Smart Software
==============
                                                           August 1996
                                                           -----------


This file gives an overview of  the  benefits  of  using  Madge  Smart
Software. Also described  is  the  Madge  Winsock  interface which can
be used with Smart, found  in  the  WINSOCK  sub-directory,  and   the
pre-linked drivers, SMTNDIS.DOS and SMTNETB.EXE, that can be  found in
the PRELINKS sub-directory.

For detailed technical information please  refer  to  the  INFO  files
SMART.TXT  and WINSOCK.TXT files in the \DOCS\INFO directory.

Overview
--------
The Madge Smart Software drivers provide  Network  protocol  functions 
for the range of Madge Smart Ringnodes. They  are  intended for use on
DOS workstations, where memory usage is an  issue. You  can  also  use
them on DOS-based servers. This release of the Smart Software does not
support adapters that run solely at 4Mbps.

The  Smart  Software  includes  facilities  for  constructing  network 
drivers from a number of subcomponents:  the  SMART  program  and  the 
protocols are separate files.  You can combine them, using the SMTLINK 
utility,  into  a  single  executable  file. For information about the 
SMTLINK utility, refer to the info file SMTLINK.TXT. Alternatively the
SMART.EXE program can read the protocol  modules  from  disk  when  it
runs. SMART.EXE  can  use  a  configuration  script  file  in addition
to/instead of  the command line. (The Smart TCP/IP modules  cannot  be
configured from the command line.)

Only a small amount of DOS memory is required for the  interface code,
as Smart Software transfers most of the work  of  protocol  processing 
onto the Ringnode. The amount that is required depends mainly on which
interfaces you enable, and also  by  certain  configuration  parameter
values. The amount of DOS memory in  use  will  increase  if  you  are
using  more than one Smart Ringnode.

Winsock Interface
-----------------
"Winsock"  is  the  familiar  term  for the Windows Sockets Interface, 
developed by a group of Networking companies and described as an "Open 
Interface for Network Programming under Microsoft Windows".

The Madge Networks Winsock implements version 1.1 of the specification 
and  is  designed  to  be  used  with Microsoft Windows 3.0 and later.  
Although the Specification can in principle use any Network  Transport 
Protocol, it is designed with the TCP/IP protcol suite in mind. 

Smart  Winsock  consists  of  two  Windows  programs,  WINSOCK.DLL and 
VNOVAPI.386 and uses the Smart TCP/IP modules to  provide  the  TCP/IP
stack.

Pre-linked Drivers
------------------
For convenience two examples of pre-linked drivers have been included in
this release, SMTNDIS.DOS (along with PROTOCOL.INI and OEMSETUP.INF)
and SMTNETB.EXE. 

SMTNDIS.DOS is a pre-linked SMART.EXE, NDIS.SMT and SMTNDIS.CFG.  This
may  be  useful  in  NDIS2  environments  e.g  MS LAN  Network  Client.
SMTNETB.EXE is a pre-linked SMART.EXE, NETB.CFG and SMTNETB.CFG.  This
may be useful in IBM LANServer environments.

Note that if you need to specify other parameters then you can  either
put them on the SMTNDIS.DOS or SMTNETB.EXE command line or make a  new
CFG file containing all the required parameters and use SMTLINK.EXE to
link the new CFG file with SMART.EXE and the required protocol.

