The Telecom Corner: Networking with DOS

Networking with DOS

The NETX Shell

The interface of the PC’s (Workstation’s) Operating System (DOS/Windows) to the network has typically been accomplished in the past through the “NETX shell”. A basic functional diagram of the NETX architecture is included below:

However, NETX is no longer being developed by Novell. Novell is supporting the newer Virtual Loadable Module (VLM) architecture instead.

Virtual Loadable Modules (VLM)

The VLM architecture is modular and supports swappable memory. Each VLM consists of organized, related functions. Integration of the NETX.VLM with the operating system is depicted in the illustration below:

While both NETX and VLM architectures can exist within the same LAN, the migration to the VLM (also known as the NetWare DOS Requester) technology offers many advantages:

Support for the Packet Burst (PBODI) protocol.
Support for the Large Internet Packet (LIP) protocol.
Supports Personal NetWare; Novell’s Peer-To-Peer Network.
Supports NetWare 4.0’s NDS (NetWare Directory Services).