NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/bit/listserv/decteil/157

Text File | 1992-09-15 | 2.7 KB | 51 lines

Comments: Gated by [e-mail]
Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!auvm!GRIN1.BITNET!MCMAHON
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.dectei-l
Date:         Tue, 15 Sep 1992 10:27:51 CDT
Sender:       "DEC's The Education Initiative Discussion List"
              <[e-mail]>
From:         "McMahon,Brian D" <[e-mail]>
Subject:      RE: LPS and RTNV for Pathworks clients.
Lines: 39

I will agree that microcomputer licensing is a great thorny mess, and
things get REALLY bad when you start networking things.  It seems like
every vendor we talk to has a different idea of how the world works.
(Digital at least is trying to work things out, which is more than I can
say for some of the others we deal with.)

Here's our favorite PATHWORKS brain-teaser:  We have a mixed environment
(who doesn't?) of MS-DOS and Macintosh boxes on our Ethernet.  The PCs run
PATHWORKS, which is fine.  The Macs get their file/print services from
MicroVAXes running software from Alisa Systems, because when we were
mapping this out some three years ago, PATHWORKS for Mac wasn't ready yet.
We would like to go to PATHWORKS for the Macs, too, and have set up one
server for in-house testing.  We also bought enough PATHWORKS client
licenses to cover the machines doing the testing.

Now, here comes the fun part:  What exactly is a PATHWORKS client on the
Mac?  As soon as the AppleShare (file server) part of PATHWORKS starts,
every Mac on campus can connect to that server, mount volumes, and so on.
The AppleShare client is part of our standard setup, and there's no way a
user can necessarily tell whether a service is being offered by a PATHWORKS
server, an Alisa server, or a MacII in somebody's office.  How many client
licenses do we need?  Remember, we're not using PATHWORKS as our
campuswide, documented, suported, etc. Mac solution (yet).  At least access
to file services on our PATHWORKS test system can be controlled by
disallowing guest access, which we have done.  But there's no way to
prevent someone on the other side of campus from using the print services.
To the Mac, it's just another printer on AppleTalk.

In actual practice, this isn't much of a problem right now, because the
stuff on the test server is pretty much useless to anyone outside of our
department, but I wonder ... how *is* a mixed (-up) environment like this
supposed to be handled, anyway?

(I hope the above description isn't TOO opaque.  I can confuse myself
easily, just by thinking about it.)

Brian McMahon (BDM13)    <[e-mail]>    <[e-mail]>
Postmaster / Acad. Software Support   Grinnell College Computer Services
Grinnell, Iowa 50112 USA   Voice: [phone]   Fax: [phone]