Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!v.cc2@UCLA-LOCUS From: v.cc2%UCLA-LOCUS@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.micro.pc Subject: LANs Message-ID: <15962@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Tue, 24-Jan-84 23:49:50 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.15962 Posted: Tue Jan 24 23:49:50 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jan-84 03:14:15 EST Lines: 40 From: Computer Club SDC This is an editorial comment. I hate the general software available for the PC! This gripe has been on my mind for a while but it came to a head yesterday when I finally got fed up with Orchid PCnet trashing the FAT on my hard disk for about the fiftieth time. This is due to the fact that (I was told this by Orchid) "The system is designed to be used by a single user and share peripherals." What's the point?! That means that there is no mechanism in PCnet to lock the fat in any way. What happens is that each machine reads a copy of the fat into memory when it opens a file. After it didles with the file, puts it back, and writes the fat that it got when it opened the file, regardless of what other nodes on the net do. So if you are working on a file that has a FAT entry in the same FAT sector as another node, at the same time, the result is 1 trashed disk - every time. I figured, OK, someone else must realize that this has to be delt with. I tried Davong Multi-link. What complete junk, we won't even talk about it further. Suffice it to say that it does most everything wrong (just like everything else they make.) Then I tried Xcomp X-net. They swore up and down that they had the FAT problem solved. If you open a file with a filehandle open for write or with just a normal open, the file is locked until closed and they read the FAT BEFORE they rewrite it. Great, no more trashed hard disk 'cause it, in fact, does what they said, however, they also don't support standard input or output. None of the pipes or filters worked anymore. I was just about to hit the roof!! I have had just about enough of this trial and error hardware testing. Every- one seems to be using the public as a beta-test sight. Do any of you know of a net that works properly (I am leaning toward 3Com, all I need is a good word) with 3-6 users doing disk intensive stuff that supports IBM's documented features (no trade offs: No trashed disk but no stdin/stdout). I don't really care that much about speed as long as it works well. - Howard (cc2@ucla-locus)