CINDI Version 2.3, a NDIS-2 Driver for Common-ISDN-API 2.0

Herbert Hanewinkel, Nov 1996
heha@biochem.mpg.de

CINDI is Shareware

CINDI, as it is provided, is a demo version. To make use of the full functionality of CINDI you have to register CINDI. The basic registration fee for a single user version of CINDI is DM 70,-. Please read the file CINDI.TXT for details.
As long as you have NOT registered CINDI you may test CINDI for 30 days without a registration code. In this case CINDI will stop forwarding data 20 min after startup.

Disclaimer

The program and the documentation is
Copyright (C) 1995,1996 by Herbert Hanewinkel,
All Rights Reserved.

It is provided as shareware with the following limitations:
This program is copyrighted and it is not in the public domain. It may not be distributed for profit or included in any CD-ROM or diskette software collection without permission. This applies in particular to commercial PD libraries. The program is not to be resold or distributed for sale with other programs which are for sale without my express written permission.
There is no warranty or claim of fitness or reliability. The program is distributed AS IS, and as such the author shall NOT be held liable for any loss of data, down time, loss of revenue or any other direct or indirect damage or claims caused by this program.
If you are a distributor of ISDN products and would like to distribute unregistered versions of this software or to sell registered versions of this software with printed hard copy manuals, please contact me. You may not bundle or otherwise distribute this software with any other software without my express written permission (i.e., on the same diskettes as part of a commercial package, compressed along with other software, etc.).

Overview

CINDI is a (realmode) NDIS-2 Driver for IP-Routing or remote Ethernet bridging over ISDN. CINDI communicates with the ISDN card using the Common ISDN API 2.0 specification (an international standard for accessing ISDN cards). Because of this, CINDI is completely hardware independent and has successfully been tested with many active or passive ISDN cards.

CINDI was developed for Internet access over ISDN from WfW 3.11 (with MSTCP-32) or Win95. CINDI is also known to work with other NDIS based TCP/IP packages for DOS and Windows, e.g. ChameleonNFS.

CINDI can be used with standard DOS CAPI 2.0 software or VxD implemenations of the CAPI 2.0 software. Using a VxD CAPI implementation, CINDI is available only under Windows but it frees a lot of DOS memory otherwise used by the CAPI software.

CINDI supports a large set of protocols for communication with other vendors ISDN routers or servers. Among these protocols are: LAPB, Frame-Relay, PPP, SLIP, Cisco-HDLC.

Some protocols conserve the protocol type over point-to-point lines (multi-LAPB, Frame-Relay, Cisco-HDLC). These protocols are able to handle multiprotocol routing. For PPP only IP support is implemented at the network configuration layer.

CINDI can communicate at least with the following commercial systems:
Ascend Routers, AVM MPR 3.0, Biodata ISDN Router, Cisco Routers, Conet S2M Router, INS/CLS Banzai ISDN Router, netCS ISDN Router, RzK SLIP Bridge, SGI Indy ISDN 1.0 & 1.1, Spider Routers, SunLink ISDN 1.0 & 1.0.2.

CINDI consists of two parts: A NDIS driver module and a MS-DOS TSR program for use with TSR or VxD CAPI 2.0 implementations. CINDI was written for use with ISDN BRI PC cards. CINDI was developed and implemented on a NCP /P8 card from NCP engineering GmbH, Nuernberg.

(Check for information on http://www.biochem.mpg.de/~heha/, if you are looking for details on a specific environment).

The current version of CINDI supports two independent active connections at a time. Alternativly a connection can use both B-channels for loadsharing. CINDI can be loaded more than once, if more than two simultaneous connections to different sites are desired. Loadsharing can be configured as static or dynamic (bandwidth on demand). Dynamic loadsharing can be used concurrently with a second independent connection.

Loadsharing over two channels is implemented using simple round robin scheduling, because IP doesn't require the original packet sequence. This is completely hardware independent and supported by many router systems. It works the same way as Cisco implements loadsharing over to X.21 interfaces. With this kind of loadsharing it is possible to get a performance of up to around 13kBytes/s.

The latest version of CINDI is available on http://www.biochem.mpg.de/~heha/ or via ftp from: ftp.biochem.mpg.de in directory /pc/isdn.

Installation

To use CINDI you have to set up a configuration file with your ISDN configuration as described in the configuration guide. The default name for the configuration file is CINDI.INI.

To load the NDIS-2 Driver into memory install CINDI.DOS in your NDIS environment and run CINDI.EXE after binding the NDIS modules (after executing "netbind" or "net start").

For standard DOS TSR CAPI implementations you have to load CINDI after starting your CAPI 2.0 software.

For use with VxD CAPI implemenations under WfW or Win95 with Windows applications you can start CINDI via WINSTART.BAT. WINSTART.BAT has to be in one of your PATH directories and is automatically executed at Windows startup.

For use with VxD CAPI implemenations under Win3.1 or with VxD application level software, start CINDI in AUTOEXEC.BAT. CINDI will hook automatically to your CAPI software on Windows startup.

CINDI.EXE accepts the following arguments:
(Parameters in [ ] are optional, if not given a default is used)

CINDI RegCode [ConfigFile]

"RegCode" is your personal registration code you will receive after registration of CINDI. As long as you have NOT registered CINDI you may test CINDI using a ? in place of the registration code. In this case CINDI will stop forwarding data after 20 min.

"ConfigFile" specifies the name of the CINDI configuration file. If the name is not given, it defaults to "CINDI.INI". The configuration file is a readable text file. How to set up a configuration file and a complete reference of all configuration options is described in the configuration guide.

