TVR%CCRMA-F4@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU (Tovar) (02/05/88)
Date: 3 Feb 88 18:22:00 GMT
From: hpda!hpsmtc1!dlw@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (David Williams)
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Subject: Re: Advice on TCP-IP/NETBIOS/APPLETALK interconnection sought
...
I am interested in hearing answers to those questions as well. Most of all the
Un*x I have to deal with is Hp's Hp-UX (naturally!). I would really like to
have my UX boxes act as a file server for my macII (currently with Ethertalk
card). After wading thru all the drivel in comp.sys.mac on shareware, piracy,
dongles and cpu's it would be nice to get a dialog going about solving some
real problems for Mac users.
I agree heartily with the sentiment expressed above. Another writer first
expressed a similar problem, but this person's approach most unfortunately
obscured the real issue.
[Author's name intentionally omitted]
Seeing that TOPS requires different serial numbers on each machine. Does
anyknow know how to change the serial numbers? Having to purchase multiple
copies is really a problem, especially when you must do it to just ad a
machine to the network. Also, if this isn't the route to go, can anyone
suggest another fileserver like TOPS or AppleShare that doesnt require
multiple purchases?
The fact that this person was tempted to less-than-honest approaches shows
that there may be a problem here. That problem was lost in the outrage at
this person's request, to which i might have joined in had others not done so
more quickly. Yet the problem is still there.
We have about a dozen Mac's (of various types) and about half that many IBM-PC
equivalents which we would like to include in the AppleTalk subnet. Last time
i approached this problem, i called our local discount Apple software (and
peripheral) vendor, inquiring about TOPS site licencing. They said they had
no such arrangements and that we'd have to talk to the TOPS people directly.
So, i called them in Berkeley (nearly a local call for me), explained our
situation, and they said they had no such arrangements [either] and we'd have
to work that out with our retailer! That was 3-4 months ago (i'd suffered a
from a serious bicycle-car accident inbetween), so there policies may have
changed since then. Assuming not, it was going to cost us more to use TOPS
(as opposed to using AppleShare) than to buy hard disks for all MacPlus's
which currently don't have them!
We gratefully acknowledge Apple's in-kind support of our center, and we think
their approach to pricing in this area is reasonable (e.g. charging for the
server's software, and not the client software (for reasonable numbers of
users)). Unfortunately, the version of AppleShare we have is ill-suited to
an open, research environment. We don't have a fraction of a person to
devote to its administration and the non-sharing default protection is
entirely unsuitable for use here. And we need a way of backing it up without
having to take down the server. We continue to use it, not having a feasible
alternative (and perhaps Apple will fix these problems).
Eventually, Apple (or someone) will provide UN*X for the Mac, and at that
point, many, if not most, of these problems will go away. Meanwhile, we need
some kind of (at least) temporary solution to the problem. (We do have some
68000 machines with UNIX V7 and pre-TCP network capability, plus a serious
network hacker with limited time.) Such a solution needs to be reasonably
priced, and it sure as heck would help alot if it came with sources, so we
could fix the bugs ourselves when necessary, without waiting for some
distant "guru" to solve the problem (and then be charged for the "upgrade").
-- Tovar
P.S. I could say alot more about the pricing policies on microcomputer
software, but i think Info-Mac would be a better forum for such discussions.kenw@noah.arc.CDN (Ken Wallewein) (02/06/88)
We did a survery of server stuff, and we've decided to get pcLink. Reasons: Hosts can be Unix, VAX/VMS, Prime, Cray Serves both Macs and PCs Appleshare server under VMS, fully native directories Note: - public domain Appleshare is available for Unix (CAP) - Appleshare is available for PCs It's reputed to be fast etc. Now if we can get some document conversion software... has anybody done any kind of survey of that? /kenw