rainwatr@ucunix.SAN.UC.EDU (Don Rainwater) (10/27/89)
Here at the Univ. of Cincinnati, we have two Macintosh labs that are available for general student use. Each lab has several Macs which are connected via localtalk. Each Mac has its own 20Mb hard drive, which contains all of the software the is available in the lab. While this is a functional solution it has many disadvantages, including lack of security, several installations instead of one, etc. The biggest problem is security, since anyone can sit down at any Mac and delete and/or copy whatever they want. File deletions are especially annoying, since I have the pleasure of hiking across campus to restore the missing file(s). I am now in the process of gathering information about file servers for the Macintosh labs. Of particular interest (at least until I'm convinced otherwise) is the Jasmine DirectServe, which lists for $1795 (without hard disk). The DirectServe has no monitor or keyboard, and has apparently been optimized for file serving. All management functions are performed from the one of the clients. The biggest advantage that I can see is that this solution does not require the dedication of a Macintosh. Although you do have a separate, dedicated file server, you don't have a complete Mac system sitting there looking unused. Does anyone have any experience with the Jasmine DirectServe? How does it perform? How does it compare with other possible file serving solutions? Thanks in advance for any information. -- Don Rainwater, Univ. of Cincinnati Computer Center rainwatr@ucunix.san.uc.edu rainwatr@ucbeh.san.uc.edu rainwatr@ucbeh.bitnet