Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!apple.com!dbrown
From: dbrown@apple.com (David Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Shiva NetSerial
Message-ID: <5698@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 9 Dec 89 01:21:19 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Orion Network Systems
Lines: 32
References:<1003@maytag.waterloo.edu> <37139@apple.Apple.COM>

Our experiences with NetSerial & NetModem have been pretty good on the 
whole - it means that we didn't have to buy modems & install 2nd phone 
lines for everyone in the company (we use them for dial-outs from the 
office).  We have had a couple of problems:

1) We're connected to a very large Appletalk network (~90 zones).  When we 
connected our own little network (5 networks, one zone) to the main net, 
we could no longer see (in the Chooser) the Shiva equipment across Apple 
routers.  Shiva was quick about sending a PROM fix for the NetSerial, but 
it took several months and many phone calls before we received (this 
week!) a PROM fix for the NetModem.  Meanwhile, our users on EtherTalk & 
TokenTalk had to use either the one NetSerial device, or switch their 
network connection to LocalTalk (where they could access the NetModem on 
their local LocalTalk segment only - we had to install NetModems on each 
LocalTalk segment).

2) The Shiva management program also has problems with our huge net 
(and/or Apple routers).  When we start it up, it sits forever (or at least 
30 minutes) displaying the message about searching for bridges.   We have 
to remove the Shiva equipment from the net & create a tiny net with just a 
Mac & the Shiva device in order to modify configurations.

Other than that (and most users won't have these problems), we've been 
very happy. The recent software (v3.1 and above - the latest version we 
have is v3.3) has a nice feature that lets you select multiple devices by 
holding down the shift, and it will find the first available device when 
you access it (creating a pool of modems).

David Brown
Orion Network Systems
1995 University Ave. Suite 350
Berkeley, CA 94704