Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/004a/mediso.zip/MEDISO.TXT

Text File | 1991-10-15 | 6KB | 191 lines

Running MediSoft Advanced Multi-User under LANtastic





Paul Turley, Technical Support manager            October 3, 1991

The Computer Place, Inc.    Mesa, AZ          [phone]



MediSoft Patient Accounting is fairly easy to set-up and run
under LANtastic if the network and program are configured
correctly.  These are the most common considerations:



PROGRAM & VERSION



MediSoft Patient Accounting and MediSoft Advanced Single User
should not be used on any network.  The Multi-User program
performs record locking which allows more than one user to
access data files with causing sharing problems and file damage.
The current program version is 3.0.



DATA AND PROGRAM PATH



With LANtastic and many other peer-to-peer systems it is
possible to access the same disk drive with different names.  It
is important that if the shared drive for MediSoft users' on
workstations is "F:", that all users log to the F: drive.
Typically, this would represent the root directory of this
server's C: drive.  Use the SUBST command or LANtastic's NET USE
command so that the shared drive is the same on all workstations
including the server(s).  If this is the case, add the SUBST
command to the server's AUTOEXEC.BAT in the C: root directory
after the PATH statement (which paths DOS to the \DOS directory
or where the DOS programs are stored.)



    Example:    SUBST F: C:\



It is possible to share the server's C: drive and to create a
logical "C: drive" for diskless workstation user's as well.  If
this is the case, no SUBSTitution is necessary as long as the C:
prompt on all workstations represents exactly the same C: prompt
on the server.  The limitation here is that a hard drive could
not be added to a workstation.  On larger systems the shared
drive (sometimes referred to as the "logical" drive used to
access the server's disk) may represent a sub-directory on the
server's C: drive.  Running either SUBST or NET USE will
accomplish this as well.



    Example:    SUBST F: C:\NETWORK



In all cases, set-up the appropriate data path in the MediSoft
program.  Choose operation 1 from the program menu, and the
sub-option 1 for "Office Information."  The program will give
you the opportunity to set the "DATA PATH".  Make sure that this
path is set to the sub-directory on the SHARED DRIVE where your
MediSoft data files are stored.



    Examples:    F:\MEDISOFT

            E:\MEDISOFT\DATA

            G:\MEDIDATA





MEMORY



MediSoft requires approximately 480 K of RAM.  Other programs
which come with MediSoft can take additional memory.  If
extended or expanded memory is found and the appropriate memory
drivers are in place (HIGHMEM for extended and EMM??? for
expanded memory), the program will automatically "swap" itself
to upper memory.  This allows it not to be such a "memory hog"
and to run a little faster.  Practically everything added to a
machine's configuration takes memory.  After running the network
card driver, network BIOS, REDIR, LANPUP, caching, and all of
those nifty TSR's, there may not be a lot to play with. A
utility called RAM.COM comes with MediSoft to help manage your
available RAM.  Run this to make sure you have enough memory.
If you are using DOS 5.0 or higher, use MEM /C.



MediSoft Program and memory requirements:



        MEDISOFT ADVANCED            470 - 480 K

        OFFICE HOURS FULLY RESIDENT (HOURS R)    102 K*

        OFFICE HOURS IN 10K SHELL    (HOURS10K)    11 K~

        POP-UP CALCULATOR/DIALER  (PCD)        12 K



        MAXIMUM POSSIBLE:            ~503 - *594 K



FILE HANDLES



MediSoft needs a minimum of 46 file handles per user.  If you
are running TSRs which open additional files, raise this
accordingly.  For most LANtastic systems, 60 per user will do
it.  Edit the CONFIG.SYS file on each workstation and change (or
add) the statement to read FILES=60.  Buffers are not utilized
by our program since we require SHARE to be loaded.  The network
server (for the drive containing MediSoft data) needs to have
the sum of file handles needed for all workstations.  Place the
appropriate number in the CONFIG.SYS file on the server.   DOS
tops-out at 255, you need more than this, use the LANtastic
NET_MGR, choose "Server Start-up Perameters," and place this
number under MAX FILES OPEN.



Here's a simple formula for server File Handles:



number of workstations + server x 60 + 10 (a little extra for the network).



SHARE



You should always be running SHARE when using MediSoft but large
network systems may require some special perameters.   By
default, SHARE gives itself enough room to open between 50 and
60 files at a time and to perform record or file locking on 20
at a time.  This is fine for one or two computers but for any
more, do the following in the AUTOEXEC.BAT on the server:



    SHARE /F:fff /L:lll



fff (file name size) = number of workstations + server x 50
(max. open files) x 40 (max file name size + 11)

lll (record locks per user) = number of workstations + server x
5 (max. record locks per user)



These figures may be a little liberal but better overkill than
underkill.  You can adjust the file name size depending upon how
deep you bury your data files into your sub-directory tree.  DOS
needs an additional 11 bytes per file.



If you need any help, call Technical Support at The Computer
Place or the friendly folks at ArtiSoft.

PS. The Computer Place will be opening a BBS in the near future. Give us a call.