST transfers and directories. * Can remotely mount any standard AmigaDOS file device, including volumes mounted via other networks. This allows you to bridge between QuickNet and Envoy volumes, or Novell/AppleTalk/etc, giving completely transparent access to volumes over a variety of platforms. * Comprehensive, easy to use software and manual. * Robust design (can break the network cable, add a workstation, reconnect, and continue, with minimal disruption to the net). * Automount on login of selected devices. * Machine independance - you can sit down at any machine, login with your user name and password, and get your own preferences, user-startup, default printer and mounted devices. * "Plug-n-Play" installation - plug a card into a machine, connect it to an existing QuickNet network, and instantly get full access to the network. Installer script for new nets. * SANA-II device driver available Jan '94 (switch selectable between SANA-II and QuickNet). SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS WorkBench 1.3 or greater (WorkBench 2.04 upwards recommended). PRICE Recommended Retail Price for the QN2000 (Zorro II) versions: Thin Ethernet (Co-axial) cable : US$299 Twisted Pair cable : call This includes full hardware and software. Prices may vary slightly from country to country. This price does not include any applicable taxes. Please contact us direct for Australian prices. Also, contact us for availability and pricing on other versions as they are released. RMF - Resource Management Force, a Sydney-based company and makers of the QuickNet 'peer to peer' network system designed specifically for the Amiga (all models including the A500 and CD32), was represented by Norman Pakes. QuickNet will allow an unlimited number of Amigas to be connected together, as it utilises standard EtherNet cabling that may have repeaters and boosters as required, although a network of 20-30 computers is possible without any repeaters or boosters. Because of the software in a ROM on the card, a particularly useful feature of QuickNet is that it allows a computer that is 'diskless' to boot from another computer's hard disk drive somewhere on the network. This could make for great economy in the classroom situation.