Greg_d._Moore@mts.rpi.edu (Commander Krugannal) (08/02/90)
I am interested in any information that people would have concerning
network workstations. I am adding to a network for a small business.
They are interested in purchasing 4 extra workstations. Since this is
for use in a non-technical environment, they don't need or want a whole
lot. Basically, the people using the 4 workstations will be using them
to post transactions to a RealWorld Database.
The base machine I am interested in is as follows: 286-12 with
1 meg of ram, 1.2meg 5-1/4" floppy with hercules graphics.
The questions I have are follows:
1) Do you think a hard disk (even a small one) is necessary?
2) Is a floppy drive even needed, or should I look into diskless
workstations?
3) What companies might you recommend. The business I am dealing with
wants to spend as little as possible. (They spent good money on the
server and have a Dell workstation currently.) In a case like this
would you risk going with the lowest price (since if one goes down
its not a GREAT loss)?
4) What experience do people have dealing with the RealWorld Software
Package, specifically Version 5 for networks. (They are upgrading
to this from a single station version 4.)
5) One of the machines will be in the warehouse section. This means
it will be subject to smoke (this is a smokehouse) and grease from
fingers when typing. What steps should be take to protect it?
Thanks in advance for any information that people may have. I will
post a summary of information if people are interested.
Greg_d._Moore@mts.rpi.edujagrogan@vax1.tcd.ie (08/10/90)
It is certainly worth taking a look at Novell. You can set up a machine as a server,
and connect all the wrkstations to it. You would ideally need a large fast hard
disk on the server. The workstations then need only have a floppy drive so as to
boot them up. There is no need to have hard disks on the workstations. With this
configuartion you could have for example 4 XT workstations and a 286 server with say,
a hard disk with access time of 20mS. You would find this more than adequate.
A good database to use in a network environment is Borland's Paradox 3.0.
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/ / ------ / / jagrogan@tcdmath.uucp
/ / / / / ------- /--------- jagrogan@lanczos.tcd.ie
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/ / / / / / / / / / / / 3rd Year Computer Science
------ ------ --- --- --- --- Trinity College, Dublin.
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"I haven't lost my mind.....I'm sure it's backed up here somewhere!"jim@rwsys.lonestar.org (James Wyatt KA5VJL .) (08/11/90)
In article <6716.26c1bd60@vax1.tcd.ie> jagrogan@vax1.tcd.ie writes: >It is certainly worth taking a look at Novell. ... >... The workstations then need only have a floppy drive so as to >boot them up. There is no need to have hard disks on the workstations. Well, most Ethernet (and many ARCNET) cards allow a boot-prom to be installed. This means you can remove (or not buy) floppy drives/controller, install the boot prom, tell the server about them (and install DOS), and boot without the floppy at all. It will save power (and thus heat), prevent employees from installing unwanted/untested software, prevent the removal of sensitive data by floppy (they can still print it), and maybe save some money. The proms are about twenty to fifty dollars U.S. and are EASY to install. They boot MUCH faster and don't wear-out like floppies can. We use them in educational networks where we can boot 100 workstations in the time 10 booted with floppies. This strongly limits what the students can do to 'crack' the network and prevents the theft of courseware. ---- James Wyatt (KA5VJL) - Standard disclaimer applies... (H)214-579-0425 {texbell.swbt.com,letni.lawnet.com}!rwsys.lonestar.org!jim {sys1.tandy.com!sneaky.UUCP,merch.tandy.com}!/ (W)817-390-2864
jearly@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU (John Early) (08/12/90)
In article <405@rwsys.lonestar.org> jim@rwsys.lonestar.org (James Wyatt KA5VJL .) writes: > In article <6716.26c1bd60@vax1.tcd.ie> jagrogan@vax1.tcd.ie writes: > >It is certainly worth taking a look at Novell. ... > >... The workstations then need only have a floppy drive so as to > >boot them up. There is no need to have hard disks on the workstations. > > Well, most Ethernet (and many ARCNET) cards allow a boot-prom to be installed. > This means you can remove (or not buy) floppy drives/controller, install the > boot prom, tell the server about them (and install DOS), and boot without the > floppy at all. It will save power (and thus heat), prevent employees from > installing unwanted/untested software, prevent the removal of sensitive data > by floppy (they can still print it), and maybe save some money. The proms are > about twenty to fifty dollars U.S. and are EASY to install. They boot MUCH > faster and don't wear-out like floppies can. We use them in educational > networks where we can boot 100 workstations in the time 10 booted with > floppies. This strongly limits what the students can do to 'crack' the > network and prevents the theft of courseware. > ---- > James Wyatt (KA5VJL) - Standard disclaimer applies... (H)214-579-0425 > {texbell.swbt.com,letni.lawnet.com}!rwsys.lonestar.org!jim > {sys1.tandy.com!sneaky.UUCP,merch.tandy.com}!/ (W)817-390-2864 I work for Lehigh university, which has about 200 Zenith 148's on various public-site LANs, and wee came to the following conclusions Re boot proms: They add cost (around $35) They take time to install (It took me over an hour to install 8087's at one of our small sites, 16 machines--time for boot proms would be about the same. Keep in mind that new chips must be installed with any software upgrade, whereas with floppies one only need cut a new boot disk) They are faster, and save the expense of providing boot floppies. As far as security with boot proms, since our LANs are on a backbone network and users can FTP software in and out of the file server scratch space anyway, we saw no advantage to removing the floppy drives, and the disadvantage of a lot more user hastle. Our newest site has 50 IBM PS/2 model 55sx machines w/30 meg hard drives. The hard drives are the boot device. For security the file server erases all files off the local hard disk with every login. Hope this helps, John. ---------------------------------------- John Early | jearly@lehi3b15.csee.lehigh.edu | I was just a child then; JPE1@Lehigh.Bitnet | now I'm only a man. [pf] LUJPE@VAX1.cc.lehigh.edu |