HI Nancy,

Nancy Backus wrote in a message to RICHARD WEBB:

 RW> FIrst, sorry for not getting back to you for awhile, been out of
 RW> pocket. 

NB> Things have been rather busy at this end, too... so it's taken a
NB> little while to get back to you, now...  sorry..  The rest of this
NB> message is the Wizard speaking... :)

STill crazy, got wife from hospital, had major problems with house,
decamped for a week.  Bbs machine ran flawlessly however.

 RW> That's the idea, as this would be for business use as well.

Have a machine I am sure will have enough places for at least 3 nics, so
should be able to put dsl modem on one, this computer on one and another
machine on third. WE'll run smoothwall on that guy to handle all the
network chores.

NB> If you really want your own mail server, then you are going to need
NB> a ?NIX (linux, Unix) box and a captive guru.  I'm not a ?NIX guru,
NB> so I can't help you there.

Have a good friend of mine that I can consult via telephone, and I pay one
price long distance so that's no problem. ONe reason I want to manipulate
it as much as possible from the dos box, as the dos box has synthesized
speech and a screen reader, where the hub will have an os that doesn't
provide for a screenreader for the blind, but does the job of managing who
acces what quite well according to my uplink and a couple other folks I've
spoken with who know their stuff in this area. I"m an audio production
guy, I understand electronics, I understand capturing sound, but my
knowledge in this area's about a decade out of date .

NB> experience.  By the way, everything I do know about wireless
NB> suggests they have security issues I don't want to deal with
NB> (sometime, maybe...).
WIreless isn't an option for that reason here as well.  I have enough cat5
laying around anyway, as I scrounged some from an installation that was
pulled out.  I've probably got 100 ft all total, with longest run being
about 30. CHecks good when we put i


 RW> I think I've seen two or three good ftp clients for dos running
 RW> around, and  have a couple of packet drivers.  SUggestions on specifics
 RW> of these for ms dos  are sure welcome however.

NB> When you're in the "land of DOS", there's always more than one way
NB> to skin a cat.  And each software package is unique in its own way. 
NB> Packet drivers are about the only constant, but not every package
NB> uses them.  So, specific answers aren't possible without knowing
NB> which specific package you are going to use.  I prefer to use WATTCP
NB> utilities, since they all configure the same way.  The WATTCP FTP
NB> version 0.07 (FTP07) is the DOS FTP client we use.  I've checked out
NB> others, but didn't end up using them. 

I don't know if I have that one, but will find one we like.

NB> As to packet drivers, you probably can't get ones for the newest
NB> cards, but most of the not so old NICs have packet drivers you can
NB> get from the vendor's website.  3Com has packet drivers for almost
NB> all of its old cards.

THat's one thing will make sure of when we buy network cards, especially
for this machine.

NB> I have started setting up a LAN in our house, and decided to use DOS
NB> as the OS on the server.  This is how I planned it, and it might
NB> contain information that would be useful to you in your planning.

Am saving this post for reference.  Thanks!
Regards,
           Richard
... A good captain is hoisting his first drink in a bar when the storm hits.
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+