Chameleon TCP/IP for Windows NetManage, Inc, 20823 Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 100, Cupertino, CA 95014 (408) 973-7171 email: support@netmanage.com Cost: $400 list, $495 for version with NFS. There is an educational discount and quantity discounts. AUTHOR C. J. Sacksteder Center for Academic Computing cjs@psu.edu THE Pennsylvania State University VERSIONS REVIEWED Beta 2.06.01 received 2/7/92 Version 3.00.00 received 3/18/92 Version 3.1 upgrade received 3/11/93 Last change: 4/14/93 SUMMARY Chameleon 3.1 might be a choice for Windows 3.1 users in place of FTP Software's PC/TCP. Since I first received it in early 1992, many improvements have been made, and it now might be worth the cost to someone, depending on what you want to do. I am still disappointed with the number of bugs and the slow response of support by e-mail. It is not possible to make a blanket recommendation or to conclude that Chameleon is worth the cost compared to PC/TCP at Penn State. See the section COMPARED TO PC/TCP for a discussion of some points to consider. PACKAGE CONTENTS Chameleon is a suite of MS Windows applications, including Telnet (VT100, VT220, IBM3270), FTP (client & server), SMTP Mail, and PING, FINGER, WHOIS, BIND and SNMP. Their claim-to-fame is 100% Windows DLL code; no TSR's. Version 3.1 supports the Windows Sockets (WINSOCK.DLL) version 1.1 They use the NDIS protocol instead of packet drivers or a DOS TSR like PC/TCP. Interfaces supported are Ethernet, Token-ring, FDDI and SLIP. COMPARED TO PC/TCP Comparing Chameleon to FTP Software's PC/TCP is difficult -- it depends on what you need to do. If you are a MS Windows user, then you'll appreciate that Chameleon is "100%" Windows code. A lot of conventional DOS memory can be saved by not loading a large TSR kernel. If you mostly use an FTP client, then Chameleon's is far better than PC/TCP's WFTP (version 2.11). If you log onto VM then Chameleon's TN3270 is nicer than PC/TCP's TN in that it is a Windows application, but it currently has a problem with extended highlighting. If you need any of: Gopher, RCP, REXEC, LPR, Kerberos, or any of the small utilities in PC/TCP, then Chameleon is not yet a choice. If you run Banyan Vines, and have a Token Ring, you'll need to upgrade to Vines 5.5, which finally has an NDIS driver for Token Ring. It was considerably difficult to setup Vines to work with NDIS, but that is not the fault of the Chameleon package. INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION Very easy; a pleasant Windows application. However, it added lines to the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS (three DEVICE statements) without asking first. It said "Hardware configuration changed, reboot!" The information is in the manual, although not quite correct. I don't like that at all. Some packages give you the option of viewing the changes, or saving the files as they would be changed by some other name. I have multiple CONFIG.SYS files and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to use with different TCP/IP packages, and I don't like anyone changing them without notice. I had a little trouble setting up domain name server addresses -- all applications have to be closed for "NEWT" be restarted and recognize the changes. DISK SPACE AND MEMORY A single directory (you may depart from the default) takes around 1.7MB. Three device drivers loaded for Token-ring support add up to 12.1k. DEVICEHIGH can be used to load them in the UMB, although the installation procedure doesn't give you that option. This compares well with the 2 device drivers (16k) and the large kernel (83.1k to 110k) needed for PC/TCP on a Token-Ring. SUPPORT I called Tech Support once. I didn't have to wait long for a very good consultant who knew answers to several questions. However, e-mail to support@netmanag.com resulted in slow responses, and no fix for a bug I reported. STARTUP There are no TSR's or other commands to run before starting Windows. A separate program group, with nice icons for each application, comes up in the Program Manager. Instructions are given for adding icons to do special things, such as telneting to a particular host. When you run any of the applications, the "kernel", called NEWT is started. It terminates automatically when the last TCP/IP application is closed. This is a little bit of a problem for 3rd-party applications (see OTHER APPLICATIONS below). NOTES ON INDIVIDUAL APPLICATIONS FTP CLIENT The FTP client is an excellent interface with nearly everything I would put in an FTP client if I were to write one. (They seem to have added everything I asked for after reviewing version 2.0, although I don't know if the developers saw my suggestions or not.) New in 3.1 is a Connection Profile dialog to save information about remote servers -- address, userid, password, type of system, account, and initial remote and local directories. They've added the type VM, and it now works well with PSUVM. The type of system can be AUTO, and it will try to detect the type of system being accessed. This didn't work for a VM system. The main window has panes for local and remote directory and file lists. and 9 pairs of buttons for the local and remote systems. For directories: Change, Create, Remove, and Dir Info. For