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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!pur-ee!iuvax!ndmath!eggers
From: eggers@ndmath.UUCP (Mark Eggers)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans,comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: File server for APPLE IIgs system
Message-ID: <606@ndmath.UUCP>
Date: 7 Jan 88 13:27:22 GMT
References: <4396@ecsvax.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Math. Dept., Univ. of Notre Dame
Lines: 42
Keywords: File server  Networking APPLEIIgs LONG
Summary: Servers, Apples

In article <4396@ecsvax.UUCP>, blissl@ecsvax.UUCP (Leonard B. Bliss) writes:
> 
> We are in the planning stages in designing a computer laboratory
> which will house approximately 60 APPLE IIgs microcomputers.  For
> various reasons, we wish to network these machines in order to 
> allow students to run software kept on a hard disk at a central
> location rather than having each user run from separate diskettes
> at their stations.
> We have been told that
> CORVUS has a system that may do the job, but that it is a bear to
> use and has the habit of crashing on a regular basis.
> 
> Len Bliss
> College of Education
> Appalachian State University
> Boone, NC 28608
> (704) 262-1[D3103       blissl@ecsvax

We have used Corvus here at the University of Notre Dame in a highly
mixed environment (13 Macintoshes, 7 IBM PCs, and 6 Apple //es on one
network !). It ran fairly well, including when all machines were being used 
and all four network printers were printing.

There are a couple of problems. The system is not user friendly. However, you
can write a menu system to ease the burden (a User Services person here
wrote one in basic for the Apple //e - another one as a .BAT file for PCs).

Printers sometimes hung. This has to do with a poor choice in printer timeout.

We could not conveniently control laser writers (specifically the Apple
LaserWriter) on the network. There are instructions for doing this, but 
basically a dedicated Macintosh is required.

All in all, Corvus ran well, and with a little more effort, would have been
quite nice. User Services has moved the Macintoshes to an AppleTalk/AppleShare
network (and increased the number of machines). The Apple //es and the Pcs
are still on Corvus in another room.

Basically, if you want file server capability for the Apple // series, you
are stuck with Corvus.

Mark Eggers, Network Communication Analyst, University of Notre Dame