Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!dsunx1!wnn
From: wnn@dsunx1 (W. N. Naegeli)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Tops and DaynaTalk
Message-ID: <8905251331.AA08020@dsunx1.DSRD.ORNL.GOV>
Date: 25 May 89 13:31:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 54

Richard Crispin writes:
>>>>>>>>>
I was looking to speed up our Appletalk network so I bought a couple of
TOPS flashboxes.  ...
After a couple of hours of running some tests
he concluded that the software (init) that comes with the boxes was
never set up to work properly with a network that has a server.
<<<<<<<<<

I am interested in this topic too.  Has anyone successfully used FlashTalk
boxes?  Under what conditions?
If everything Dayna says about its DaynaTalk boxes, MS-DOS boards, and 
Speed Guard hardware and software is true, they have a much better concept.
Has anyone on this network been betatesting the Dayna stuff?
We have been Tops users for a long time, but we get increasingly frustrated
by their unresponsiveness to user needs.
About ten days ago Tops was here with its traveling road show, trying to tell
everyone how insanely great they are. But they dodged all questions about
serious problems or limitations of their products.  They tried to downplay
the AFP compatibility issue.  They said nobody will really need it because
their Softtalk concept is so much better.  They conceded that they will
eventually make Tops AFP compatible, but they did not say when.
I remember them telling for a year that their next version would implement
HFS on a MS-DOS server -- and when version 2.1 came out, it did not have it.
Actually, one of the representatives, who they said was the technical guy,
steadfastly insisted that 2.1 had HFS MS-DOS machines serving Macs.  Later
he was unable to demonstrate it to me. When it did not work, he said he had
no time now, but promised to get back to me right away with this and several
other answers; but he never called.
On the issue of RAM requirements, which prevent us to run Tops on most MS-DOS
machines concurrently with such programs as Freelance 3.0, WordPerfect 5.0
with WordPerfect Library, or PC-TeX,  they claimed they would soon be running
in extended memory, with only very little code that needs to be installed in
the 640k region, but again they gave no definition of their understanding
of the term "soon."
Tops technical support is rather mediocre too.  They are good at calling
back at the appointed time, but sometimes I'd rather hold for the first
available technician.  They are not at all reliable about calling again if
they can't give an answer the first time. One guy once had the nerve to tell
me that Netprint was a low priority product for them.  Why don't they sell
it to someone who takes it serious?  For us, Netprint is probably the most
useful of all Tops products, if only someone would fix the few remaining
quirks.
The Tops Teleconnector is inferior to the PhoneNet Plus or the Nuvotech
TurboNet ST connectors.  The Tops Repeater also does not perform too well.
I have pretty much had it with them. Maybe that's what Sun wants anyway!
I was glad to see Alexis' description of IPT's AFP compatible products
and hope that they will work as expected.  I would be grateful for any other
suggestions of alternatives to Tops and particularly Tops Netprint (Apple's
PC LaserWriter software is no contender unless they give it a fundamental
overhaul).

Wolfgang N. Naegeli
Oak Ridge National Laboratory