UNOCC07@zeus.unl.edu (Dave Caplinger) (07/06/89)
At the Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha, we are in the process of networking all of
our PC's and Macintosh's, and since this is undoubtedly a common phenomenon
(especially at Universities, I would guess), I wanted to ask for some opinions
or suggestions from other locations that have done this sort of thing.
We currently have 3 separate locations of both PC's and Macs: about 20 Zenith
248's and 20 Mac SE's in one public access user room, 25 Zenith 158's (being
slowly converted to 286-LP's) and 5 Mac SE's in another, and miscellaneous
equipment of both types in the "Computing and Data Communications Offices"
area. Additionally, C&DC runs a VAX 8650, and the Math/CS dept. on campus runs
a Sequent Balance 8000, both on our Campus Ethernet. (We have terminals for
the VAX in all three locations as well.)
Our goal is to network each group of micros, and bridge them into the Campus
Ethernet as well, for access to the VAX and Sequent (and the rest of the
world). So far, we have the 5-Mac cluster on an AppleShare network (using an
SE/30 as a file/print server), and plan a similar setup for the 20-Mac cluster
across campus. The PC's will eventually be running on Novell networks. To
simplify matters, however, we have been considering running both the Macs and
PC's off of one Novell (386 machine) server (one for each of the three
locations).
(Below is a diagram that shows what we would like to do. Any point on
the network below should be able to reach any other point.)
DSC section EAB section CBA section
----------- ----------- -----------
A A ZEUS A
p p p
p N UNOCSS p N (VMS) p N
l o l o +---------+ l o
e v (UNIX) e v | | e v
T e +---------+ T e | V A X | T e
a l | Sequent | a l | 8 6 5 0 | a l
l l | Balance | l l | | l l
k | 8000 | k +---------+ k
[ ] +---------+ [ ] | [ ]
[ ] | | [ ] | | [ ] |
| | | | | | | |
-+----+----+------+----/ /----+----+----+-----+---/ /----+----+--+--
| ^ | ^ |
/ \ | / \ | / \
/___\ Fiber- /___\ Fiber- /___\
optic optic
(DSC User bridge (EAB User bridge (CBA User
room term. room term. room term.
server) server) server)
(Individual PC's, Macs, LaserWriters, etc. are not shown, for simplicity)
Any station on any of the micro networks should be able to reach any of
the file servers, as well as the mainframes. Added bonuses would be:
o A PC on any Novell should be able to print to a LaserWriter on
any of the AppleTalk networks.
o A PC or Mac should be able to connect to any other PC or Mac on any
network (via FTP) for fast file transfers (additionally, the Macs
should be able to connect, for example, to both an AppleShare server
and a Novell server, and use Apple File Exchange (or other program)
for file conversion as well as transfer). I have no idea if there is
similar software for the PC side... :-)
o It would be nice if the VAX and/or Sequent could print to the LaserWriter
on an AppleTalk network, but this is by no means critical (we really do
not need to spend the large amounts of $$ to buy AlisaShare or
AlisaPrint, or PacerShare, or PacerLink, or whatever other VMS-AppleTalk
applications there are.. :-) But I believe there is a cheap (i.e. free)
way to let the UNIX box print to the LaserWriters...?
So my questions are these:
1. Does this sound feasible? Has anyone else done this sort of thing,
and if so, what setup did you eventually decide on? Have you had
any regrets or commendations? (Were you able to connect "everything-
to-everything" like above, or did you have to settle for something
less?)
2. Will running 20 Macs and 20 AT-class PC's on one 386 running Novell
be especially "bad"? I have seen next to nothing from Novell about
what support they have for Macs, other than "Yes, we support them"
(quoted from a recent Novell seminar held locally). Sure, they can
check the "Mac" box on their checklist, but /how/ does it work, and
how /well/ does it work? Should we just stick with AppleShare for
the Macs and leave it at that?
3. What ethernet-bridging products for the Mac will allow us to connect
a Mac on AppleTalk to a server on a separate AppleTalk or Novell, as
well as let Telnet and tn3270 connect to the VAX and Sequent (as well
as an IBM 3084 and a Sun 3/50) on the "thick" Ethernet? Obviously
the big names here are Kinetics and Cayman, but do they allow all of
these "connectivity" options?
(What Ethernet bridges do NCSA Telnet and tn3270 support? Additionally,
what Ethernet boards for the SE/30 Processor Direct Slot support Telnet and
tn3270? I am unable to locate a complete documentation set for NCSA Telnet
for the Mac; the network seems to be kind of busy whenever I try to FTP it,
and it winds up corrupted, although Telnet and tn3270 came across fine..)
I realize this is kind of a large request, but I imagine that many other
people would be interested in the answers to these type of questions,
especially if they are planning networking in the near future (or now!).
As such, I will post a summary of the responses I receive that are not
already posted directly to this newsgroup/list..
Thank you (in advance) for any suggestions or comments you wish to give! :-)
-/ Dave Caplinger /------------------+-----------------------------------
Microcomputer Specialist | Internet: unocc07@zeus.unl.edu
"Computing and Data Communications" | UUCP: uunet!btni!unocss!dent
University of Nebraska at Omaha | Bitnet: UNOCC07@UNOMA1
Omaha, NE 68182 | or dc3a+@andrew.cmu.edu