tony@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu (Anthony Olejnik) (08/02/89)
I have to make a decision between purchasing a Kinetics FastPath or a Cayman GatorBox. I've read the literature. I've 'listened' to the various discussions on the 'NET'. It seems that the two products are running 'neck-in-neck'. When some pricing changes (in the near future) take effect, they will even cost the same. I don't need NFS for now (I think I'll wait until MacNFS from Apple appears). I'm not sure if I need KIP/CAP at this time either. So, Does anyone have a summary of the pros and/or cons of the two products? Any help would be greatly appreciated. --tony olejnik Univeristy of Pennsylvania Data Communications and Computing Services Suite 221A 3401 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 (215) 898-9408 tony@dccs.upenn.edu --Tony Olejnik University of Pennsylvania Data Communications and Computing Services tony@dccs.upenn.edu
bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort) (08/03/89)
In article <13372@netnews.upenn.edu> tony@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu (Anthony Olejnik) writes: > I have to make a decision between purchasing a Kinetics FastPath > or a Cayman GatorBox. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here at the <mumble> corporation, we have 37 zones, all with Kinetics boxes. We did have one zone with a Gator Box, but we could not get it to support NCSA Telnet. It also crashed a lot. After investing an unconscionable effort to make the Gator Box work, we gave up and went with Kinetics all the way. The KFP4 is a breeze to install. --Barry Kort
moyman@AQUARIUM.ECN.PURDUE.EDU (Mike "appletalk" MacMoya) (08/07/89)
From: -David C. Kovar <kovar%popvax@harvard.harvard.edu> Subject: Re: FastPast vs GatorBox ? >> I have to make a decision between purchasing a Kinetics FastPath >> or a Cayman GatorBox. Any help would be greatly appreciated. > We did have one zone with a Gator Box, but > we could not get it to support NCSA Telnet. It also crashed > a lot. -I couldn't get NCSA Telnet to work *properly* either... Just a counter-example. I've been very happy with the GatorBox and found it supported NCSA Telnet beautifully. More importantly, at least for us, it supports NFS which allows us to use our Suns as a file server for the Macintoshes. -GB NFS is nice, but CAP Aufs through a Kinetics box has the same functionality and it's *FREEEEEEE* Granted, the NFS performance isn't blinding, but it certainly does the job. -CAP Aufs through a Kinetics box is faster, and will not crash under heavy useage... Additionally, Cayman plans to support printing via the GatorBox in the near future and mail a little while down the road. Definite plusses for us. -These are great things for the GB to have in the *future*, but CAP lwsrv does printing on UNIX hosts *now* and it's *FREEEEE*...and MacMH (MacIP) with the Kinetics box does mail *now* and the licensing fee is so small...it might as well be *FREEEEE*... If you don't need these functions, buying a FastPath used to make sense as it was cheaper. Cayman is now unbundling the functions and a basic GatorBox will compete with the FastPath quite well. -actually, now that cayman is unbundling the functions it's *still* more expensive...but a Cayman GB used only as a Gateway is far from being competative with the Kinetics Box. We've never loaded the GatorBox down with 30 user, I'll grant you, but we've never had it crash and it's been running since August of last year. This is on an isolated network. We also installed one on a network that contained FastPaths and ended up with ARP storms. I don't remember all of the gory details so I'm not going to try to explain it but Cayman came in, diagnosed the problem, and fixed it to our satisfaction. -hey, this is great when the Cayman building is down the street...I don't think they will hop on a plane when it happens here. If I get an arp storm you put up the umbrella and ride it out... I must say that Cayman's Technical support is first rate, they usually usually know what's going on and are eager to help... I'm not sure what the software for setting up the FastPath looks like at present but the GatorBox configuration software is a joy to use. Various functions are broken down into different screens, default values make sense, configurations may be saved or printed, and the diagnostics make sense and are helpful. I've been very happy with it. -I've used both set ups and the ease of use depends on what kind of network your bringing your box up on...I would say they are equal on this point... Lastly, Kinetics has had quality control problems for the past several years. The one that comes to mind is the power supply that failed in the new FastPath 2's but I've heard of other problems since. -Yea, but if you get a Kbox that came off the line on tuesday or Thursday you will be alright :-) ...Kinetics has had problems here...and it's starting to get on my nerves... Mike Moya Engineering Computer Network Purdue University disclaimer: My opinion are my own...I have no affiliation with Kinetics..er a..Excelan..er a Novell er a the makers of that purple gateway thingy other than I use them and bother their tech support...