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Lesson 3: Other Protocols Supported by Windows 2000

Windows 2000 also supports other protocols, including NetBEUI, DLC, AppleTalk protocol, and the Network Monitor Driver 2.

After this lesson, you will be able to

• Explain the capabilities and limitations of NetBEUI.
• Explain the capabilities and limitations of DLC.
• Describe other protocols supported by Windows NT.

Estimated lesson time: 20 minutes

NetBEUI

NetBEUI is a protocol developed for LANs with 20-200 computers. However, while NetBEUI is a small, fast, and efficient protocol, it isn't routable and therefore is unsuitable for use in a WAN environment.

NetBEUI Capabilities

NetBEUI provides compatibility with existing LANs that use the NetBEUI protocol. NetBEUI provides computers running Windows 2000 with the following capabilities:

• Connection-oriented and connectionless communication between computers
• Self-configuration and self-tuning
• Error protection
• Small memory overhead

NetBEUI also has a number of limitations. NetBEUI is

• Designed for department-sized LANs.
• Nonroutable. Because of this limitation, you must connect computers running Windows 2000 and NetBEUI by using bridges instead of routers.
• Broadcast-based. NetBEUI protocol relies on broadcasts for many of its functions, such as name registration and discovery, which creates more broadcast traffic than other protocols.

As shown in Figure 7.9, DLC is a special-purpose, nonroutable protocol that enables computers running Windows 2000 to communicate with the following:

• Other computers running the DLC protocol stack, such as IBM mainframes
• Network peripherals that use a network adapter card to connect directly to the network, such as a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4Si print device, which can connect directly to the network by using an HP JetDirect network adapter

Figure 7.9 DLC connectivity

NOTE

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You must install the DLC protocol on the print server for the print device. Computers sending print jobs to the print server don't require DLC.

DLC isn't designed to be a primary protocol for use between personal com-puters and should be installed only on computers performing the previously mentioned tasks.

AppleTalk Protocol

The AppleTalk protocol allows computers running Windows 2000 Server and Apple Macintosh clients to share files and printers.

NOTE

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For the AppleTalk protocol to function properly, a computer running Windows 2000 Server configured with Windows 2000 Services for Macintosh must be available on the network.

Network Monitor Driver 2

The Network Monitor driver on a Windows 2000-based computer collects and displays statistics about activity detected by the network card in the computer. You can view these statistics on a computer that is running Network Monitor Agent Service. You can also use Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) and Network Monitor to collect statistics from computers that are running Network Monitor Agent.

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, you learned that Windows 2000 supports protocols besides TCP/IP and NWLink. These other protocols include NetBEUI, DLC, AppleTalk, and the Network Monitor driver 2. NetBEUI is a protocol developed for LANs with 20-200 computers. It is a small, fast, and efficient protocol, but it isn't routable and therefore is unsuitable for use in a WAN environment. NetBEUI provides compatibility with existing LANs that use the NetBEUI protocol. DLC is a special-purpose, nonroutable protocol that enables computers running Windows 2000 to communicate with other computers running the DLC protocol stack, such as IBM mainframes. DLC is also used to communicate with network peripherals that use a network adapter card to connect directly to the network, such as a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4Si print device.