A Core Competence Product Evaluation
Out of the Box: Hardware, Software, Documentation and Accessories
The NetCommander is suitable for installation in a PC with one free 16-bit ISA slot, a 486 or faster CPU, and at least 8 MB of RAM. We installed this card in a 486/50 DX2 with 8 MB of RAM and a Pentium 150 with 16 MB of RAM, and found the product to perform well in both PCs. The card has an integrated NT-1 (network termination), providing a single RJ-45 jack for connection to your ISDN subscriber line U interface. The card also offers a single analog port that allows you to connect any analog device (your telephone, fax machine, or analog modem) to the ISDN card through an RJ-11 jack.
The product is currently supplied with Windows 95 drivers, the Microsoft ISDN Accelerator Pack for Windows 95, and Microsoft Explorer 2.0. Sorry, Windows 3.11 and NT 3.5 users, you’re out of luck – no NetCommander drivers are available for these environments. But a new NetCommander Windows NT 4.0 driver has just been released by Diamond Multimedia. We evaluated the unit under Windows 95 only, using the native Microsoft TCP/IP stack and Dial-Up Networking utilities.
What else is in the box? The NetCommander Installation Guide provides brief but accurate step-by-step, illustrated instructions. The Supra NetCommander ISDN Setup software is very easy to use, and on-line documentation is accurate. A pair of cables are also included in the box: one with RJ-45 terminations to connect the card to your ISDN wall jack, and another with RJ-11 terminations to connect your favorite analog device to the card.
What else do you need? An ISDN wall jack, of course – you’ll need to purchase an ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) from your local telephone company or other ISDN local access provider, and either have the inside ISDN wiring installed or do it yourself. And you’ll need someplace to call – the phone number of an ISDN access server and an appropriately-configured dial-in account. If you plan to use the ISDN to surf the web, you’ll need to purchase a single-host ISDN dial-in account from an Internet Access Provider. If you plan to use the card for remote access to your corporate network, you’ll need to chat with your friendly system administrator back at the office. You can’t get very far into the configuration process without these two pre-requisites, so take care of these steps before grabbing your screwdriver to install the card…
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