Hall of Fame/HallofFameCDROM.cdr/3x400/discus3x.lzh/AS43CM.THD

Text File | 1990-10-07 | 29KB | 370 lines

AS43CM.THD

Using AS/400 with a 3com network.

A forum participant wishes to get an AS/400 to use with his 3Com network
Can the existing workstations be used as terminals to the AS/400 while still
keeping the DOS functionality of the 386 server?
.
.This is an ASCII file.  READ or DOWNLOAD with any supported protocol.
Upl: Anne E. Pruitt 72335,777

AS/400 IBM 3COM ETHERNET DOS 386 CONNECT NETWORK

#: 26919 S5/Technical-Big Sys
      04-May-90  18:32:20
Sb: #AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604
To: all

We have a 3Com network with a 150MB 386 3Server and ethernet.  We are
considering getting an AS/400.

What are the options for hooking this hardware together so that we can use our
existing 3stations on the network as terminals to the AS/400 and keep our DOS
server?  Is there anyone out there who has done this before?  If at all
possible is this a functional solution?

#: 26985 S5/Technical-Big Sys
      05-May-90  00:19:07
Sb: #26919-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: M/S Bulaon 74007,1116
To: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604

Paul, If 3Com is NETBIOS compatible you can use a LAN Gateway product such as
IDEAssociates Gateway Server or Black B corps Local Gate. Both of these
products will allow you to do 5250 emulation and they also provide file
transfer support IE. between the AS/400 and the server.

I don't have the phone numbers for either of these companies at the moment,
but will post on monday if you need them.

Steve.

#: 27358 S5/Technical-Big Sys
      07-May-90  12:52:01
Sb: #26985-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604
To: M/S Bulaon 74007,1116

Thanks for your advise.  I will run those company names by my 3Com and IBM
rep's.  Will let you know how it goes.

#: 27981 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    10-May-90  20:53:25
Sb: #27358-#AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: M/S Bulaon 74007,1116
To: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604

Paul, I am glad that I could help. Before talking to your IBM rep keep in mind
that he will probably suggest that you drop 3Com and go with Big Blue's Token
Ring Solution for PC to AS/400 connectivity. This solution works but is a
memory hog and is $$$! So what else is new for IBM right?!

Keep me up to date!

Steve

#: 28002 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    10-May-90  23:55:53
Sb: #27981-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Paul Watson 76056,1751
To: M/S Bulaon 74007,1116

What is the biggest memory hog in the IBM PC to AS/400 connection?  Are you
referring to running PCLP?  Could you run the emulation software on top of LSP
only?  What is so much more expensive about IBM than 3Com?

#: 28200 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    12-May-90  16:29:40
Sb: #28002-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: M/S Bulaon 74007,1116
To: Paul Watson 76056,1751

PAUL,
  My apologies for being vague in my last message. In reference to your query
consider the following:

          1. IBM's AS/400 to LAN connectivity options are limited
             to Token Ring. If you are running Ethernet, ArcNet, etc.
             you will HAVE TO REPLACE those NICs with Token Ring
             cards. All of your bridges, hubs, repeaters, etc. will
             also have to be replaced with their TR equivelents.

          2. IBM's connectivity option also requires IBM's PC/LAN as
             the network O/S (kiss 3Com goodbye).

          3. Each and every 5250 emulation session that you run on
             the LAN takes up 400 to 800K of main memory on the
             AS/400. i.e. 10 LAN users signed on to AS/400 will
             require approx. 4 - 8 meg of AS/400 main storage.

          4. Within an emulation session, the workstation user has
             the ability to "Hot Key" into DOS and execute PC pgms.
             The only catch here is the fact that all of the emula-
             tion code remains resident in PC memory. In most cases
             the remaining memory is insufficient for running a rel-
             atively small application such as 1-2-3. You can forget
             about Word Perfect. In all fairness to the folks at big
             blue, a DOS extender might be used to relocate some or
             all of the emulation code to EMS or Extended Memory.
             I really have no idea if it can be done or not, but
             then again, why bother with such a kludge?

Hope this helps!

