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- Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 15:37:01 EST
- Sender: Campus-Size LAN Discussion Group <BIG-LAN@SUVM.BITNET>
- From: BIG-REQ@SUVM.BITNET
- Subject: BIG-LAN Digest, Volume 5, Number 1, Tuesday, January 12, 1993
- Lines: 407
-
- BIG-LAN DIGEST Tuesday, 12 January 1993 Volume 5 : Issue 1
-
- Today's Topics:
-
- Computers in Healthcare Education Symposium
- Multiplexing X.25 line
- Remote Access
- Isolated grounding
- Re: Server Fault Tolerant H/W Sources Sought
- "A Hidden Cost in LAN Maintenance"
- "User firms plagued by LAN money pits"
- composite type cables
- Cable TV on campus
- Ethernet vs. Token Ring
-
- Moderated by John Wobus, Syracuse University
-
- Relevant addresses:
- Internet BITNET
- Submissions: big-lan@suvm.acs.syr.edu BIG-LAN@SUVM
- Subscriptions: big-lan-request@suvm.acs.syr.edu BIG-REQ@SUVM
- LISTSERV/Archives: listserv@suvm.acs.syr.edu LISTSERV@SUVM
- Moderator: jmwobus@syr.edu JMWOBUS@SYREDU
- Anonymous ftp archives: syr.edu
-
- Note: BIG-LAN is redistributed through many mailing lists at other sites
- run by other individuals. If you subscribe(d) through such a
- "redistribution" list, you will need to remember its owner.
-
- syr.edu also has a copy of the BIG-LAN "FAQ" memo (answers to frequently
- asked questions) under the path information/big-lan/big-lan.faq
-
- BIG-LAN is also available via netnews, through newsgroup
- bit.listserv.big-lan.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1993 14:42:37 EST
- From: Jerilyn Garofalo <garofalo@shrsys.hslc.org>
- Subject: Computers in Healthcare Education Symposium
-
- MARK YOUR CALENDAR !!!
-
- Computers In Healthcare Education Symposium
-
- April 29 & 30, 1993
- Thomas Jefferson University
- Philadelphia, PA
-
- The Symposium serves as a national forum and provides numerous
- opportunities to share ideas and expertise about the use of
- technology in healthcare education. The HSLC encourages the
- sharing of resources among Pennsylvania's Health Sciences
- institutions and towards that end is sponsoring the eighth
- "Computers in Healthcare Education" Symposium. The Symposium is
- two full days of speakers, workshops and exhibits.
-
- The "Computers in Healthcare Education" Symposium is the only computer
- conference designed for and by medical and allied health educators.
- We invite you to participate and join in exploring the 1993
- Symposium theme --
-
- "Collaborative Computing & Networking for the 90's"
-
- In keeping with the theme of collaboration, we are pleased to announce that
- this year's symposium is jointly sponsored by IBM and Apple. The exhibit
- area will also feature many other commercial vendors and a reception on
- Thursday evening.
-
- We are pleased to announce that our keynote speakers will be Ed Krol,
- Pat Mulholt and Mike Bowman.
-
- Ed Krol is the author of _The Hitchhikers Guide to The Internet_ and
- _The Whole Internet: User's Guide and Catalog_. _The Whole Internet_ is
- considered by many to be the most useful Internet handbook available.
- Mr. Krol has also consented to host a book signing at the symposium.
-
- Pat Mulholt of Columbia University of Health Sciences will speak on the
- creation of an electronic curriculum through the CHIPS project at Columbia.
- The CHIPS project networks the curriculums of all the medical, dental and
- allied health schools through the central hub of their library.
-
- Mike Bowman of IBM will speak on IBM and Apple joint ventures. In a
- true collaboration IBM and Apple have created two joint venture firms,
- Taligent and Kaleida. Mike will explain the goals of these two new firms.
-
- The Symposium program includes a wide range of interesting and
- useful activities including keynote speakers, paper presentations,
- panel sessions, demonstrations, and hands-on workshops. Speakers have been
- invited from all over the United States and the Republic of Panama.
-
- The brochure, registration and hotel information will be mailed in February
- 1993. If you would like to receive a copy please send your name and
- address to the address below.
