CompuServe Messages

#min network stations

    03-Dec-93 22:11:47
Fm: John Tissavary 71054,15
To: Bruce Meikle 72614,2334
A rack mounted system would be ideal, but it is often more expensive to buy racks and rack mount enclosures than to just buy a cheap, mass produced medum or full tower. I called a large supplier of industrial hardware a while ago and they quoted me $350 per enclosure, and $700 for the rack. These are standard items that I have seen in use on several occasions. Compare that with $50-$150 for your basic Taiwanese tower, and I think you'll see what I mean. Rack mounts are of MUCH (!!!) higher quality than the average towers you get with clones, though. You need a keyboard input and monitor output for each machine, otherwise how would you start it and check on it? I use a switchbox with keyboard and monitor in/outs so I can see everything on one monitor, and control it with one keyboard. Your basic ideas are right on, though. You can get ehternet cards that will allow you to boot without a hard drive, but I can't imagine a stable small network (Lantastic, Netware lite) to work well like that. John Tissavary (La Luna cie)