Steve

#: 28540 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    15-May-90  14:14:31
Sb: #27981-#AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604
To: M/S Bulaon 74007,1116

Steve,

You are right, that is exactly what they are suggesting.  Looking at the
alternatives I tend to agree with them.  I will rather spend some more $$$ up
front for less problems in the future.  My biggest concern is memory on the
PC.  I tried to pin them down on that one but that wasn't easy.  Their latest
PC LAN program supposedly takes up less memory than their previous version,
but it still seems like a lot (over 110K).  I am trying to find out if I can
load some of this into High RAM (created by QEMM) like I am able to do with my
3Com programs.  The other questions we are facing is wether to install a OS/2
EE LAN server (a 386) or partition part of the AS/400 as DOS. Supposedly you
can store files and run DOS programs this way.  I have no idea how efficient
this is and how it affects the performance of the AS/400.  But I remain
sceptical!!

#: 28650 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    15-May-90  23:39:12
Sb: #28540-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Tony Toews 71760,3552
To: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604

Excuse me for butting in.  I also remember part of the thread but I may have
missed some of it.  If the following is of any relevance enjoy.  If not
ignore.

I noticed in the March issue of News 3X/400 page 197, that Andrew Corporation
have a product called NetLynx which 'puts your LANs on speaking terms with
IBM's AS/400'.  They specifically mention 3Com, ARCNET, etc. Their number is
800 733 0331 ext 2103. Local number 213 320 7126.  Canadian 800 is 800 267
1821, UK 0734 894689.  I only just noticed the ad tonight but I will be
phoning in the morning for more info as this may solve a customers problems.

Tony

#: 28989 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    17-May-90  17:04:19
Sb: #28540-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Steve Bulaon 74007,1116
To: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604

Paul,

Keep in mind that PC LAN's lobe shell is just one program that will take up
memory in your workstations. Whenever you crank up PCSupport/400 another
substantial chunk of memory will be used.

As far as OS/2 EE goes, I am not sure if PC Support/400 is supported under
OS/2.

You can use AS/400 Disk space to store PC-Files using the Virtual Disk
facility in PC-Support, but I would advise against it. Performance on an IBM
SYS/38 is miserable and I can't see it being that much better on an AS/400.

As for the "problems" you want to avoid by not using Big Blue's solution, I
would like to know what problems you expect to avoid?

Steve

#: 29108 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    18-May-90  02:28:06
Sb: #28989-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Tony Toews 71760,3552
To: Steve Bulaon 74007,1116

As far as OS/2 EE goes, 1.2 has 5250 connectivity built right into it.  Thus
some simple configuration steps and you're on.  You do need a PC Support
diskette but the majority of the code is already in OS/2 EE 1.2.

Performance on the AS/400 as a server is not recommended by anyone.  IBM,
privately and publicly, at our local user group meetings, do not recommend it.

Tony

#: 29168 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    18-May-90  13:09:47
Sb: #28989-#AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604
To: Steve Bulaon 74007,1116 (X)

Steve,

Thanks for your feedback.  The problems I was alluding to (and these might be
perceived rather than real) are related to the support issue. By keeping 3com
and using a bridge between 3com and AS/400 it seems that I will be relying on
support from more sources than if I stay strictly with IBM.  Hopefully, this
would lead to less fingerpointing if (when) something goes wrong.

What I want is functionality, ease of use, being able to switch between DOS
and AS/400 quickly and easily, run ALL DOS programs, low support needs, and a
reasonable price tag.  I am dreaming, right?  (I forgot to add the ability to
share DOS programs and DATA!)

Paul

#: 29172 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    18-May-90  14:12:39
Sb: #29168-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Steve Bulaon 74007,1116
To: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604

Paul,

As far as finger pointing goes, let me ask just one question... are you
running PS/2's on your 3Com network? If not, guess what IBM is going to tell
you sports fans!

Steve

#: 29173 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    18-May-90  14:15:00
Sb: #29108-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Steve Bulaon 74007,1116
To: Tony Toews 71760,3552

Tony,

What about STF.COM and the transfer facility under OS/2 EE 1.2? Does the
transfer facility run directly under OS/2 or within the DOS compatibility box?