-
- The Health Sciences Libraries Consortium is supported in part with
- a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts.
-
- \ Jerilyn Garofalo Voice: 215 222-1532
- \\ User Support Specialist Fax: 215 222-0416
- \\\\ Health Sciences Libraries Consortium
- \\\\\\ 3600 Market St., Suite 550
- H S L C Philadelphia, PA 19104-2646 Garofalo@shrsys.hslc.org
-
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 16:09:04 -0800 (PST)
- From: Jason Halm <halm@netcom.ubc.ca>
- Subject: Multiplexing X.25 line
-
- >
- > Date: Thu, 24 Dec 92 14:48 GMT
- > From: KBARAKA@VRIT01.EG
- > Subject: Multiplixing X.25 line
- >
- > Hello,
- > I need to know if I can used the same X.25 line to connect both AS400 machine
- > and X.25 gateway on SCO UNIX Server connected to 10Base-T Ethernet
- network.
- > Note:
- > The AS400 machine is not connected to the Ethernet network.
- > Any suggestions in spliting X.25 line is apprechiated.
- > Thanks....
- >
-
- If this is X.25 (version 1984 or earlier) over an HDLC link, you cannot
- put two machines on one end of the line. I don't know if later versions
- have been expanded to do mulitdrop, but I doubt it. Ask your vendors.
-
- Jason Halm halm@netcom.ubc.ca
- Computing & Communications
- University of British Columbia
-
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 08:26:08 -0800 (PST)
- From: Allen Lung <lung@eos.arb.ca.gov>
- Subject: Remote Access
-
- I need to replace a system that is running an application that I will try
- to describe. The host is a mini computer with an application that
- receives calls (modem 2400) from remote p.c's, at this point the host
- recognizes the p.c. hangs up and dials back the p.c. The p.c. uploads
- data to the host at this point. Once the data is on the host it needs to
- be edited by Secretarial staff that is not computer literate. Im looking
- for any solution that will work. All ideas are welcome.
- Novell,unix,Async,dedicated circuits etc etc
-
- Approx 100 remote cites
-
- Allen Lung
- CA Air Resources Board
- (916)322-7056
-
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 3 Jan 93 14:45:26 -0500
- From: William H. Magill <magill@dccs.upenn.edu>
- Subject: Isolated grounding
-
- > I've been working with the construction/planning folks on campus.
- > We have several major buildings we are reviewing and the question of
- > isolated grounding came up.
- >
- > We specified it for the wiring closet. No problem.
- > What about PC's/Mac's in the building?
- > If we are wiring level 5 for 10BT, how important is an isolated ground for
- > each device which attaches to the network?
- > Basically, should every comm port be associated with an isolated ground
- > power recepticle?
-
- Grounding is a subject that it is difficult to get a straight answer on.
- We've wrestled with different versions of the problem for many years now.
-
- As best I can tell, an IG is merely a 3 wire circuit where the ground wire
- runs all the way back to a "real" ground.
-
- Where that "real" ground is, and how "real" it is is the crucial problem.
- I believe that today's "US" code requires ONLY 3 wire circuits that are
- "real" grounds.
-
- Historically, "really old" buildings (like pre 1960s) contain ONLY 2 wire
- circuits. No grounds exist at all - not even coundit grounds. Sometime in
- the 50's or 60's the NEC (National Electrical Code) was revised to move to
- "grounded" circuits. These typically used a "condit" (or BX armor) as the
- ground. Then sometime in the late 70s or 80s, the NEC was again "upgraded"
- to require "real" 3 wire circuits. Depending upon the municiplity, they
- either "automatically" included the NEC requirements or have some sort of
- local process for modifying these codes.
-
- The term "Isolated Ground" has come to be used as a mechanism to make
- certain that one has a "real" ground.
-
- The "last mile" of the electrical circuit (from the wall plate back to the
- circuit breaker) is, today, usually a 3 wire circuit - no conduit or BX
- grounds allowed. However, the "circuit box" may or may not have a "real"
- ground. It may depend upon a conduit ground, or possibly a "neutral" leg,
- for the ground. Neither of which is necessarily evil - it all depends upon
- your overall building wiring.
