Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!UHUPVM1!LIBPACS From: LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.BITNET (PACS Forum) Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l Subject: (no subject given) Message-ID: Date: 6 Feb 90 14:33:20 GMT Sender: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum Lines: 66 Approved: NETNEWS@PSUVM Gateway Comments: Resent-From: PACS Forum ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- FROM->KRIZ@VTVM1 FROM: Harry M. Kriz Head, Automation Services Department Newman Library 703-231-4987 SUBJECT: LANtastic testing LANtastic has received favorable reviews as a product for networking CD-ROMs. Martin Ennis writing in the Premier Issue of CD-ROM EndUser in 1989 said we should look no further. In the January 8 PC Week, a review of 3 networking products says that LANtastic is incompatible with most CD-ROM products now available. Experience at Virginia Tech may be useful to others. This week we installed a LANtastic network on 2 plain vanilla IBM PCs (8088, 4.77 MHz). One of the PCs was attached to an Hitachi 1503S CD-ROM drive. Our purpose was to get experience with networking and to test LANtastic. The system works very well with WilsonDisc MLA International Bibliography. Reference Librarians report that they see no difference in speed between two people running separate searches on the network and a single person searching on a stand-along workstation. This despite the fact that one of the search stations is also being used as the file server for both workstations. We have not yet explored increasing the number of nodes on the network, increasing the number of players, or providing a dedicated file server. On the bright side is the fact that LANtastic is inexpensive. Anyone with a CD-ROM player and 2 PCs can provide simultaneous access to that CD player from two work stations by purchasing the LANtastic starter kit, for which we paid about $485.00. It contains 2 LAN cards, the LANtastic network software, and a connecting cable. The software is licensed for up to a hundred users. Adding more stations requires purchase of a card and cable for each station. If you already have 2 stand-alone CD-ROM stations, each using 1 drive, then you could connect them via LANtastic and allow shared access to the discs for this additional small sum. Also, it's a good way to get some network experience independent of the CD-ROM issue. On the dark side, we could not get LANtastic to work with the SilverPlatter CD-ROM software. Our understanding after talking to LANtastic, people at Wilson, and people at SilverPlatter is that the SilverPlatter software uses low level hardware addressing to find the CD-ROM. LANtastic wants to communicate using network drive letters. SilverPlatter informs us that a new version of their software is due out in about a month, and it should be compatible with LANtastic. I'd be interested in hearing more details from others building networks who have experimented with the various incompatibilities and memory problems. CD-ROM search software seems to be written so as to consume as much RAM as possible, and designers are only now getting around to making their software compatible with the existing microcomputing world. More exchange among those of us trying to adapt these inadequate commercial products will help us all. Harry M. Kriz University Libraries Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA 24061 703-231-4987 KRIZ AT VTVM1