rgp@deth.westford.ccur.com (Dick Phillips) (11/15/90)
(1) I belong to a technical writing group in a company. (2) The group owns two MAC IIs, each having its own hard disk. Let's call these MACs A and B. (3) I am looking for a software package that will make it possible for a user sitting at B to access A's hard disk, as if that disk were a volume mounted on B. (4) For a user sitting at A to have the reciprocal privilege of accessing B's hard disk is very desireable, but not absolutely necessary. (5) For the purpose of using a common Apple Laser printer, both A and B are now connected to an AppleNet, as are several other MACs not belonging to the writing group. This arrangement for sharing the printer must continue. However, no MAC other than A or B must be able to access A's hard disk or B's hard disk. (6) Both A and B are connected to an Ethernet: A via a NuBus card: B via its SCSI port. I am looking for a software package that will make this disk sharing possible, WITHOUT having to buy yet another MAC to act as a "file server." There are three that have been mentioned: (a) AppleShare (vendor: Everywhere) (b) TOPS (vendor: SITKA) (c) PSN (vendor: IPT) I would like some opinions as to which of these (or perhaps some other) would be best suited to our need. The cost should not be greater than $500.
boris@world.std.com (Boris Levitin) (11/18/90)
rgp@deth.westford.ccur.com (Dick Phillips) writes: >(1) I belong to a technical writing group in a company. >(2) The group owns two MAC IIs, each having its own hard disk. > Let's call these MACs A and B. >(3) I am looking for a software package that will make it > possible for a user sitting at B to access A's hard disk, as > if that disk were a volume mounted on B. >(4) For a user sitting at A to have the reciprocal privilege > of accessing B's hard disk is very desireable, but not > absolutely necessary. >(5) For the purpose of using a common Apple Laser printer, > both A and B are now connected to an AppleNet, as are several > other MACs not belonging to the writing group. This > arrangement for sharing the printer must continue. However, > no MAC other than A or B must be able to access A's hard disk > or B's hard disk. >(6) Both A and B are connected to an Ethernet: A via a NuBus > card: B via its SCSI port. >I am looking for a software package that will make this >disk sharing possible, WITHOUT having to buy yet another MAC to act >as a "file server." There are three that have been mentioned: >(a) AppleShare (vendor: Everywhere) >(b) TOPS (vendor: SITKA) >(c) PSN (vendor: IPT) >I would like some opinions as to which of these (or perhaps >some other) would be best suited to our need. The cost should >not be greater than $500. A fourth option is Personal FileShare, which, as far as I know, is still on-schedule for release with the first public version of System 7.0. It's essentially a non-server-requiring, peer-to-peer, TOPS/PSN-like file-sharing system integrated into the MacOS and thoroughly AFP-compliant. And, of course, completely free. I've never used PSN. I have, however, used TOPS daily and very intensively both among our Macs and between our Macs and DOS machine. I have found it to be predictable, but limited (in our all-AppleTalk environment) by the realities of that miserable networking system. TOPS requires a lot of bandwidth and is usually the first to drop its connection (which cannot be automatically resumed once conditions improve) when network congestion occurs. I don't know to what extent other file-service software suffers from the same problem over AppleTalk. Speedwise, TOPS appears to be average compared to available alternatives. Also, its interface is irritatingly nonstandard (uses its own DA instead of a Chooser-level driver). And the DOS version of TOPS is somewhat of a nightmare (but what on DOS isn't). However, with the exception of a few applications such as Redux (haven't tried for a while; maybe a fix has been released) TOPS works as advertised in making remote volumes available transparently as if they were local. I have used it many times to access files of one and even two megabytes. And, since I'm aware of all its idiosyncracies, I know the dangers (for example, first thing you should do after opening a remote file is to use a file dialog box to change your current directory to a local one. That way, if the TOPS connection is dropped before you have a chance to save your document, you will not be faced with a dead-end "unable to read volume" error that will prevent you from saving it). There has also been, at one point, a problem with data corruption of large files accessed remotely (we have had one bad encounter with it), but updates to TOPS and affected applications (eg, Microsoft Excel 2.2a) seem now to have quashed it. Boris Levitin ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WGBH Public Broadcasting, Boston boris@world.std.com Audience & Marketing Research wgbx!boris_levitin@athena.mit.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (The opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily coincide with those of my employer or anyone else. The WGBH tag is for ID only.)