-
- Now comes the fun. A real "Isolated Ground" is usually a liability. This is
- because a true "Isolated Ground" is NOT connected to either the Transformer
- vault ground or neutral, or to the "water pipe" ground. Consequently,
- depending upon Soil conditions (water tables, conductivity, and all that
- crap) you CAN develop an electrical potential between "two different
- grounds." After all, that is what a lightning strike is all about.
-
- Most transformer vaults have a "ground field" to which the center winding
- of the transformer is connected. If I remember correctly, this is also tied
- to the "water pipe" ground. Consequently, Neutral and Ground are the same
- potential.
-
- So all of this is just saying, an IG circuit is probably "necessary"
- because you have existing wiring which has an "uncertain pedegree".
- Meaning, you have no idea if it has a reasonable ground or not. Similarly,
- you have no idea if that ground path is "highly resistive" from coroded
- conduit joints or the like, and consequently not very useful.1
-
- However, I would doubt that any "new construction" will need a separate IG.
-
- Now, with all of that said, there is one other cavet...
- An IG is necessary to assure that certain "high noise" type equipment does
- not "back feed" your communications gear. Typically, fun places like labs,
- and elevator shafts are the most commmon culprets. Big "rotating" motors -
- A/C compressors, elevators and the like can cause phase problems. But these
- are usually "filtered" locally.
-
- Find out who your campus "PE" is (Professional Engineer). He's the one who
- has to actually sign off on all of these various design issues for State
- and local Permits.
-
- We always specify IGs for "our circuits" to assure that we don't get
- "condit grounds. And because they are forced to install ORANGE
- recepticals, the electricians know they can loose their licenses (and get
- fined by their Unions) for doing the wrong thing.
-
- [Yes, the IG circuit spec's a special orange outlet.]
-
- As for the PCs and MAC's - yes, if the building does NOT have 3 prong wall
- plates. If the building does have 3 prong wall plates, IGs are "probably"
- not necessary - but they likely still need some sort of "spike protection."
-
- As for 10BT - power probably is the least of your worries. Distance and
- "connections" (splices, 66 blocks, etc) will cause you more troubles.
- CDDI - ? who knows at this point?
-
- William H. Magill Manager, PennNet Computing Services
- Data Communications and Computing Services (DCCS) University of Pennsylvania
- Internet: magill@dccs.upenn.edu magill@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
- magill@upenn.edu
-
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 22:05:26 GMT
- From: MICHAEL.WILLETT@OFFICE.WANG.COM ("Michael Willett")
- Subject: Re: Server Fault Tolerant H/W Sources Sought
-
- On the comp.sys.novell news group, Thomas P. Morris at the
- UNC School of Public Health, CAIS (tmorris@sph.unc.edu)
- (tom@sphvax.sph.unc.edu)
- (tom@uncsphvx.bitnet)
- writes:
-
- >In terms of storage needs, I would expect to need to upgrade to
- >c1.5 GB storage in the next year (not including mirror or duplex
- >drives), with up to 3GB needed in the longer term...Options we are
- >looking at...:
-
- >-some form of RAID hardware....
-
- >So, What am I looking for? - Hardware recommendations
- - Vendor recommendations
- - Prices
- - End-user (system manager) experience with
- such systems
-
- There's a lot of USENET interest in the new RAID 7s from local RAID
- vendor, Storage Computer, in Nashua, New Hampshire. (Tel. 603-880-3005)
- Their R&D management email address is RAID7@World.std.com. There has
- recently been a lot of discussion on the peripherals news groups about
- the advantages of RAID 7 over the earlier RAIDs, and Storage Computer R&D
- just posted a lengthy, detailed technical report on RAID 7. You might want
- to take a look at that. I don't have any pricing information which you
- request, but they have test reports showing they are a price/performance
- leader versus RAID 4s & RAID 5s, etc. Their RAID 7 disk array platform has
- recently been favorably reviewed in Open Systems Today, Computer Technology
- Reviews, and the leading iX magazine in Germany. You might want to read
- those reviews. (Storage Technology's big ICEBERG RAID might be of interest
- too, but I think it's still not ready; they've been delayed by a lot of
- R&D problems. ICEBERG is probably too big for most Novell LANs, anyway.)
