[comp.sys.ibm.pc] TOPS info

pgil@sphinx.uchicago.edu (paul gilna) (01/21/88)

	hello
 	I would be interested to hear of anyone's experience
	of using SUN TOPS. We are trying to configure a LAN
	using a SUN 3/60 as a server to a mix of PC's and
	Macs. Although we plan to wire with both thin wire
	ethernet and PhoneNet (using a Kinetics FastPath to
	bridge the two nets), we are interested in having a
	universal protocol running over ethernet that would
	integrate PC's and ethernet capable Macs. so;

	1. Is anyone using TOPS and EtherTalk 
	2. How close is TOPS to using a PC 3Com board or similar.
	3. What are the physical cable limitations for
	   Ethertalk/thin wire.
	4. Is there a way to spool to a printer off the SUN
	   from either apple- or Ethertalk.
	5. Is there an alternative to TOPS other than micro 
	   versions of TCP/IP or NFS, that can (or will in the
	   future) integrate SUN UNIX, PC and Mac in a "seamless"
	   (lord do I hate that word) fashion.

	Much Thanks,			paul gilna.
-- 
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bevans@convex.UUCP (01/21/88)

I also would be EXTREMELY interested any information concerning TOPS, i.e.:

	(1) Is it a "true" distributed-server network?

	(2) Will TOPS work with Ethernet and not just AppleTalk?

	(3) Does it allow "peer-to-peer" communication?

Thanks in advance,

Bruce Evans


*************************************************************************

Bruce C. Evans                                    ...!ihnp4!convex!bevans
CONVEX Computer Corp.
701 N. Plano Road
Richardson, TX 75081

Disclaimer: Anything seen above is the result of line noise and is not a
product of anything I've done!

cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) (01/22/88)

> 
> 	hello
>  	I would be interested to hear of anyone's experience
> 	of using SUN TOPS. We are trying to configure a LAN
> 	using a SUN 3/60 as a server to a mix of PC's and
> 	Macs. Although we plan to wire with both thin wire
> 	ethernet and PhoneNet (using a Kinetics FastPath to
> 	bridge the two nets), we are interested in having a
> 	universal protocol running over ethernet that would
> 	integrate PC's and ethernet capable Macs. so;
> 
> 	1. Is anyone using TOPS and EtherTalk 
> 	2. How close is TOPS to using a PC 3Com board or similar.
> 	3. What are the physical cable limitations for
> 	   Ethertalk/thin wire.
> 	4. Is there a way to spool to a printer off the SUN
> 	   from either apple- or Ethertalk.
> 	5. Is there an alternative to TOPS other than micro 
> 	   versions of TCP/IP or NFS, that can (or will in the
> 	   future) integrate SUN UNIX, PC and Mac in a "seamless"
> 	   (lord do I hate that word) fashion.
> 
> 	Much Thanks,			paul gilna.

Our system here is:

    Sun 3/280 file server
    many Sun 3/50s
    one Sun 3/60
    a dozen PCs
    a dozen or so Macs
    an Apple LaserWriter Plus
    a Kinetics FastPath box bridging AppleTalk net to Ethernet

The LaserWriter Plus and Macs are on Appletalk network using TOPS to
access the Sun 3/280 file server.  The PCs are on Ethernet, using Sun's
PC-NFS to talk to the Sun 3/280, which also provides the networked printer
support.

We have everything working pretty well now, though our print spooler will
occasionally fail with an very non-descriptive error message, and require
human intervention.  I would strongly encourage anyone considering a
combination like this to reconsider why they are taking such an approach.

Our particular Kinetics FastPath occasionally fails in a manner that
requires us to reinitialize its software -- yet passes diagnostics.
When this happens, the AppleTalk part stops talking to Ethernet.

There are quirks of trying to use PC software to talk to the LaserWriter
over this torturous path, and it appears that the combination of TOPS
and PC-NFS create problems that preclude using the solutions you would
use for TOPS or PC-NFS alone.

The Appletalk part of our setup works fine -- the PC-NFS part works sort
of OK (though you don't want to use the DOS APPEND command if you are
using PC-NFS), but the combination of all these systems has taken up
a lot of time to get working.  Even now, most Mac users work on hard
disks instead of trusting the network to stay up long enough to complete
editing a document.  (That includes me -- and I'm responsible for 
maintaining it).

Clayton E. Cramer