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Release Notes:   StarBurst Multicast(tm) V3.01   2/12/97
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These Release Notes list new features, addenda or corrections to the 
user guide, known minor problems, and other important information about 
this release of the StarBurst Multicast Server. Please take a few 
moments to familiarize yourself with this document.

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Release 3.01 of StarBurst Multicast provides the following new features: 

     Support for Open Multicast Groups 
     Split Forward and Back Data Channel Support 
     Selectable Network Interfaces 
     Improved Logging (i.e, more transactional information is logged) 
     The StarBurst client runs as an integral service on Windows NT 

These features are described in greater detail below. 

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Support for Open Multicast Groups

Release 3.01 of StarBurst Multicast supports the following types of 
client groups to receive multicast file transfers:

     closed 
     open limited 
     open unlimited
     open unlimited unacknowledged 

Closed Groups

A closed group is used when the server knows in advance which clients 
are authorized to receive a data transmission, and the number of clients 
is relatively small (e.g. 1000 or less). This group type allows the 
server to tightly control and monitor group membership.

When using closed groups, the server application specifies the IP 
address of each client that is authorized to receive the file transfer. 
The server's Announce message includes this list of authorized file 
recipients and only those clients in the list actually respond to the 
file announcement. The authorized clients respond with a Registration 
message. All other hosts are prohibited from responding to the 
announcement or receiving the file transfer.

Open Limited Groups

The Open-limited group allows the server to announce a file transfer 
without specifying the clients that are authorized to receive the data. 
This may be because the sender does not know in advance which clients 
may want to receive the data, or the number of potential clients may be 
very large.

This type of group allows any client to register with the server, but 
the server limits the number of actual participants based on its own 
ability to handle the response message flow. As clients register to 
receive the file, the server learns the identity of each client. 
Therefore, like the Closed Group, the server is able to keep detailed 
statistics on each client.

Open Unlimited Groups

The Open-unlimited group allows any client to participate in the file 
transfer and the server does not limit the number of participants. To 
achieve this, certain types of client responses may be disabled to 
prevent message implosion at the server. The server is unable to 
identify each client host when this group type is used, so it is most 
useful when the transfer file can be freely distributed and the sender 
does not care (or need) to know who is receiving it.

To support this multicast group model, Release 3.01 of StarBurst 
Multicast client now allows the client to be configured to disable the 
sending of response messages back to the server. The GUI-client is 
configured to disable the sending of response messages back to the 
server using the "Disable" button on its "Advanced Configuration" 
window. The CLI-client is configured to disable the sending of response 
messages back to the server using its configuration file (sbclient.cfg).

Open Unlimited Unacknowledged Groups

This group type has no formal client membership. The server delivers the 
file to the multicast transfer address in complete passes up to the 
number of passes specified by the server operator. This method of file 
delivery is unreliable, as the server receives no status messages (NAKs, 
Done messages, etc.) from the client. This group type is often used in 
networks supporting only one-way transmission from the server (e.g., 
some satellite networks) with no back channel by which clients can 
respond to the server.

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Split Forward and Back Data Channel Support

Some network configurations use separate data channels to support 
communications between hosts. Consider for example satellite networks. 
In these networks, the server typically transmits file data to clients 
via satellite transmission and the clients respond to the server via a 
dial-up modem connection. In such a configuration, the data channel over 
which the server sends data to clients is referred to as the "forward" 
channel, and the data channel over which clients respond to the server 
is referred to as the back channel.

Release 3.01 of StarBurst Multicast client and server can now be 
configured to support communication via forward and back data channels. 
The GUI-client is configured to support forward and back data channels 
using its "Advanced Configuration" window. The CLI-client is configured 
to support forward and back data channels using its configuration file 
(sbclient.cfg). Likewise, the GUI-server is configured to support 
forward and back data channels via its Configuration window and the CLI-
server is configured to support forward and back data channels using its 
configuration file (mftp.cfg).

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Selectable Network Interfaces (primary interface can be specified)

The StarBurst Multicast server and client may be run on computers 
equipped with multiple network interfaces. StarBurst Multicast 
communicates only over the network interface that is configured as the 
host's primary interface. In the past, this has been a problem because 
there is no programmatic way to specify which of the multiple interfaces 
is the host's primary interface.

Release 3.01 of StarBurst Multicast allows the network interface over 
which it is to communicate to be selected. This network interface 
selection is made when the StarBurst MFTP daemon (over which StarBurst 
Multicast runs) is started. The primary network interface is passed a 
command line switch (-i) to the sbmftp daemon executable.

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Improved Logging

Release 3.01 of StarBurst Multicast client and server provides improved, 
i.e., more detailed logging of file transfer events. Simply by scanning 
the server log file, it is now possible to identify clients that 
declined to participate in the transfer or never responded to the 
server's file transfer announcement. The file can then be retransmitted 
to only those clients who failed to receive it successfully.

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The StarBurst Multicast Client Runs as an Integral NT Service

Running the StarBurst Multicast client as an integral service means that 
the client is automatically running and waiting to receive files in the 
background whenever the host Windows NT machine is running. This allows 
for an automatic "hands off" operation of our software at the receiving 
host.


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Known Minor Problems:



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StarBurst and MFTP are trademarks of StarBurst 
Communications Corporation
Copyright (c) 1996 StarBurst Communications Corporation