files: Append, Copy, Info, Delete, and Rename. A pair of radio-buttons switch between. Buttons for Ascii/Binary transfer types. There are options for turning on/off confirmation of directory removal, file append, file delete, and file replace. It might benefit from a window where you could enter FTP commands manually (for system types not supported). They've added an optional window where remote system responses can be monitored when you are having difficulty. They've also added a very nice for the status window to show the how the transfer is progressing. There is an ABORT button, which can stop the transfer. Remote file dates and sizes are not shown in the file list pane, but can usually be seen, if the remote server provides that information, by clicking the Info button. That opens a window with the "raw" output from the LIST request. FTP CLIENT PROBLEMS After working on one Unix connection for a while, I noticed the remote directory pane had multiple entries for each remote directory -- three of each. I'm not sure what I did to get that. On a Multinet server, I had a file "FTP.DIROUTPO;2", which it interpreted as a subdirectory -- directories show up as .DIR;n, so they have to fix their parser a little. It does not support the AS/400. The FTP server there gives directory information in a format it doesn't understand. I can't really fault them for that, because I don't understand the output either. It does not support remote file or directory names that have embedded blanks. Few clients do. I could not connect to a Macintosh running the FTP server built into Brown's TN3270 -- kept saying password was wrong. PC/TCP's WFTP does not have a problem with that server. It does not support some types of FTP servers, such as a PC running the "NOS" FTP server from the "KA9Q" package -- the DIR output from such servers is strange, and no directories or files appear in the remote system panes. The button "Dir Info" for remote system doesn't show directories that have just been added with "Create" button. A similar problem with Info window for remote files has been fixed. I can see why they don't want to refresh remote directory information after every change, but perhaps there could be a "Refresh" button. For small files (and good connections) the status window flashes so quickly you never see what it says and can miss it altogether. I'd rather have it stay up waiting for me to clear it. I've occasionally had a connection where the list of remote files is all dim; none can be selected and the list cannot be scrolled. Reconnecting to the same server with the same userid and password corrects the problem. FTP CLIENT WISH-LIST Although it is the best FTP client for Windows I've seen, there are several more features I wish it had. Suggestions include: -- remember size and location of remote info windows. -- a view button to transfer (as ASCII) a file and display it. -- a provision for the user to enter FTP commands manually -- occasionally needed for servers with problems. -- info windows shouldn't have "stay on top" attribute, which makes it hard to get back to the main window. FTP SERVER The FTP server function is in the same program as the FTP client. It is easy to define userids and passwords. A single "public directory" is defined for all clients. Subdirectories beneath that directory can be accessed but other directories or disks cannot. A "Connections" window can be opened to list users who are connected to the server. Their IP address is shown. Problems -- I could not get a small file (8 bytes) with the FTP client on VM; 0 bytes were transferred, and no error message was given. Oh, but FTP client on a Sun works, must be problem with VM's client. Can get same file from Sun with VM client -- must be interaction of VM client and this server. File has only LF characters separating records -- maybe that was the problem. Issuing "CD D:\" doesn't result in an error message, but the current directory remains "C:\". Windows will repeatedly hang when I send a certain file to the FTP server from the VM FTP client; getting the same file with the Chameleon FTP client hung the system and caused Windows to give error messages like "Drive C: has serious errors". Grand. TN3270 The TN3270 is simple compared to PC/TCP's TN or other 3270 emulators such as Wall Data's Rumba or Open Connect's TN3270/TN3179G/TN5250 (which are expensive add-ons), but it works and is a real Windows application, unlike PC/TCP's TN. There is a choice between 3270 models 2, 3, 4, and 5. A patch that provides support for extended highlighting and colors, but this did not work for VM or an AS/400 -- it only disabled the color mapping for the basic field types. Different colors (a choice of 16) can be assigned to the foreground and background of the four basic 3270 fields (protected, unprotected, highlighted, unhighlighted). My Windows video driver supports 256 colors, so I'm not sure why it limits me to 16. Several different fonts are available. The keyboard mapping facility is easy to use. Nearly any key, plus shift, control, and alt states, can be assigned to a 3270 key, but not to random text. A key named "word delete" gave an exciting suggestion that Data Entry Assist might be supported, but it didn't do anything. The mouse can be used to