Installation in a NDIS-1 environment

CINDI is a NDIS-2 compliant MAC driver. Multiple protocol modules can bind to CINDI. To include CINDI in your NDIS configuration:

  1. Unpack the CINDI software into a directory, e.g.: C:\CINDI
  2. In the CINDI directory set up an CINDI.INI file with the desired ISDN configuration.
  3. Set up a section for CINDI in the NDIS PROTOCOL.INI file:

    [CINDI]
    Drivername=CINDI.DOS

  4. The protocol module you want to bind to CINDI should reference the CINDI MAC driver section with a "BINDINGS" entry of the form:

    BINDINGS=CINDI

  5. Check also that the device PROTMAN.DOS is loaded in CONFIG.SYS.
  6. Load CINDI by starting CINDI.EXE with your arguments in AUTOEXEC.BAT after running netbind or in case of a VxD CAPI start CINDI.EXE in WINSTART.BAT

    C:\CINDI\CINDI ? C:\CINDI\CINDI.INI

    Registered users replace the ? by the received registration code.

  7. Reboot your system.
    Check that CINDI is loaded without any error messages

Installation in WfW 3.11 and Windows 4 (Win95) (NDIS-2/3 environment)

  1. Unpack the CINDI software into a directory, e.g.: C:\CINDI
  2. In the CINDI directory create a CINDI.INI file with the desired ISDN configuration.
  3. Use Netsetup to install the CINDI NDIS module.

    Select "Add adapter"

    Select "OEM provided adapter" in directory C:\CINDI

    Add the TCP/IP Protocol and remove all other protocols from the adapter.
    Configure the TCP/IP parameters. You can NOT use the automatic configuration with CINDI. You have to enter the IP-address information.

  4. Add a line to start CINDI.EXE in "AUTOEXEC.BAT" after "NET START", so that the entry looks like:

    C:\WINDOWS\NET START
    C:\CINDI\CINDI ? C:\CINDI\CINDI.INI

    or start CINDI.EXE via WINSTART.BAT:

    C:\CINDI\CINDI ? C:\CINDI\CINDI.INI

    Registered users replace the ? by the received registration code.

  5. (WfW only) After rebooting call a DOS-shell inside Windows and run "IPCONFIG".
    (Win95 only) After rebbooting run WINIPCFG.

    The program should display your TCP/IP parameters.

  6. Test your set-up with a ping in the DOS-shell. The ISDNMON monitor should display the dialed number and the connection should come up.

Attention:

The NETBIOS based WfW 3.11 peer-to-peer network can operate on different transport protocols (NETBEUI, DECnet, TCP/IP). After installing MS-TCP32, WfW and Win95 send broadcast messages also over TCP/IP to look-up other nodes. If you don't disable broadcast's in CINDI, this will trigger an ISDN connection every time a broadcast packet is sent. You can disable broadcasts in CINDI by either specifying a dedicated ip-address (not 0.0.0.0) for the ISDN peer or enabling the k-option for this link. Using the k-option, broadcasts will not keep the line up and will not trigger a new connection, but the peer-to-peer network capabilities are available over ISDN after opening a connection.

Installation for ChameleonNFS

  1. Unpack the CINDI software into a directory, e.g.: C:\CINDI
  2. In the CINDI directory create a CINDI.INI file with the desired ISDN configuration.
  3. Start the program "Custom".
  4. Select a new interface of type "Ethernet".
  5. Select hardware and vendor "Other".
  6. Enter:

    Section name: CINDI
    Driver name: CINDI
    File: C:\CINDI\CINDI.DOS

  7. Continue with configuration from "Custom".
  8. Custom creates a PROTOCOL.INI file.
  9. Add the following line to AUTOEXEC.BAT after the C:\NETMANAG\NETBIND line.

    a) start the CAPI 2.0 software of your ISDN-card (if using a DOS CAPI).

    b) start CINDI

    e.g.:

    C:\CINDI\CINDI ? C:\CINDI\CINDI.INI

    Registered users replace the ? by the received registration code.

  10. Reboot and check your configuration.

Controlling and Monitoring

The Windows utility program ISDN2MON.EXE allows you to:

ISDN2MON Menus

File

Save Buffer saves the screen contents to a file. If the file exists the contents is appended to the file.

Exit terminates the program

View

Status selects the status page for display

Configuration displays the active configuration

Control

Connect manually connect to a IP destination. In case of PPP with authentication the program prompts for authentication information. The initial setting of the repeated dial request option depends on the Preferences configuration.

Disconnect disconnects all active ISDN connections or terminates a repeated dial reuqest.

Reset Statitstics resets all counters.

AutoDial enable or disabes the auto dial feature.

Preferences defines the initial program settings. Selectable are the language of menus and messages, the cost per unit and currency value and the initial setting of the repeated dial option. All settings are saved in a file ISDNMON.INI. The program beeps on connect and disconnect. If the "Play Sound" option is checked, the program will play th .WAV files assigned to ISDNup on connect and ISDNdown on disconnect

Help

Info displays program version information.

The DOS utility program ISPACF.EXE allows you to:

Ethernet characteristics

CINDI works as an ethernet type NDIS-2 Driver. The ethernet address of CINDI is defined as: 00-00-0xFB-0xAA-00-01. (Thanks to RzK, Asbach, Germany for using numbers from their official 00-00-0xFB range.)
The ethernet address of CINDI is settable by software via the NIDS interface. This way the ethernet address can be changed to any other desired value.
Changing the ethernet address may be required when connecting two CINDI's with direct applications using an ethernet bridging protocol.

Support

The latest version of CINDI is available on http://www.biochem.mpg.de/~heha/

Please mail comments, questions, problems to heha@biochem.mpg.de. I can not guarantee any level of technical support, or for any length of time. In general, I will give priority to registered users

Warranty

There is absolutely NO WARRANTY, expressed or implied with this software. If you choose to use this software, you assume all risk.