amthor@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Geoffrey Amthor) (12/13/89)
Please don't flame for stupidity. When you look in the dictionary under LAN neophyte, you find my name. Question: Suppose you have 2-3 PCs that you want to network. Ideally, you would have all your data, tape drive, etc., on one server. Using LAN Manager 2.0, can that server be non-dedicated -- i.e., can it count as one of the 2-3 workstations? Can you run DOS 4.01, OS/2 PM, and Windows from all 2-3 workstations, all pulling their data and apps from the one server hard drive? Can each workstation run apps to the varying capabilities of their monitors, or do you have to standardize video output for each app? (One PC might have 1600x1280 hi-res mono; another might do VGA color; another might do MDA text.) Is processor performance for each PC just as important as it would be in a stand-alone system? (I.e., will an XT still crawl?) Can MS Windows in this LAN run on an XT? Any disadvantage to running diskless PCs on the network? What kind of price are we talking for network hardware and software for just 2-3 PCs? Can you disengage a PC from, or engage to, a LAN that's already up and running? I'm thinking of a laptop PC, which you might want to tie in to the LAN on occasion--Xircom, I believe, sells a portable ethernet adapter. Thanks in advance for your help and patience.
slf@well.UUCP (Sharon Lynne Fisher) (12/15/89)
This isn't really an answer to your question, I guess, but if you only
need to network two or three PCs, isn't LAN Manager a bit of overkill?
--
"Goldfish are quiet, under the water.
Girls who keep goldfish are often quite noisy."
-- The Jazz Butcher