In addition, what are the memory requirements for 5250 emulation, virtual
printer, file transfers, etc. for a PC under OS/2 EE 1.2? i.e. can anything
other than a trivial DOS program be run when hot keying out of 5250 mode into
DOS. Non-trivial meaning 1-2-3 2.2, Wordperfect, etc.

Steve

#: 29191 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    18-May-90  17:27:24
Sb: #29172-#AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604
To: Steve Bulaon 74007,1116 (X)

Steve,

PS/2's ??? I was thinking more in the line of some inexpensive 386SX machine.
But I suppose putting in 25 of those would lead to a serious case of "pin the
problem on the other guys".

Why do I feel like I am being sucked into a comfortable, yet expensive and
slow (relatively speaking) blue world.  All because the only application I
could find that was any good runs on an AS/400.

#: 29231 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    18-May-90  23:41:36
Sb: #29191-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Steve Bulaon 74007,1116
To: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604

Paul,

That's the beauty of this whole thing, you don't HAVE to be a deep shade of
IBM Blue! If your 3Com net is NETBIOS compatible, you can look into purchasing
one of the Gateway options that I had mentioned at the beginning of this
thread, or any other vendors product that is comparable. In doing this you
prevent your company from spending a bunch of money and throwing an existing
network out.

I can understand your apprehension at supporting a multi-vendor environment,
but then again a multi-vendor situation has its upside too. The upside to this
is that you are not chained to IBM and that you will not have to "settle" for
whatever IBM decides to offer in the way of connectivity options at any given
point in time.

I have a client who wants to do exactly what your people want  do and they are
going to go with my Gateway/Netware 386 proposal.

Unless management demands a True Blue solution, I believe that a multi-vendor
Light Blue would serve you better in the long run.

Steve

PS. What type of application are you going to run on the AS/400?

#: 29553 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    21-May-90  12:41:05
Sb: #29231-#AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604
To: Steve Bulaon 74007,1116 (X)

Steve,

You have many good points.  Actually I am becoming convinced that you are
right!  I just spoke to Andrew Corp (NetLynx - Thanks Tony T.) and it seems
like they have a good solution.  EVERYONE wants to use my precious 0-640K
memory, but with this solution I don't have to replace my entire network
(including cables!).  The question now becomes:  Do I keep my 3Com 1.3.1 or do
I go to 3+Open (or perhaps Netware 386??).  If I want to keep my 3Server 386 I
suppose the last solution is not viable.

By the way, we are getting a system called HFA (it's a distribution package
from Friedman out of Deerfield, Ill.)

#: 29627 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    21-May-90  20:58:32
Sb: #29553-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Steve Bulaon 74007,1116
To: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604

Paul,

Glad to hear that you are looking into gateways. I sincerely believe that that
is the route to take. Just remember to look into IDEAssociates product as
well. I'll post their number here tommorow, just in case you don't have it.

Steve

#: 29868 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    23-May-90  02:27:03
Sb: #29173-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Tony Toews 71760,3552
To: Steve Bulaon 74007,1116

Steve

My *understanding*, and I haven't personally verified this, is that multiple
file transfers can be processing while you are running OS/2 and AS/400
applications.  Each file transfer runs in one of the five 5250 sessions.

The DOS compatibility box has nothing whatsoever to do with this.  IBM
recommend 6 Mb, or 2Mb more than a regular OS/2 PS/2.

>Can anything other than a trivial DOS pgm be run when hotkeying...

You can run anything in the DOS box or other OS/2 tasks as the five sessions
are additional OS/2 tasks.  So if you can run a program in the DOS box before
there won't be any problem running it later.  Besides you should be getting an
OS/2 version of the pgms.  It's my understanding that some programs such as
PageMaker and some CAD pgms make very good use of the multi-threading
capabilities of OS/2.

Tony

#: 29869 S5/Technical-Big Sys
    23-May-90  02:27:08
Sb: #29553-AS/400 and 3COM
Fm: Tony Toews 71760,3552
To: Paul S. Ward 76424,2604

Paul

I'm not sure the Canadian distributor knows what they are doing.  Is the
Andrew Corp solution a twinax attach or an SDLC attach GW?

My Canadian distributor says twinax which means my cost per node is too high
compared to an SDLC attach.

Tony