mxc@ecsvax.UUCP (Mark Cooperstein) (07/28/87)
Within the last 12 months, we purchased a software package from a company
that claimed to be able to utilize a vms/vax as a disk server for locally
connected ibm pc's on an ethernet. The products name is RAF from
DATABILITY. Essentially, RAF on the pc looks like a LAT terminal. Once
its logged in to the vax, the user can start up a vms server that will
allow the local pc to use the vax like it was an extension of itself. (You
can define up to ten other pseudo disk drives that really point to a
vms subdirectory).
I was initially impressed with the concept and manner by which RAF links
to a vax and shares resources. However....
Since day one, we have had nothing but trouble with this product. It
is very unstable causing your pc to sometimes 'hang' making it necessary to
reboot. It is *incredibly* slow. Dont be fooled by the slick advertising
claims that boast "100,000 characters/second". The best I've ever been
able to clock it is at about 25Kb/second (using the VMS undocumented
monitor class ETHERNET) which is as slow or slower then a local floppy.
I have also discovered enumerable bugs in every release. Some are very
serious in my opinion and can cause you to lose data! Whenever I've had
the "pleasure" of contacting the parent company to inform them of the
bugs I've found, I invariably get the following: "We dont seem to have
the problem your describing,...", or "That problem is known and will be
fixed in the next release"... (sure!) or, "The person you need to speak
to is in a meeting and will call you back later.." (right! I almost NEVER
get called back). A few times I've even been put on hold for ten
minutes or longer! Be that as it may, we have the most recent release
1.9 and I must say, it seems to work worse then previous versions. I've
decided to abandon this product altogether since its stability is
questionable and we cant afford to lose any more time and data on it.
What I'm wondering is, is anyone else having similiar experiences with
this product? I would be interested in hearing from other vax sites that
have used RAF.
Mark Cooperstein
NCSU School of Veterinary Medicine
Raleigh NC