paul@aucs.UUCP (06/23/87)
We will soon be placing an order for a 15-Mac lab. We will be using
Mac SE's and a combination of PhoneNET and Kinetics Appletalk/Ethernet
gateway. The last decision we have to make is selecting the appropriate
network software. What we need is a network that provides usernames/passwords
so users can have their own private area on the server's disk. The
only software which we have looked at so far is MacJanet, which was developed
at the University of Waterloo. This is being considered since it was designed
with the university environment in mind and has some features which makes
account management in a student environment easier. For example, it
is possible to set up 30 accounts for a particular course and then be
able to delete the 30 accounts with one command at the end of the term
without having to delete the thirty accounts individually. It has many
account management features which are well suited to our needs. It does
not have account expiry dates, which would also be useful.
The only other network we have considered is TOPS mainly because of its
PC linkability. I know TOPS is very popular, and I would like to here
from anyone who is using it and has any useful information. The things
I am mainly interested in is controlling users' access to the network
(using passwords or other mechanisms). We don't want students accidently
coming across a copy of their professor's exam due to a lack of network
security. I am all too familiar with security problems since I wrote most
of the software controlling access to our ancient CP/M network (TurboDOS).
I would also like to see a network prevent user's from copying system and
application software from the network server to their own floppies (for
obvious reasons). MacJanet's read-only volumes with locked/protected
programs effectively prevents software theft (although it isn't foolproof).
What about Appleshare and MacServe? ANY comment from net-land would be
most welcome. Thanks.
Paul H. Steele UUCP: {seismo|watmath|utai|garfield}!dalcs!aucs!Paul
Acadia University BITNET: {Paul|phs}@Acadia
Wolfville, NS Internet: {Paul|phs}%Acadia.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
CANADA B0P 1X0 PHONEnet: (902) 542-2201x587han@apple.UUCP (Byron Han) (06/24/87)
Appleshare has many of the capabilities that you seem to need.
Users can have folders that are password protected, folders may be
read only, write only, or read write. etc etc etc. I am not real
familiar with Appleshare but I use it regularly. It does require
a dedicated Macintosh Plus (or above) with hard disk.
Your Authorized Apple Dealer should have more information on
pricing, and exact specifications.
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/*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/wetter@tybalt.caltech.edu (Pierce T. Wetter) (06/28/87)
In article <382@aucs.UUCP> paul@aucs.UUCP (Paul Steele) writes: > >What about Appleshare and MacServe? ANY comment from net-land would be >most welcome. Thanks. > > AppleShare seems is a really well designed fileserver but it is much more business oriented then university oriented. Namely, in my experience as the Mac Consultant here at Caltech I've noticed several things t which annoyed the hell out of me: 1. Users cannot be added when the server is up and running. In a business environment this isn't a problem since the network manager can stay a few minutes later, but in a university it's very annoying to have to come in at 4 in the morning to add accounts or do some simple maintenance. 2. There are no such things as system privledges etc. That is it's difficult to keep some people from doing one set of things while letting another set do a similar thing. To some extent this is possible by creating groups which are the only ones allowed to do certain things. For instance, AppleShare defines the owner (initially) of most folders to be "Custodian" who effectivly fufills the same functions as root on a unix machine. In the caltech maclab the custodian and those people who are members of the "FileServer" group are allowed R/W/dir privledges while all others are restricted to R/Dir. Thus effectivly there is a "FileServer" privledge. However, in the Users directories they are allowed to set the group as they see fit and can thus deny access to their files even from the Custodian. This means that when the disks fill up and it is time to clean out the user directories the Custodian must shut down the server, change the groups on all of the users folders, then bring the server back up and delete the files. YUK! 3. You can do anything you wish while you are on the server mac but very little when you are logged-in as custodian. Again, necessitating a server shutdown. On the other hand there are a lot of pros to AppleShare. 1. Fits smoothly into the mac environment, and is well supported by othe companies, noteably microsoft. 2. Well designed, very mac-like administration program. Adding, deleteing users and groups is a snap. 3. It Works damn well, despite the administration problems. Note: all of the above comments apply to version 1.0 PIerce Wetter wetter@tybalt.caltech.edu "But this has taken us far afield from interface, which is not a bad place to be, since I particularly want to move ahead to the kludge. Why do people have so much trouble understanding the kludge? What is a kludge, after all, but not enough Ks, not enough ROMs, not enough RAMs, poor quality interface and too few bytes to go around? Have I explained yet about the bytes?" -------------------------------------------- wetter@tybalt.caltech.edu --------------------------------------------