[comp.protocols.appletalk] TOPS FlashBoxes for the MAC.

psych@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (R.Crispin - Psychology) (05/24/89)

I was looking to speed up our Appletalk network so I bought a couple of 
TOPS flashboxes. I wanted to be sure they would not interfer with the
server software etc. I had no problems so I bought one for each mac on
the net. This was a mistake. As soon as I installed them the network
pretty much stopped. A process that took 30 secs. starting taking 30 mins.
or longer. I had a Appletalk guru come over to see if he could figure
out what was going on. After a couple of hours of running some tests 
he concluded that the software (init) that comes with the boxes was
never set up to work properly with a network that has a server. What
really happens is one machine to one machine works fine, two machines trying
to talk to a third machine results in transmission problems. We have
reported this to TOPS and hopefully they will fix it. Currently the system
will only work well if you are using TOPS as a distributed service.

Richard Crispin
Dept. of Psychology             Bitnet: psych@watdcs 
University of Waterloo          Unix  : psych@watdcsu.UWaterloo.ca 
Waterloo, Ont.   Canada   N2L 3G1
(519)885-1211 ext 2879

psych@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (R.Crispin - Psychology) (05/26/89)

I got a call from the TOPS people because they saw my message on the networt.
The person was very nice and wanted to be sure that it was not a further
problem but related to the first report. She said they are trying to     
duplicate the problem. This is great customer service. I wish everyone
would monitor the net and behave in such a customer oriented way.

Richard Crispin
Dept. of Psychology             Bitnet: psych@watdcs 
University of Waterloo          Unix  : psych@watdcsu.UWaterloo.ca 
Waterloo, Ont.   Canada   N2L 3G1
(519)885-1211 ext 2879