hylas@ecsvax.UUCP (Andy R. Bobyarchick) (05/01/86)
We have recently installed MacServe with a network of 6 Mac+'s
and an HD20 as well as a Laserwriter. I can't answer your question
about speed quantitatively because I don't have experience with
any other such setup. One of the Macs serves as a "host" and, I
believe, print spooling is possible through the host machine only.
Any applications from the network that involve heavy I/O seem to
run slowly.
If you set up certain MacServe volumes as read-only problems arise
when, for some reason or the other, applications need to write back
to the volume. MacDraw, for example, will not work (print) if you
open it on a shared MacServe volume. You must put the application
on a private volume or copy it to a ramdisk (or diskette) on the
network.
The only copy-protected program that I have tried to use with this
system is MS Word and it's the same old thing - you must have the
master disk for the first startup of the day. There may be software
somewhere that will install such protected programs on the hard disk
and defeat the protection but I don't think that MacServe has that
provision.
Andy R. Bobyarchick
Dept. of Geography and Earth Sciences
UNC-Charlottesunny@hoptoad.UUCP (05/03/86)
Since I don't have an Appletalk network to try it out on, I can't vouch
for MacServe's networking capabilities, but I can warn you of an
incompatibility between it and the Parallel Printer Install program
which comes from Apple Computer. This program is used to alter the
printer driver in MacWorks XL to drive the Apple Dot Matrix Printer
from a parallel port (e.g. on a Lisa / Mac eXLisa 2-Port Parallel Card).
I can understand that MacServe's print spooler wouldn't understand the
parallel printer interface, but I didn't expect that it would fail to
boot the MacServe software properly just because you did install the
parallel printer driver. As a result, the only thing it's good for
if that is your hardware configuration, is as a hard disk archiver /
restorer. I've reported the bug to InfoSphere.
Sunny
--
Sunny Kirsten
U.P.S.: 10329 Hilltop Rd.
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Loch Lomond, CA 95426-2025
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USENET: ...!{sun,ptsfa,well,lll-crg,ihnp4,ucsfcgl,nsc,frog}!hoptoad!sunnymazlack@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Lawrence J. Mazlack) (05/05/86)
In response to the MacServe query: When I started to get weird failures, I took it off of my system. The failures stopped - so I am not motivated to put it back on. Larry Mazlack mazlack@ernie.berkeley.edu
ephraim@wang.UUCP (pri=8 Ephraim Vishniac x76659 ms1459) (05/07/86)
> Since I don't have an Appletalk network to try it out on, I can't vouch > for MacServe's networking capabilities, but I can warn you of an > incompatibility between it and the Parallel Printer Install program > which comes from Apple Computer. I've been using MacServe in "stand-alone" mode for a while and have run into numerous printing problems: 1. With "Pr" (A. Shebanow's printing program), the cursor freezes. The job title (optionally printed by MacServe) is garbage. 2. With "PrSpool" (? - the printing program that comes with MacNosy), the cursor freezes. 3. When I print in normal or high quality, the word "TOO" appears here and there. It's always in portrait orientation, even if I'm printing in landscape. I've been remiss about reporting this stuff to Infosphere (at first I thought it was just a problem with Pr), so I don't have an official response. Ephraim Vishniac decvax!wanginst!wang!ephraim
hammen@puff.UUCP (Robert J. Hammen) (05/08/86)
In article <13641@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, mazlack@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Lawrence J. Mazlack) writes: > In response to the MacServe query: > When I started to get weird failures, I took it off of my system. > The failures stopped - so I am not motivated to put it back on. > > Larry Mazlack > mazlack@ernie.berkeley.edu I've been using MacServe now for about a week and a half, and I, too, have noticed an unusual number of bombs/crashes. While some of this is undoubtedly related to my testing of public-domain software on my Lisa, some of the other programs I used to use quite often (Red Ryder, ResEdit, QUED) have crashed spectacularly (the usual result is that the Lisa reboots and gives a 'CPU error ID=40, which I've never seen before). I've also had a couple of other problems, such as 'Out of Memory' crashes (this is on a 1 meg machine not using Switcher or Keeper or the MacServe cache, mind you!) and a few failures of MacServe to load (once, it reset the configuration and wouldn't let me boot off the hard disk because it couldn't find a nonexistant printer connected to the parallel (hard disk) port). I'm running MacServe as a stand alone (until I get a new Mac) on the Lisa, and I find that when it works, it works well (it fixes the hard disk trashing bug of MacWorks, it allows you to partition the Lisa hard disk, it adjusts the sector allocation so that files don't take up 4K chunks, and it has a backup program). However, I'm wondering if the problems outweigh the benefits. Don't get me wrong, I like MacServe when it works, it's just that it's not very robust (is ANY Mac application very robust?). I'd appreciate hearing anyone else's comments on it. Robert J. Hammen {seismo,allegra,ihnp4,harvard,topaz}!uwvax!puff!hammen UW-Madison CS Dept. hammen@puff.wisc.edu UW-Madison Plasma Physics Dept. plasma%wiscpsl.bitnet {@wiscvm.wisc.edu} --- Working here is like being in a nightmare. You'd like to get out of it, but you need the sleep.