Xref: utzoo comp.protocols.appletalk:540 comp.sys.mac:15025
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!bloom-beacon!gatech!udel!garrett
From: garrett@udel.EDU (Joel Garrett)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Pacer vs. Alisa (A Tale of Two VAX-Mac Systems)
Message-ID: <2044@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: 13 Apr 88 14:18:07 GMT
References: <11134@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Reply-To: garrett@udel.EDU (Joel Garrett)
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 70

In article <11134@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> lui@CS.UCLA.EDU (Stephen Lui) writes:
>We are connecting our VAXes to our Macintoshes through the very popular
>Kinetics FastPath gateway box. I'm comparing the two popular software
>packages made by Alisa Systems and Pacer.

I'm in the process of doing the same thing for my employer.

>Does anyone have any comments about either system?

I've only had a chance to dig into AlisaTalk so far, as I am still waiting for
a PacerShare beta tape (yes, it's an announced product, but it's still in
beta, I guess that's come to be the norm)

I ran into a few problems getting both packages to run at first (partially
due to incomplete installation instructions, partially due to voodoo
system problems)

One note to users of Wollongong WIN/TCP who want to get AlisaTalk or PacerLink:

If you are using the dedicated DEUNA driver for WIN/TCP, you're going to need
to call Wollongong and tell them you need to use the shared DEUNA/DEQNA
driver.  This isn't a big deal, all you need to do is get a new key from
TWG, which they'll read you over the phone, and then re-link the inet stuff
to include the shared DEUNA driver.  After this, just edit your startinet.com
file and the syconfig.com file and you're all set - For the dedicated deuna
driver, sysgen leaves out the XE driver while autoconfiguring the system at
boot time and both AlisaTalk and PacerLink need this.

Before I got this driver change from Wollongong, I tried installing AlisaTalk
with WIN/TCP not running.  For some reason the appletalk/vms bridge process
was unable to get the deuna's ethernet address and therefore was responding
to AppleTalk ARPs by saying "My ethernet address is FF.FF.FF.FF.FF.FF," which
is an ethernet broadcast address - not good.  This caused on the order of
about 10-20 ethernet broadcast packets per second to flood the net while I
was using the AlisaTalk file server.  Once I had the shared DEUNA WIN/TCP up
and running this problem mysteriously went away.

Both Alisa and Pacer provide printer spooling software that takes advantage
of VMS queuing services, AlisaPrint and PacerPrint.  Alisa also provides a
DEC printing package that will allow Mac users to access the LPS-40 and the
LN03-R.  I haven't dug much into that package, as we don't have any DEC
printers at our site.  I do know that the LPS-40 supports most of the
things that a LaserWriter can do (not including smoothing though, apple
handles that with 68000 code embedded in the postscript - or so I hear)

The one big difference I see between the two printing systems is how they
handle LaserWriters or other LocalTalk-connected printers.  AlisaPrint allows
you to leave your printers out on the LocalTalk net where they can still be
accessible to Mac users if the VAX should crash or have to be shut down for
PM, etc.  PacerPrint requires that the LaserWriters be connected directly
to the VAX with serial connections.  Granted, this solution probably yields
the best performance, but you lose a little flexibility in where you can
connect your printers.

As far as overall performance is concerned, Alisa's stuff seems to be a
little slower than Pacer's (all results aren't in, this test isn't complete)
which might be attributed to the way they implement their system, which
appears more flexible.

That's about all I've gotten so far - once AppleShare compatiblity is
available for both systems which should be in the near future (but how
near? :-)  the file servers for both systems will be greatly improved.

					Joel Garrett
					Research Associate
					CCM
					University of Delaware
					Newark, De  19716

					garrett@udel-ccm.arpa