jay@stsci.uucp (Jay Travisano) (08/19/86)
Does anyone out there have any experience with a product called BLAST,
from Communications Research Group? Especially interested in anyone
who has used this product in an Ethernet LAN -- is it worth it in this
environment or are there better high-throughput file transfer programs
out there? Any help would be appreciated - thanks.
--
Jay Travisano
CSC/Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
(301) 338-4853
UUCP: {astrovax,brl-smoke,cfa,charm,jhunix,noao,nrao1,osiris}!stsci!jay
"Who are all these people in my office anyway?" metro@asi.UUCP (Metro T. Sauper) (08/21/86)
In article <204@stsci.uucp>, jay@stsci.uucp (Jay Travisano) writes: > Does anyone out there have any experience with a product called BLAST, > from Communications Research Group? We have just received BLAST versions for the AT&T 3B2/400, AT&T PC6300+, and HP150. In transfering a file which was approx. 6MB the receiving computer (3b2/400) aborted with an illegal instruction interrupt after about 1.5MB of the file was transfered. Upon calling C.R.G. I was told to call back after 10 days to see what the R&D group could find out. When I called back, I was told that they could not find the problem, but it will be fixed in the next release ?!?!?!?!? After spending over $1000. that was not the answer I was looking for. OPINION: I am not very impressed with the BLAST product. With its inability to successfully transfer LARGE files it next to worthless to me. For small files, I find XMODEM much more convenient. I found their technical support and responsiveness to be very poor. I would not recommend this product to any one using a 3B2/400 (3x0?) unless it is your last resort. I would be interested in hearing other experiences with this product. Since CRG does not seem to want to refund my money I would like to find SOMETHING to do with this product. Metro T. Sauper, Jr. Director, Remote Systems Development Assessment Systems, Inc. 210 South Fourth Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 (215) 592-8900 ihnp4!ll1!bpa!asi!metro
phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (08/22/86)
The 3B2 (awful) has a default file limit size of around 1 megabyte.
Only the superuser can raise this limit with the "ulimit" command in
sh. (There is also a system call to change this.) The file transfer
problem may not be in BLAST at all.
If it is due to "ulimit", why don't you call ATT and complain about
this? They will in turn tell you a kludge to get around it. But I
think they should get a complaint for every system they sell so
they'll think about whether the market really wants this feature.
Ask them questions like:
1) Why is the superuser the only one allowed to raise the limit? If a
user is going to fill up the disk he can still make lots of 1 megabyte
files.
2) Why can't the system manager change the default in a convenient
way? As the system is shipped, there is no documented way at all for
the manager to change it. He has to resort to adb'ing the kernel or
writing a set-UID program which replaces login, raises the limit, and
then calls login.
3) Why couldn't the default be made more reasonable? If non-privileged
users can only lower the limit, then the system could be shipped with
a high limit and the system manager could lower it in /etc/profile.
--
Rain follows the plow.
Phil Ngai +1 408 749 5720
UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra}!amdcad!phil
ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.dec.commetro@asi.UUCP (Metro T. Sauper) (08/27/86)
In article <12796@amdcad.UUCP>, phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) writes: > The 3B2 (awful) has a default file limit size of around 1 megabyte. > ....... The file transfer problem may not be in BLAST at all. The problem I described was not caused by the ulimit-ation. We already have a version of the kludge you described. I would think the default ulimit would at least be a system configurable number. Metro Sauper ihnp4!ll1!asi!metro