axaris@acsu.Buffalo.EDU (vassilios e axaris) (06/03/90)
Hello everyone, Now this may belong to another group but bear with me. I have this system configuration: A 386 running an interactive program, which is to be connected to diskless 286 pcs that will do the I/O for the program. The connection will most likely be via RS-232 ports. My question is: can the 386 initiate a process on the 286's without a network OS like Novell? Shouldn't the 286's be running some sort of program to communi- cate with the 386? Can the 2 serial ports handle 10 286 nodes in interrupt driven I/O, or is there a device that can make my life easier? Thank you for any possible pointers. Vassilios E. Axaris
nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) (06/03/90)
In article <27375@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> axaris@acsu.Buffalo.EDU (vassilios e axaris) writes:
I have this system configuration: A 386 running an interactive
program, which is to be connected to diskless 286 pcs that will do
the I/O for the program. The connection will most likely be via
RS-232 ports. My question is: can the 386 initiate a process on
the 286's without a network OS like Novell? Shouldn't the 286's be
running some sort of program to communicate with the 386?
What you want to do *can* be done. It is a major pain in the butt to
do over RS-232 links. When the price of Ethernet cards is in the $129
range, and ARCNET cards can be had for $79, there isn't a very good
reason to be fiddling with RS-232 for networking more than two
machines.
Instead, FTP the packet drivers from
sun.soe.clarkson.edu:pub/ka9q/drivers.arc. Look through the list of
supported drivers, find a cheap card, and run your network that way.
You'll have to develop your own method for transferring and starting
programs, but that's the fun part.
--
--russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu]) Russ.Nelson@$315.268.6667
Violence never solves problems, it just changes them into more subtle problems