move the cursor, but no other functions are supplied. There is no macro facility or "hot spots" or other "fancy" automation capabilities that the expensive emulators have. As expected, text can be easily copied to the clipboard. TN3270 PROBLEMS When in VM's RDRLIST, it got stuck. The status message said "Protected Field", yet the cursor was on the command line and wouldn't move. There doesn't seem to be a key assigned to RESET. No PF keys worked. The session had to be disconnected; after reconnecting the application froze and and to be terminated with ctrl-alt-del. Checking the "extended attributes" box caused the color remapping for the four basic 3270 fields to disappear, and no extended highlighting or colors worked on a VM system. Connection to an AS/400 was rejected when extended attribute support was on -- an error message flashed too quickly to read. MAIL The mail application uses the SMTP protocol to send mail and SMTP or POP2 to receive mail. The POP2 functions were not tested. There are userids and passwords so multiple people can share the same machine. You can leave it minimized, and when mail comes in, your PC beeps, and the mail icon changes from a mail box to a mail box with the door open and a letter in it. Cute! It is easy to compose and send mail, and to reply to mail sent. Other text files can be included when composing mail. An an address-book facility where names can be individuals or groups. There is also an "Outbox" for undeliverable mail with scheduled retries. Incoming or outgoing mail can be saved to a file. I wish it could also be appended to an existing file. MAIL PROBLEMS I couldn't receive mail from VM . . . not sure what the problem was. Telneted to the Chameleon SMTP server, which didn't respond to commands like VRFY, and closed the connection when sent QUEU. Ran PC/TCP's SMTPSRV and all files were delivered. I didn't have trouble getting mail with prior versions of Chameleon. I couldn't send mail to VM's SMTP server (I usually use a different one), because it complained about the parentheses around my name on the MAIL FROM command. Another problem is that it seems to include a Reply-To: tag, but with the address userid@domain -- that is, the host is missing. Replies do not go back to my machine with this tag. I couldn't test it much since our mail server uses only POP3 protocol, and this client supports POP2. NEWT The "kernel", NEWT is started when the first Chameleon application is launched and terminated when the last one is closed. It usually runs minimized, but can be restored to show information about the interface and statistics and configuration information for the TCP/IP stack. The various statistics windows can be reset so all counts are 0 and can be "started" so counts are updated while the window is open. SLIP Interface Dialup to the CAC's new protocol server (865-7777, bell.cac.psu.edu) was attempted with the SLIP interface. There is a simple scripting language that worked all the way up until the last part where it was supposed to wait for an internet address -- the server displays the assigned address, but Chameleon doesn't see it. To me, this was clearly a bug in the script program. The support technician said he'd be sure to send a beta copy of the next version to me, as it might fix the problem. Meanwhile, I'm just out of luck for trying SLIP. This is disappointing because the otherwise the SLIP support is the easiest and most flexible I've tried. Connections can be initiated and terminated while in Windows, and you can easily switch between using a network adapter or the modem during the same Windows session -- other packages require restarting Windows or even rebooting DOS. THIRD-PARTY APPLICATIONS Chameleon supports Windows Sockets 1.1, a program interface for Windows TCP/IP applications. This was tested with an alpha version of the POP3 client PC Eudora (1.1 alpha 3) and a beta version of an NNTP client WinVN (0.76). Both work with Chameleon and other TCP/IP packages that have the WINSOCK.DLL: PC/TCP, Windows NT, and IBM's TCP/IP for DOS. However, a small problem crops up with Chameleon. The NEWT kernel must be running before an application can use TCP/IP. All the Chameleon applications check and start NEWT if needed. NEWT terminates if no applications are using TCP/IP. In order to start Eudora or WinVN, you can launch NEWT and *very quickly* start the application. Sometimes NEWT terminates before the application opens a connection. An easier method is to run something like Chameleon's PING and minimize it to keep NEWT active. Another solution is write a small program to launch NEWT and then the application -- I did this with the Batch Runner facility that comes with Norton Desktop for Windows. For example, it looks something like this: if WinExist("NEWT") == @FALSE then RunICon("c:\comm\netmanag\newt.exe","") if WinExist("PC Eudora") == @FALSE then Run("c:\comm\pctcp\eudora11\weudora.exe","") WITH OTHER TCP/IP STACKS It would be really interesting if the Chameleon applications could work with other vendor's TCP/IP stacks that have a WINSOCK.DLL. For example, there are many freeware and shareware applications that work only with a PC/TCP kernel, and FTP Software has a WINSOCK.DLL. It would be a nice way to combine the best of both packages.