BIG-MOD@SUVM (02/28/90)
BIG-LAN DIGEST Tuesday, 27 February 1990 Volume 2 : Issue 14
Today's Topics:
Re: IP routers
Re: Science Faculty and Computer Networking
RE: General lan questions
Fullerton College, a two year institution, prepares lower division
Moderated by John Wobus, Syracuse University
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Date: Fri, 23 Feb 90 04:11:51 -0600
From: Ed Krol <krol@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: IP routers
Two IP addresses on the same wire is not at all a standard way of doing
business. A few IP routers (Proteon is one I know others may do as well)
allow this, but the facility is designed as a migration tool. Within
the community there is not a lot of use of it.
You may be able to 'kludge' this facility from any box by putting two
interfaces from the VAX say on the same cable one for each interface.
Then the software on the box thinks its on two ethernets which have
some people using wrong addresses which are usually ignored.
The big question I would have is why not trade in the class C for a
class B and be done with it in a more standard fashion.
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Date: Fri, 23 Feb 90 04:38:01 -0600
From: Ed Krol <krol@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: Science Faculty and Computer Networking
In info.big-lan you write:
> Typical questions are:
> We have other, more pressing concerns. Why should we
> bother with computer networking?
If I were selling this to a campus administration I think the
answer here is competetivness in faculty recruitment, education
quality.... The future is typically viewed as a distributed environment
when dealing with peers you have to be a peer. I think this is
more than 'but all our friends are doing it'. Lets say I have
the be all and end all program/database in a particular area. It has
already gotten to the point that if someone wants it I let them FTP it
across the network. Less work for me than making and mailing 100 diskettes.
> Who is going to pay for all those long-distance calls
> to link into regional and international networks?
If you want it to work the campus has to look at it as overhead.
In your case all it takes is one short line to SURAnet and your
intraApplachian college lines.
> What can our science faculty do with e-mail that they
> can't do with a telephone and postal mail?
Nothing. The question is one of labor costs vs technology costs.
Telephone is designed for intensive synchronous communications. I have
to get both bodies on the phone at the same time. There is a lot of
call setup overhead there so unless the communication requires a lot of
dialog or talking usually the overhead is not worth the effort.
Postal mail is asynchronous but slow. You toss a packet into the network
and wait a week for a response. Impossible due to feedback delay to
carry on a conversation. E-mail is in the middle it allows conversations,
but asynchronously in a reasonable amount of time. Therefor, it allows
your staff to be more efficient. Unfortunantly in a University this does
not mean a bigger profit - hence easy justification.
There are also discussion groups (e.g. info.big-lan). The typical examples
of these uses in an academic environment are the astronomers use of email
for the nova and the physicists use for the cold fusion stuff. The whole
community was activated overnight.
> Why does each faculty person need to have their own
> PC or mainframe terminal?
It has to be convienent. If it wastes more time than it saves or if
its busy every time I want to use it. It ain't worth it. If I have to
walk a block I check my email once a day. If its on my desk I check it
or send one whenever I get the chance. If I have to walk, I don't have
access to notes, files....
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Date: Fri, 23 Feb 90 15:26 EST
From: Reality is not an Industry Standard <PETERSON@LIUVAX>
Subject: RE: General lan questions
If you have decided (options=token ring or token ring) to use a TR backbone
consider the following options:
A. Small lans connected to the backbone w/ a pc bridge. This keeps local
lan traffic local. The bridge can run TR to the BB and what ever inside.
B. IBM 3270 type connections over TR (3174 or clone controller to TR)
C. PC bridge from TR to Ethernet (say maybe SUN or DECNET....)
TR has some advantages as a BB, such as fairly even speed. It does not
how ever have the huge direct machine support that ethernet has.
You might want to look at Proteon's:
Internetworking Router (p4200) Supports 802.2, 802.5, DDS, X.25, T1,
TCP/IP, DECnet, XNS, Netware IPX
backbone supported is FDDI (first half 90) and Pronet-80
Pronet-80 (80 mb TR LAN) Host cards for Multibus, VME, UNI & Q bus,
PC/AT, SelBUS
Media: IBM type 1 twinax, or fiber
Connects to: Ether, Pronet, APRA, DDS & T1
w/ TCP/IP, DECnet, XNS, ....
Proteon 508/898/2800
internet addr if you want it.
J. Peterson/ LIU-southampton
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Date: Fri, 23 Feb 90 12:46:15 PST
From: CSCHNEE@CALSTATE (CHUCK SCHNEEBECK, FULLERTON COLLEGE)
Subject: Fullerton College, a two year institution, prepares lower division
Fullerton College, a two year institution, prepares lower division
students for transfer to four year institutions and has a large
vocational training program. We are in the process of developing
a Center for Applied Competitive Technology (CATC) which will
provide technology transfer to small and medium size business in
Orange County, CA. Initially the center will concentrate on
manufacturing and will offer Computer Integrated Manufacturing
options to its clients.
Computer graphics are becoming increasingly important in both our
technical and academic programs. We have a computer graphics lab
with forty five 386's and eleven Macintosh IIx's. We expect to
develop a similar lab at the CATC. It will be necessary to transfer
files and share output devices between the two locations.
A plan to network the campus is being prepared with the intention
of offering the common network applications (eg. E-MAIL and
conferencing). We currently have a broadband on the campus however
it does not include any bridges or gateways. We have funding to
install a fiber optic backbone which would parallel the broadband.
Our problem is, should we invest in bringing the broadband up to
speed or should we invest in the fiber optic backbone.
Would it be a good investment for us to install fiber considering
our graphics needs? Could we expect to handle the traffic
generated by transferring graphics files over broadband? Is it
valid to assume that FDDI on the backbone would make it more
reasonable to move graphics files on our network?
We anticipate that there will be an opportunity in the near future
to import medical imaging and other types of scientific graphics
using our network. Would these applications make a difference?
I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.
Chuck Schneebeck
Director of Academic Computing
Fullerton College
Fullerton, CA 92632
(714) 992-7348
CSCHNEE@CALSTATE
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End of BIG-LAN Digest
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