morgan@jessica.stanford.edu (RL "Bob" Morgan) (11/24/88)
I see in the Nov. 21 issue of Communications Week that there is now a National Local Area Network Laboratory in Reston, Virginia. It is a non-profit facility that "will provide a neutral facility that will showcase products donated from different manufacturers, as well as an extensive library of technical information." It is alleged that they are expecting their first gear in January. Anybody know anything more about this? Are they on the net? - RL "Bob" Morgan Networking Systems Stanford
dbuerger@cup.portal.com (David J Buerger) (11/27/88)
I know a little about this "National LAN Lab" facility. It has nothing to do with the federal government. A former journalist is trying to get donations from major LAN manufacturers, get space to house this equipment from DC-area universities, and get staff paid by some of the major publications (my own is one of them) to provide a "national resource" for interested parties to use. Examples of users would be publications which could test LAN equipment, special interest groups which could test custom configurations (e.g. medical groups could test LANs as they might apply to doctors, legal groups as LANs might pertain to lawyers, etc.), and so forth. To my knowledge, the LAB and its founder are not on the net. It doesn't exist physically, yet. Since the board of directors consists of leading players from the major computer publications (IDG's InfoWorld and International Data Corp., Ziff Davis' PC Week, etc.), it's difficult for me to understand how these competing forces can "cooperate" on such a venture. Ziff, for example, has its LAN Lab for PC Magazine. InfoWorld is presently gearing up for extensive LAN testing in its own laboratory. It all sounds great on paper, but in the final analysis, I suspect this "national resource" will end up like other national resources (e.g. national parks) --- only an elite few who can afford to pay for staff and time ultimately will benefit. It's supposed to be up and running early next year, but I wouldn't hold your breath. . . David Buerger