jsloan@wright.EDU (John Sloan) (01/08/88)
Thanks very much to everyone who responded to our plea for help regarding problems between our Encore Annex terminal servers and our SUN-3/280S. Several people running similar configurations asked for more information, so to paraphrase Paul Harvey, "now you'll know The Rest Of The Story" (at least, so far). Among the responses we received, both Phil Budne at Boston University and David L. Edwards at SRI noted that SunOS 3.4 has known TCP window problems that can cause TCP connections to hang. We said "Yeah, we know that, we put the Sun-supplied patch on months ago, and haven't noticed this problem on any of our eight other 3.4 Sun engines, so that's not it." <blush> Well, <ahem> we did repartition that disk on Odin, our 3/280S, and restored from a backup... that was obviously made just prior to installing the TCP patches when we originally deployed that engine. Oh well. We'll let you all know if the problem reoccurs _after_ applying the patches. As for the Encore Annexes, many pointed out how happy they were with them. So are we. They are as transparent as they could conceivably be, and the best characteristic of all is that they can be configured and managed over the ethernet from any of our VAX or Sun Unix engines. The only time you really need a local terminal is for about thirty seconds when you power them up for the very first time. This is important; we deploy servers into places like telephone closets to which we do not normally have access. As far as I can tell, the Annex box has no moving parts, nothing to wear out, runs quietly and reliably, is small and sturdy, and both its hardware and software appear well designed. I own four, and am in the process of buying, or assisting others in buying, six more. We use them for both directly connected terminals and for a rack of 300/1200/2400/MNP modems. I wish they came with a rack mount kit, but I haven't checked with Encore to see if such a beast exists. Wouldn't be suprised if it did. Thanks again. -- john -- John Sloan Wright State University Research Center jsloan@SPOTS.Wright.Edu 3171 Research Blvd., Kettering, OH 45420 ...!cbosgd!wright!jsloan (513) 259-1384 (513) 873-2491 Logic Disclaimer: belong(opinions,jsloan). belong(opinions,_):-!,fail.