Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!scasterg From: scasterg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stuart M Castergine) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: Mac Sysadmin questions Message-ID: <1991Jun18.044341.5318@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> Date: 18 Jun 91 04:43:41 GMT References: <91164.092420UH2@psuvm.psu.edu> Sender: news@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Organization: The Ohio State University Lines: 92 Nntp-Posting-Host: bottom.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu In article <91164.092420UH2@psuvm.psu.edu> Lee Sailer writes: >A Mac has entered the community of machines that I support. (I'm >glad.) So I am appealing to the Mac community to give me a little >advice about the first set of sort-of-technical questions that >have popped up. > >1. There will be text files that need to travel from the Mac world to > the msdos world. > a) for serial cable transfers (or parallel, I guess) what's a good > Mac <--> msdos file transfer program. We usually use Procomm or > Kermit now. Is there a Laplink like program? A plethora of choices. LapLink Mac exists. You can also use Kermit, Microphone or a variety of telcom apps for teh Mac, with a null modem cable. > > b) same as a), execpt over telephone. Same software, or does advice > change? Same telcom software. Same modems (in general). Mac-specific cable. > >2. What if the files that we get are not plain text? Is there msdos based > word processor software that will read the main Mac formats (macWrite? > Word? Other?)? Lots of choices. Woprd, which I use, writes RTF format, which many PC programs read. It also writes in Word PC format. Many other Mac WPs have similar capabilities. Also, ther are numerous standalone translator programs, such as MacLink. >3. Where might we find a Mac capability to handle Cyrillic characters, which > we will be processing on a regular basis? Don't know, offhand, but I'd bet money it exists. Keep looking. > >4. Is there an msdos floppy drive for the Mac, or a Mac floppy drive for > the PC? (I should probably just get an Amiga to put in the middle.) > Third party 5.25 and 3.5 inch PC drives exist for the Mac. Also, if you have a Mac with a 1.44 mb High density drive, it will read msdos disks using Apple File Exchange (included with the Apple system software) or Dayna's DOS Mounter or a similar product. >5. If I only have one external CD-ROM drive, can I move it back and forth > from the Mac (SCSI, right?) and msdos (SCSI, to be same as Mac, I guess) > so that whoever needs it can use it for a few days? (Assuming software > is available for each, of course.) > Questionable whether that will work. Why not network your machines. Macs and PCs can coexist peacfully on a variety of networks. For example, you could run Sitka/TOPS and have every machine on your network be able to access the cdrom, no matter whether it is on a Mac or PC. Farallon sells a localtalk card for the PC. OR you could put them all on ethernet, if you are serious. Some network products make it possible for your PCs to share your Apple LaserWriter (if you have one). If you think you don't need a network, think again. Once you have one, you won't know what you did without it. They are well worth the cost, which is less than yoiu might think. It used to be, people said "I don't need a hard drive." Now everybody knows they need a hard drive, but people still say "I don't need a network." :-) Now, so many machines (Sun, NeXT, Mac, etc.) are being bundled with built-in networking, that people are beginning to view it as a necessity. >6. In short, all that stuff you need to support the computer for the > rest of them 8-) 8-) > > lee Where's psu? Is that Penn State? I'm not _too_ far from there. Hmmm. Maybe I could do a little consulting! Dibs! Dibs! (fights off the net vultures as they close in) :-) :-) -- scasterg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Stuart M Castergine "Step by step they were led to practices which disposed to vice -- the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance they called civilisation, when it was but part of their servitude."