shikhar@nynexst.com (Shikhar Bajaj) (08/01/89)
Hello all,
We are planning to network our Macs to our Unix system over
ethernet. The system consists of a wide variety of Sun products including Sun 3's, Sun 4's, etc. One possibility which we are looking into is to stick
ethernet cards into our Macs, hook them up to the ethernet backbone, and
then use some appropriate networking software (such as uShare by IPT).
Another possibility is that we will attach our Macs by localtalk and then
connect this lan to ethernet by a bridge (i.e. Cayman's Gatorbox). In regard
to both of these options, I have several questions.
1) In regard to the bridge option, we are seriously considering using Cap
as our networking software along with a Kinetics Fastpath ethernet
bridge. The documentation that we have on Cap states that such a
bridge is necessary. But, we are unsure whether the bridge is just needed
to make the physical connection or whether it translates between the two
protocols. In other words, can we use Cap if we simply put in the
ethernet cards into our Macs?
2) We would like to get some opinions (hopefully unbiased) about the relative
value of the Kinetics Fastpath vs. Cayman's Gatorbox. We have heard that
there are some software problems with the Gatorbox, among other things
it seems to run out of memory fairly often. In regards to the
Kinetics bridge, someone in our department had bad experiences with one
of Kinetics' earlier models. The bridge crashed every couple of
hours for no reason. Though I acknowledge that nothing perfect exists,
how would you rate both of these boxes?
3) To the best of our knowledge, Cap only comes with a file server and a
printer spooler. If this is the case, can anyone recommend any support
utilities (i.e. mail applications, virtual disk applications, etc.) that
would run under either or both of our possible configurations?
4) As yet another alternative, we are also thinking about putting in the
ethernet cards and then running TOPS on the ethernet backbone. Does anyone
have any knowledge and/or comments about such a configuration?
I apologize if any or all of these questions have been asked before but I
do not read the news very often. I would deeply appreciate it if a
knowledgable (and compassionate) guru would enlighten me. In particular,
any further information about Cap would be most useful. Please e-mail any
responses to me or (in cases of bounces) post the responses. Thanks again
Shikhar Bajaj
internet: shikhar@nynexst.com
--
Shikhar Bajaj, NYNEX Science & Technology, 914-683-2162
500 Westchester Ave 1C11, White Plains, NY 10604dag@fciva.FRANKLIN.COM (Daniel A. Graifer) (08/13/89)
In <12378@altos86.Altos.COM> hikhar@nynexst.com asked questions regarding
the use of unix machines to service Macintoshes over ethernet. My mail
to him bounced, so I am posting this.
-------------------------------
Please send me a summary of what you learn. In particular,
(1) As you mention: is the bridge necessary for CAP? Or can you plug
ethernet cards into the macs (or one of the SCSI Ethernet Boxes).
(2) Is TOPS yet available for unix platforms other than SUNs?
(3) CAP was originally written for BSD 4.3. Has anyone ported it to SysV?
(4) An alternative is Portable Netware from Novell, which will be out late
this year. Have you heard anything about this?
(5) I have a number for Information Presentation Technologies (IPT), the
makers of uShare. 1-818-347-7791. I haven't called them, as I am not
ready to proceed yet.
Good luck, and thanks in advance
Dan
----
Daniel A. Graifer Franklin Capital Investments
uunet!fciva!dag 7900 Westpark Drive, Suite A130
(703)821-3244 McLean, VA 22102burzio@mmlai.UUCP (Anthony Burzio) (08/26/89)
In article <3418@altos86.Altos.COM>, dag@fciva.FRANKLIN.COM (Daniel A. Graifer) writes: > (5) I have a number for Information Presentation Technologies (IPT), the > makers of uShare. 1-818-347-7791. I haven't called them, as I am not > ready to proceed yet. I have a beta-release of the IPT software on my HP370 UNIX workstation. The speed and reliability of the software is quite good. I specially like the ability to print from the UNIX machines to the MAC laser printers. There are a few gotchas: if you are running AlisaShare on a VAX at the same time, you must be running KSTAR on a Kinetics #4, and the manual sent with the software should be thrown straight in the trash; call support, they will talk you through installation straight off. A new manual is promised, along with the real release for free when it comes. The software does what IPT claims, in an reliable way. ********************************************************************* Tony Burzio * VMS is the problem, not the solution... Martin Marietta Labs * mmlai!burzio@uunet.uu.net * *********************************************************************