rg@gandp (Dick Gill) (09/24/90)
My firm has developed and sold business software on unix boxes for almost ten years. For marketing reasons, we now need to offer our products on Novell lan's as well. I am almost totally ignorant about local area networks and wonder if some kind soul would help me with some really basic questions. Our first task is to get an in-house Novell lan operating with, say, 8 pc's; all PC's are within 100 feet of each other. This is a pretty low-budget operation, and I want to get the initial network operating with minimum time and dollars. Down the road we will want to connect our various unix boxes to the network as well. My questions are: 1. Foundation: I assume that, because I want to connect with unix machines as well, Ethernet will be the logical choice. 2. Wiring: we currently use RJ-45 (8-wire) unshielded twisted pair through a patch panel to connect our unix systems, terminals, peripherals, etc. Much of that wiring uses 25-pair telco cables. I would certainly like to use the existing wiring for the lan; any problems here? 3. PC Hardware: I understand that each PC will need an Ethernet card, and that one supporting RJ-45 connectors would eliminate the need for a balun at each PC. Are all of these cards the same or do some offer real advantages? Do I need 16-bit boards for AT bus machines or will the 8-bit ones work OK? 4. File Server: Do I need a PC dedicated to be a file server? Will a '286 machine work alright for up to 10 users? How much disc will I need just to get things going? Does this system need a "better" Ethernet card than the other PC's? Any favorite brands? 5. Hooking Things Up: I assume that there will be some type of hub box near my patch panel to connect all PC's, including the file server. Are there any choices or performance issues here? What is the proper terminoloy? 6. Netware: As I understand it, Netware is, among other things, the operating system that runs the file server. Which version of Novell Netware do I want? What are the tradeoffs? Are prices about the same independent of channel? 7. Other Hardware: Will I need any additional pieces of hardware for the PC's or file server? How do multiple printers hook up to the file server? 8. Other Software: What additional software will be required to make the LAN work effectively? Any optional software that makes sense? 9. Installation: After assembly of all wiring, hardware and software, how many days would it take an experienced technician to get the LAN functioning? How good is the installation documentation? Would we be crazy to tackle the installation ourselves? 10. Other Questions: What haven't I asked about that I really need to know? Please e-mail and I will summarize to the net if there is interest. Thanks for indulging these basic questions. Dick Gill -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dick Gill Gill & Piette, Inc. "I can be a humble guy when I need to." (703)761-1163 ..uunet!gandp!rg Donald Trump
pjh@mccc.uucp (Pete Holsberg) (11/13/90)
Our dean of administration has just given the OK to set up a LAN in our building for use by faculty and staff. It would include about a dozen MSDOS PCs and would be used primarily for electronic mail and work-sharing among faculty and secretaries. We have lots of unused twisted pairs in our telephone wiring. Can we use them? That would mean Ethernet, right? Specifically, what hardware and software do we need? If the experiment works well, we will want to extend this to (a) other buildings, (b) UNIX computers, and (c) VAXen running VMS. What hardware and software will we need then? Thanks, Pete -- Prof. Peter J. Holsberg Mercer County Community College Voice: 609-586-4800 Engineering Technology, Computers and Math UUCP:...!princeton!mccc!pjh 1200 Old Trenton Road, Trenton, NJ 08690 Internet: pjh@mccc.edu Trenton Computer Festival -- 4/20-21/91
les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) (11/15/90)
In article <1990Nov12.224549.24268@mccc.uucp> pjh@mccc.uucp (Pete Holsberg) writes: >Our dean of administration has just given the OK to set up a LAN in our >building for use by faculty and staff. It would include about a dozen >MSDOS PCs and would be used primarily for electronic mail and >work-sharing among faculty and secretaries. >We have lots of unused twisted pairs in our telephone wiring. Can we >use them? That would mean Ethernet, right? Specifically, what hardware >and software do we need? I work with a system running AT&T's Starlan (the 1M version) over telephone wiring with about 100 PC's plus several unix boxes on one net. The 10baseT version should work also if you need more speed, but it wasn't available when we set our sytem up. The 1M version has a cost advantage, plus easier wiring since you can just daisy-chain up to 10 units before you need to connect into a hub. The speed of the 1M version has been sufficient for our needs (mostly word processing and email), although the number of units would probably justify splitting into subnets with a 10M backbone. >If the experiment works well, we will want to extend this to (a) other >buildings, (b) UNIX computers, and (c) VAXen running VMS. What >hardware and software will we need then? You can connect 3B2's and 386's in with the 1M starlan, but you would probably need the 10-1 bridge or an ethernet card to connect to the VAX, etc. There is supposed to be software to allow TCP/IP to run over the starlan links, but I don't have any experience with that. Les Mikesell les@chinet.chi.il.us