dwal@ellis.uchicago.edu (David Walton) (08/20/90)
The subject line says it in capsule form, but here are the details:
The University of Chicago has recently added its undergraduate
Residence Halls to the campus-wide ethernet network. For a $25 fee,
students can sign up for a connection, which gives them access to
various network services, including use of Telnet and FTP. We have a
site license for Stanford University's PC/IP package (SU-PC/IP version
3.1), which we have provided to the students free of charge (the site
license is only $120, so we don't need to charge for it). As some of
you may know, however, PC/IP has some problems, including the tendency
to consistently hang the machine after its driver (for whatever board)
has been installed in memory. Stanford has given no indication when
the bug will be fixed. As a result, we're considering alternatives
for this coming academic year.
One alternative is to use version 3.0 of SU-PC/IP, which doesn't
have many of the problems of 3.1. However, we'd also like to consider
other packages before deciding to do this.
Another alternative to PC/IP is NCSA's Telnet for the PC, which is now
in beta for version 2.3. Problem is, that's buggy as well (it's beta,
after all), and has been that way for a long time; we need something
that's reliable, and we need to get it soon (by mid-September).
Does anybody have suggestions for alternatives to these packages? Our
requirements (approximately):
* It should provide Telnet and FTP capabilities (client FTP
preferred)--additions like Ping are nice but certainly not
necessary;
* It should run on a reasonable selection of boards: 3COM
EtherLink and EtherLink MC, Western Digital, and LocalTalk
boards (Apple's for XT bus and DayStar's for MCA--these are
necessary, as we have users with PCs on LocalTalk segments); or
it should provide a packet-driver interface;
* It should be reasonably easy to use (most of the people using it
won't be excessively computer-literate :-) and have reasonably
good documentation;
* It should have an option to buy a site license (or it could be
free; we wouldn't mind too much...) for less than the price of our
University endowment :-). We're talking about a potential 3,500+
users here, and we want to make it so that students don't have to
pay for the software.
We would consider any package--commercial or no--which meets these
requirements. I'd appreciate any suggestions which anyone has to
offer. Please send them via electronic mail; I'll be glad to
summarize to the net if there's sufficient interest.
--
David Walton Internet: dwal@midway.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago { Any opinions found herein are mine, not }
Computing Organizations { those of my employers (or anybody else). }