cole@unix.sri.com (Susan Cole) (06/05/91)
I'm not really comfortable with this subject, so please talk to me in
small words :-).
The background is this: we have a Sun 4/280 running SunOS 4.1.1. We
have been and want to continue providing Mac users on Gatorboxes with
the ability to spool print jobs to printers on Appletalk networks. So
far we have been doing this with Mt Xinu's K-Talk/K-Spool package.
This package allows our Sun to masquerade on Appletalk as a variety of
laser printers. When a Mac user prints to one of these "printers" the
job is actually spooled into a queue on the Sun and from there is
printed to the appropriate Appletalk printer. The advantage to the Mac
user over direct printing is that their Mac isn't hung up or slowed
down while waiting for the job to print, and they can queue to a
printer even if it's not up at the time..
Now we want to add another service. We want to try using macdump from
bbn to back up our Macs to the Sun. The macdump documentation says it
requires CAP. Mt Xinu's technical person says their product "K-AShare"
($995) will provide the same functionality and is easier to install and
maintain than CAP. However, he also says that we could run CAP along
with K-Talk if we want.
In the meantime, we've upgraded our Macs to version 7.0 of their
operating system, and the K-Spool printing has stopped working. Mt.
Xinu says of this that "The problem is probably [that you] have one of
the 7.0 systems that uses a new-style query for the prep version", and
that we need to buy a $395 upgrade to K-Talk/K-Spool version 6.0 (which
would be free if we bought K-Ashare).
I am uncertain as to which way to proceed. I would like to go with
the product that will give us the most reliable and easiest-maintained
support. Our options are:
Buy the $395 upgrade for K-Talk/K-Spool and install CAP, which is
available free.
Go with Mt. Xinu all the way by buying K-AShare and getting the K-Talk/K-Spool
upgrade along with it.
Give up on the Mt. Xinu software altogether and find something
else that provides the same functionality. Hopefully this
would be transparent to the Mac users.
Does anybody who has experience with the Mt. Xinu products and/or CAP, and/or with
providing services to a Mac networks, have any sage advice? I'd also like to specifically
ask whether anyone is running K-Talk/K-Spool to service version 7.0 Macs, and whether
anyone has combined K-Talk/K-Spool with CAP and if there were any problems.
Also whether CAP does everything K-Talk/K-Spool/K-Ashare does. Thanks.
--
cole@unix.sri.com
{hplabs,amdahl,rutgers}!sri-unix!cole