🚀 go-pugleaf

One of the most interesting analyzer I have seen is the Digitech 5xx.

	Digitech Industries Inc.
	66 Grove St., PO Box 547
	Ridgefield, CT 06877
	(203) 438-3731

--
	Jacques Virchaux
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
	CH-1015 Lausanne			<virchaux@sic.epfl.ch>
	  Switzerland

>Can anyone recommend a good protocol analyzer for doing X.25 development
>with?  The HP 4954A did well in a recent survey in Data Communications.
>The Tekelec Chameleon was recommended by a colleague.  Any other opinions?

I've used almost every analyzer made. The only ones I'm spending my budget on
are the box from Hard Engineering (for field work by non-technical staff), and
the Atlantic Research Interview 7700 Turbo (for serious work).

The HP4954 has its points, and I'd rank it second to the A.R., but a distant
second. Third is the Tektronix built into the Compac PC; the T1000 I think is
what they call it. You might like Digilog, but I don't. I used to struggle
along with a Chameleon because it did a lot of things that nothing else would,
despite the most archane user interface you could imagine. Now I wouldn't use
it if it was free. I don't like Idacom, either: very clumsy to use. 

The big win on the A.R. 7700 is the conformance testing applications. Very
well done. Makes the stuff on the H.P., Idacom, and Tekelek look really sad.
A.R. does have some serious SQA problems that need work, and some bizarre
design flaws, but at least they are doing something about it. The remote
operation software in the 7700 is rediculous; it requires an OS/2 PC to use
it. But even at its worst, the 7700 is nowhere near as quirky as the other
units. Still, I do find myself periodically going back to my old A.R. Comm-
state II and the Hard for some specific things; there is no perfect machine
out there.

<csg>

In response to some queries:

	For information about the Interview 7700 Turbo bench analyzer:

		Atlantic Research
		7401 Boston Boulevard
		Springfield, VA 22153
		800/368-3261
		Fax: 703/644-9011
	
	For info about the Tektronix TC 1000 portable protocol analyzer:

		Tektronix
		205 Ravendale Drive
		Mountain View, CA 94043
		1-800-826-8675

(I think every unit I've seen is advertized as portable: they have handles.
But all require line power. The practical difference is the TC 1000 weighs
less than 10 pounds. The Interview 7700 weighs 27 pounds, and the HP 4954A,
Tekelek Chameleon 8000, and last Idacom box I used were 40+ pounds. The Hard
Engineering analyzer -- I don't have a contact, sorry -- is truly portable,
at barely two pounds, but still needs line power. General Datacomm makes a
very small blue-plastic battery-powered portable with an LCD display, but it
is in a class by itself for limited functionality and bad price/performance.
What makes the Hard Engineering analyzer so valuable for field work is that
all you need for remote operations is a dumb terminal -- not even a VT-100.)

<csg>