Choosing 16-bit or 32-bit Transport Software

Aspen Research Group, Ltd. has not observed any significant difference in performance between the 16- and 32-bit implementations of protocol stacks or drivers. It is, however, likely that 32-bit software outperforms 16-bit software. That said, the primary advantage of Novell's 32-bit client product involves Netware Client/Server performance activities. Since AspeNet software does not utilize these activities, no performance advantage is gained by using 32-bit software. Further, the minimum 32-bit transport configuration uses almost 1 Mb of memory more than a 16-bit transport configuration. The 16-bit transport software, therefore, leaves more memory available for Aspen.

Currently, we recommend using the 16-bit version of Novell's transport software to support AspeNet Servers. The following instructions focus on solving the issues of obtaining, installing, and configuring Novell's 16-bit transport software.