[u3b.tech] Questions regarding 3B2!!!

mef@police.rutgers.edu (Marc E. Fiuczynski) (10/22/90)

There are a few question that I have about the 3B2 and its possi-
ble  networking  capabilities.   Right  now  I have 3B2-310 and a
3B2-400 at my disposal and I'm supposed to set them  up  for  the
Rutgers Student Organizations.

Is it possible to cross mount hard disks from one 3B2 to another.
The  idea is to have /usr mounted on the 310 and have the 400 run
off of the 310.  The purpose of doing this is  to  maximize  disk
space  on  the  400  which will be dedicated as the server to the
students.

Let me give you some more information about the project  to  give
you have an idea what I have to deal with.

The  Undergraduate  Student  Association  for  Computer   Science
(USACS)  at Rutgers University approved a new program designed to
bring the power and convenience of a "mainframe" computer (3B2 :)
to  the  student organizations.  A computer and sixteen terminals
will be placed in the student activity center.  With the help  of
this  computer, student leaders will be able to communicate effi-
ciently with each other, other student   organizations,  adminis-
trators  and  faculty  using  electronic mail and netnews.  Also,
this computer would be connected to the Rutgers computer network,
allowing  them  to communicate throughout the university, the na-
tion, and the world.  In particular,  Rutgers  student  organiza-
tions  would  be  able  to  talk with other student organizations
throughout the country, exchanging information, ideas, and  help-
ful hints.

USACS put me in charge of this pilot project and I've select some
good  people to help me implement this project by the end of this
semester.  At this point I'm the the only one who knows something
about 3B2's and I'm responsible to set it up initially so that my
team members can work on it ASAP.  Unfortunately, I do  not  know
how  the  3B2's use RFS, Ethernet, WIN3B-TCP/IP and various other
things. The only thing that I'm relying on is my ability to learn
things fast.  I guess I have to learn extremely fast!!! :)

Here are some questions that I have:

1)  Is it possible to cross mount hard disks using RFS  and  what
manual  should  I  read to learn more about it.  Further, I would
like to be able to rlogin/telnet from the 3B2-310 to the 400, and
vice  versa. Of course there are several ways of doing both this,
but I guess to solve all these problems at once it would be  best
to  connect  the  3B2's  via  the ni-boards using Ethernet, WIN3B
TCP/IP or something else.  Any help/info would be great.

1.1)  Is it possible to connect the 3B2's using a very short Eth-
ernet cable and how fast would data be transmitted ?

2)  Another thing that I have to take care of is getting  a  SVR3
version  of  SLIP.  In case you don't know SLIP stands for Serial
Line IP with which it is possible to run IP  over  dialup  lines.
The  reason  why I have selected to use SLIP is because it is the
best way to connect computers into the IP network if they  happen
to be located in buildings that have Ethernet connections or oth-
er LAN technology.

3)  Where can I get netnews/vnews source for the 3B2?

4)  What 9.6Kbps modems work best with the 3B2?  ( low $$$ )

I guess this is enough for starters. :)
Hope someone can help me!
-- 
Marc Fiuczynski
mef@remus.rutgers.edu