Re: Adaptec card purchase..
-> CH> $199.  The box was a bit "shopworn", but the card and disks
-> CH> seemed to have the factory shrinkwrap on them.  The only
-> CH> catalog price I saw was about $800 for the thing...
->
-> For a 3985?!  That's a fantastic price if it works at all.  However,
-> find that it is more useful to you to trade it for something that wor
-> the software you end up running...
Yes, and I agonized for a fair bit of time over the "Too good to be
true" quandry.  That kind of deal *never* happens to me!  And they even
took a credit card :)
-> CH> Not sure what chipset is in it.  It's at work, and I'm at home.
->
-> I'll start asking questions if you can't find out easily.
I can look easily enough, but what chips do I look at?  There are
a few Adaptec private labelled ones, and what look to be some ROMs.
-> CH> Also picked up the InfoMagic Linux 6-disk set, but no BSD
-> CH> there...
->
-> I recommend that, as long as you have a current release.  I think
-> the most
-> recent is April 1997, so there should be a new one shortly.  You can
-> check their web site, "http://www.infomagic.com".
This is the April 1997 version...
-> CH> I would like to use it as the basis for a new lan for the
-> CH> BBS.  I really don't care what the server software is, so
-> CH> even Novell as supported would be OK.  I do have 3.12, and
-> CH> it is supported by the card.
->
-> The problem with RAID -- Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives -- is
-> will need a bunch of hard drives to make it work.  This will get expe
I'm expecting that.  This isn't something that will happen soon, but
eventually it will happen.  Some of the drives on the system are aging,
and will need replacement eventually.  Just hope I can do it in a timely
and controlled fashion.
-> CH> Also discovered that all nodes access the Wildcat Novell
-> CH> server by use of the Lantastic software.  Any major
-> CH> downsides to that?
->
-> I think you are wrong.  You can't use Lantastic client software to ac
-> Novell server, as far as I know.  You could, however, use the NDIS pa
-> client stack from Lantastic under the NDIS-to-ODI shim and Novell cli
-> effect, this would allow you to load both the Lantastic and Novell
-> clients.
I never would have thought that Lantastic would access Novell, but it
appears that's what happens here.  I picked up an older book, "Building
Lantastic Networks" (Joseph R. Levy).  Was reading through, and hit
upon a section titled "LANtastic NCP Client Support".  It went on to
describe how LANtastic v6.00 can let the computer function as a client
on a NetWare server.  Showed the STARTNET.BAT used, and it was almost
exactly what that file is on Chowdanet.  It also mentioned that it was
a way for the client to access both LANtastic servers and Novell servers
simultaneously.  I suppose only Brad or Steve Hodell would know for sure
why it was done...
-c-
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