XCON: X.25 Cards Supported Through Direct Hardware Interface

ID: Q182758

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.5

SUMMARY

Microsoft Exchange Server supports Eicon X.25 cards by communicating directly with the hardware, rather than communicating with the hardware through a device driver. This makes it difficult to add support for additional X.25 cards, because Microsoft Exchange Server must be modified to support additional cards.

Most other devices are supported by communicating with the hardware through a device driver, which makes it relatively easy to add support for additional devices. Support for additional devices is provided by additional device drivers, which can easily be installed on an existing Microsoft Exchange Server computer.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft recognizes the need for Exchange Server to support additional X.25 cards. We have modified the Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 message transfer agent (MTA) so that X.25 cards are supported by communicating with the hardware through the Windows sockets API (Winsock). Support for additional X.25 cards can now be provided by Winsock-compatible device drivers supplied by the hardware manufacturer. This feature is included in the latest Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 U.S. Service Pack. For information about obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

S E R V P A C K

The Exchange Server documentation states that the Eicon cards are the only X.25 cards supported by Exchange Server. This is not true; in some cases, X.25 cards manufactured by Cirel and SAT are also supported. For additional information about X.25 support for Cirel and SAT cards in Exchange Server, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q169667 XCON: X.25 Support for Cirel Cards

Q169668 XCON: X.25 Support for SAT Cards

Keywords : XCON
Version : WINDOWS:5.5
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbinfo