Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!claris!max From: max@claris.com (Max Rochlin) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans Subject: Re: NETWARE 2.1 vs. VINES Summary: RE:Netware vs VINES (VINES review) Message-ID: <6926@claris.com> Date: 18 Nov 88 02:07:11 GMT References: <339@banyan.UUCP> Organization: Claris Corporation, Mountain View CA Lines: 80 At my previous workplace I worked with Banyan systems for about two years. Rather than get ing the crossfire between a vendor and a manufacturer, I'd like to share my experience. I do not have first hand knowledge of Novell. Banyan is very easy for an end user, if he has enough memory. Of all the networks ( PC-LAN, IBM Token-Ring, Novell, etc) Banyan requires the most memory. Connectivity: If you have a PC with one of the supported network cards you should have no problem..Banyan _is_ very pickey about 3COM/ethernet card version, but then again, so is 3COM. Banyan was kind enough to ship a server to my company for testing with an unsupported network card. If you want to connect your Mac to the network you have a while to wait, and when you'll be able to connect a Mac to the network Banyan has not announce Mail support for the Macs on their net. So, initally their Mac support will be limited. Speed: Banyan used to be _very_ slow. Version 2.15 of the software upgraded the speed of the network and server to just plain slow. There are odd spped quirks with Banyan and the numbers of users using specific program. Our network was ether based, swtiched to twised pair thru a David Switch. That may have impacted the network speed. I sure made it cost more ( > $1500 a connection, server price not included) Security: The ARL security system is a blessing and a curse. It is very secure from and enduser viewpoint. Problems arise when you realize that your companies naming conventions is limited and you have to rename groups. There is no mass way to change access rights and your system admin will be spending DAYS in the ARL menu changing files and/or subdirectories one by one. UNIX: The UNIX is well hidden, and you can only get to it from a console and only if you know the right incantations. UNIX is neither a plus or a minus in this case with the one exception of that since all the Banyan services are UNIX services if you run out of disk space the server crashes. The system will attempt an orderly shutdown of sorts, but if you open a file and keep writting out to the server it will die. Printing: Printing services are pretty good. Problems arise when custom page size names and created by the system admin. Jobs just sit in the print queue. This is very similar to mainframe forms selection and isn't a big problem. One big problem IMHO is that you can't re-assign jobs to a different printer queue. If a printer goes down you can hold all the print jobs in a particular queue or cancel them but you can't send them to a printer that is OK. Distributed services: If you have three servers ( called Sales, Marketing, and Finance) and someone from Marketing attempts to sign on if the Sales server sees the log-on attempt it will provide the routing services. There is no way to limit routong services. This creates confusion. IF I'm in Finance and I am being routed thru the Marketing server and the Marketing server crashes I'm going to wonder why I got blown away. Support: Spotty. You'll get great response if server sales are pending and Banyan knows the answer to your problem. I am told it really depends on your sales office, but I guess that's true of Novell, too. BACKUP: Backing up a BNS server is a Pain ( or so I was told by our system admin). They do not support 9-track tape. Many fun hours were spent putting DC-600 tapes into the servers to back up gigabyte servers. I hope that by now Banyan supports 9Track or 8mm tape backup. If your server is bothersome to backup it won't be. COST: Expensive. The servers are expensive. They can't be used for anything else. Great marketing scheme. My summary: If you have lots of money, PCs with 640K of ram, and need a network that is easy to use with lots of menu systems, Banyan is OK. If I were interested in UNIX based file servers for DOS that are less expensive, just as esy to use, and not as memory hungry I'd look in to AT&T Starlan. . --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The opinions expressed above are mine. Your actual mileage may vary. /---------------------------------------------------------------------\ |UUCP: {ames,apple,portal,sun,voder}!claris!max Applelink: Rochlin1 | | {ames,apple,portal,sun,voder}!claris!madmax!max [home system] | |Internet: claris!max@ames.arc.nasa.gov Phone: 415-960-4052 \---------------------------------------------------------------------/