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The new version of the popular Chameleon TCP/IP product from NetManage Inc. was supposed to solve most of the problems of the standard Windows 95 TCP/IP client.
For example, its developers set out to support a network interface card and dial-up networking simultaneously and to make sure that it worked properly with Novell Inc.'s NetWare. As is typically the case with NetManage products, Chameleon 5.0 for Windows 95 also intended to include a wealth of useful applications, providing a single source for everything from setting up simple servers on the World Wide Web to checking newsgroups and getting email.
NetManage was partly successful. On one hand, the TCP/IP stack does what the company said it would do. Users can establish both a dial-up connection and a LAN connection at the same time, and Novell NetWare isn't affected in the least. In addition, there are plenty of interesting applications included on the Chameleon CD-ROM.
Unfortunately, getting to the point where users can actually use these applications is trying indeed. While NetManage has shown that it is possible to produce a product that performs a full range of networking functions, the company hasn't shown that it is easy to use or highly compatible.
As has become customary with TCP/IP stacks, users get a lot more than just the stack with Chameleon. The stack itself is called Newt. The details of how Newt operates are controlled...