-
- Michael.Willett@OFFICE.Wang.com (We provide only RAID 3s for our VS minis,
- not either of the RAIDs mentioned above.)
-
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 18:38:17 GMT
- From: IMAGING.CLUB@OFFICE.WANG.COM ("Imaging Club")
- Subject: "A Hidden Cost in LAN Maintenance"
-
- A front page story in the January 4 issue of Communications Week
- is entitled "A Hidden Cost in LAN Maintenance. It starts off:
-
- Many organizations continue to pay a "hidden" but significant cost
- associated with managing LANs--the expense of having a technician go
- into the wiring closet every time a move or change is made....Port
- switching, a hub feature that lets LAN changes be made from a
- workstation rather than manually, can greatly reduce the time and
- money spent on such tasks, Bytex and other vendors say....Bytex,
- Chipcom, and Lannet offer port switching now..."With the feature, you
- can move a user from LAN A to LAN B without pulling a lot of cable."
- ...Whirlpool director of Technology Jim Heaney said by issuing commands to
- the Bytex hubs from his console, he can move users on the network in
- minutes. "We move 10 people a week here," he said. It used to take days
- do that manually, he added. In the past, when moves were needed to remote
- Whirlpool offices, a technician had to be flown out to the site--at a cost
- of up to $2,000. Those changes can now be made remotely, he said. With
- port switching, Whirlpool also is able to keep users on the same server
- when they move to a different location. Users can keep their passwords
- and server access codes to servers. They estimate that port-switching can
- save a company with a 1,400 node network $31,705 annually on the cost of
- adds, moves and changes. (Let me know if you would like a copy of the
- full article. You could probably get some technical reports on this
- from Anne Brazao at Bytex, 508-366-8000.)
-
- Michael.Willett@OFFICE.Wang.com
-
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 08:04:39 GMT
- From: IMAGING.CLUB@OFFICE.WANG.COM ("Imaging Club")
- Subject: "User firms plagued by LAN money pits"
-
- The January 4 issue of the leading Network World newspaper has
- a well-written, detailed story entitled "User firms plagued by LAN
- money pits." The subtitle reads "Forrester study finds cost of
- local net support eating up corporate cash but offers tips for
- relief." The article has a graph of annual charges for different
- kinds of support on a 5,000-user network.
-
- Our LAN customer services support groups here have some extra
- copies of this issue which we can mail to interested people. In
- general, this is quite a good networking newspaper and is free to
- qualified people, at least in the US.
-
- Michael.Willett@OFFICE.Wang.com
-
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 8 Jan 93 13:41:49 CST
- From: sullivan@asc563.asc.slb.com (NETMAN)
- Subject: composite type cables
-
-
- I am seeking information on composite type cables. Specifically,
- I am looking for a cable containing the following:
-
- 2 4 pair level 5 UTP cables
- 1 4 pair level 3 UTP cable
- 2 FDDI cables (4 fibers)
-
- Anyone know of anything close?
- Suggested sources?
-
- Jim Sullivan Schlumberger
- Project Engineer Austin Systems Center
- sullivan@asc.slb.com 8311 North FM 620 Road
- 512-331-3158 (direct) P. O. Box 200015
- 512-331-3127 (fax) Austin, Texas 78720-0015
- USA
-
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: 08 Jan 1993 14:46:28 -0600 (CST)
- From: Jim Mayne <MAYNE@TCUCVMS.BITNET>
- Subject: Cable TV on campus
-
- Texas Christian University is negotiating with our local cable TV system to
- bring cable TV on campus and in particular into our dorm rooms. I would be
- interested in discussing this process with anyone who has gone through
- something similar.
-
- Thanks,
-
- Jim Mayne
- Texas Christian University
- mayne@gamma.is.tcu.edu
- mayne@tcucvms.bitnet
-
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: 10 January 93, 19:10:19 SLT
- From: F60C038 at SAKSU00
- Subject: Ethernet vs. Token Ring
-
- What are the PROs and CONs, advantages and disadvantages of
- Ethernet versus Token Ring .
-
- I appologize for this FAQ, but I'm about to make this crucial decision.
-
- PLEASE REPLY TO: F60C038@SAKSU00.BITNET
-
- -------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- End of BIG-LAN Digest
- *********************
-