#PAR AND PEER TO PEER NET
8 messages in this thread
Has anyone had any luck sharing the 'virtual drive' created by the par device
driver with other machines using peer to peer networks? So far I have played
with the following combinations, with nothing I would consider a success:
Windows for Workgroups
Can share the drive, see the par drive across the net, but can not
see the filesystem on the par board.
Lantastic 6.0
No luck
Novell Lan Workplace for DOS
When I run ftpserv on the par host, it runs sooo slow it will timeout
during a copy. I can see the par filesystem from remote machines
however.
Anyone care to share experiences? Dave
David,
Using LAN 6.0 all you have to do is set your PAR Drive to "Other" like you set
your CD-ROM to CD-ROM and it should work fine.
John
<<Using LAN 6.0 all you have to do is set your PAR Drive to "Other" <<like you
set your CD-ROM to CD-ROM and it should work fine.
John,
Hi, Do you really recommend doing that? I usually avoid mounting the
PAR drive -or doing anything else that might imply that it is anything other
than a dedicated video device<G>! Do you have any cautionary tales that might
fall under the category of:
<<<Anyone care to share experiences? Dave >>?
Paul -Rising Star Graphics
Hey Paul Hi,
This is Bob Tasa from The Design Shop..
I got my Par stuff from you hope you are doing well I am enjoying the
gear.
Bob.
Paul,
I see you've gotten a response already to your query on "other" but yes that's
the way to do it. It kinda works like a mini-network on a network. <g>
Let me know how it goes.
John
Paul,
>> Hi, Do you really recommend doing that? <<
I'm re-responding to this because I don't think this question has been
adequately addressed.
First off, I've been made aware that DPS doesn't like people doing it. I think
partly because people don't know what their doing and partly because it is not
the most stable arrangement.
Basically what you have is a mini-network interface the Par Drive with the
board to DOS. Not exactly the most stable arrangement to begin with. Then if
you throw LAN 6 or another network you're running the risk of multiple OS
systems competing.
That being said, it is do-able. And the most stable arrangement is to use it
were there is no shared traffic. For instance, I wouldn't use NDUMP to try to
send a bunch of images to it because of the potential for collision of input
files. However, as a means to check files from different machines on the
network, provided you're not sending frames from multiple machines I find it
quite stable.
The don't are the same that apply to the PAR as a whole. Don't use DOS to
delete files, either over the network or off a local drive. There can be unseen
problems with the PAR and network card where both appear to be operating
correctly but cause a glitch from time to time. Try to keep base addresses for
the network card and the PAr as far apart as possible.
Caveat. To all that try this, this is an unapproved unsupported capability. Not
to be attempted by the faint of heart or those who are in a rush trying to get
a job out. If it doens't work for you, don't blame me! It does work quite
adequately but there are plenty of variables as in any DOS environment so you
just better know what you're doing. And thoroughly test it, before you need to
have it for production work.
To put it in DPS terms, I am making it do something for which it was not
intended.
Had I known that this was their policy I would not have put it out here.
John
David,
We just spent an agonizing 2 weeks imagining how great it would be if our PAR
board worked on our Lantastic 6.0 network with Pyros' PAROUT…
I can now report that it works incredibly well, provided you do a few things:
You cannot have the PARDRV assigned to any drive letter that is used LOCALLY on
your file server(s). If your PAR is assigned to D: on your workstation,
copying files from the network drive that is D: on your server will cause
unspeakably strange things to happen to the copied files and funny colored
blocks will fill your PAR screen…
So, how do you avoid this "Overlapping Drives Syndrome"? Just use the DOS
SUBST command to "fill up" the drive letters on your PAR workstation so that
PARDRV is assigned to a higher drive letter than is in use locally on your
server. My PARDRV loads as drive I:.
With that your Lantastic and PAR will coexist happily forever after….:)…
P.S. Our network is only "sorta" peer-to-peer — We usually only have one,
dedicated machine setup as a server.
–Donald
Don:
>> We just spent an agonizing 2 weeks imagining how great it would be if our
>> PAR board worked on our Lantastic 6.0 network with Pyros' PAROUT…
>> I can now report that it works incredibly well…
Thanks for the kudos, and I'm glad that it is working so well for you!!!!
Greg Pyros