pam@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Pamela Hong) (12/17/88)
Ethernet is expensive, but 10 times faster. TOPS is inexpensive, but slow over AppleTalk. Which turns out to be better price/performance? (Also, what Networking software do you suggest for running over Ethernet?) Thanks for your help! -- +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |INTERNET: pam@uhccux.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU BITNET: pam@uhccux.BITNET | |UUCP: ...!ucsd!nosc!uhccux!pam PLATO: pam / uhcc / hawaii | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
morgan@Jessica.stanford.edu (RL "Bob" Morgan) (12/20/88)
It's worth noting that TOPS/DOS has just been upgraded to run on Ethernet-attached IBM PCs (3Com 3C503 and Micom NI5210 cards only, as I recall), so now a Mac/IBM network running TOPS can be done entirely with Ethernet. Haven't tried it, but will soon. I'm actually looking forward to trying this out (using TOPS/Netprint) as a solution for those people with Ethernet-attached PCs who just want to print on a LaserWriter, who form a considerable segment of user community on our campus. - RL "Bob" Morgan Networking Systems Stanford
cosmos@druhi.ATT.COM (Ronald A. Guest) (12/20/88)
You don't really say what you are going to do, so it's hard to give an informed answer. However, we recently went from TOPS over Appletalk, to TOPS over Ethernet, to AppleShare over Ethernet. There is no doubt that AppleShare over Ethernet is much superior to TOPS on either, for what WE are doing. TOPS is pitiful at handling large disks. It has no intelligence about how to handle the desktop file, which gets very large. Also, you can't implement any real security with TOPS. AppleShare gives you very Unix like capability here. TOPS does not require a dedicated server, AppleShare does. You can get the necessary hardware and software for TOPS and AppleShare for both PC, Mac, and Unix environments. If you are doing much work, you end up dedicating a machine to the server anyway. TOPS really degrades service to anyone using the machine. We also had lots of trouble with TOPS forgetting things that were published on drives other than the boot drive. Sometimes it would just forget they were ever published. I would recommend highly going with AppleShare, based on our experiences and how we use the network and server. Ron