Date: Sat, 1 Feb 97 06:45:02 EST From: Dwight McKay (The Moderator) Reply-To: Suns-at-Home@net-kitchen.com Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V10 #4 To: Suns-at-Home-List Suns-at-Home Digest Sat, 1 Feb 97 Volume 10 : Issue 4 Today's Topics: Finally got an SS5; sources for cables & (internal) CD? Suns-at-Home Digest V10 #3 (2 msgs) +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Submissions: suns-at-home \ | | Requests: suns-at-home-request > @net-kitchen.com | | Archives: suns-at-home-archives / | | WWW Archive access: http://www.net-kitchen.com/~sah | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997 20:33:26 -0800 (PST) From: David Wolfskill Subject: Finally got an SS5; sources for cables & (internal) CD? To: Suns-at-Home@tigger.net-kitchen.com Well, I'm still using the venerable 3/60 at the moment... but it has seen the "writing on the wall" (and thrown a fit of pique to thus demonstrate that -- I may write about that later, if there's interest expressed). Friday before last, I finally picked up a (used) SS5 (110MHz; 32 MB; 0.5 GB internal disk; floppy; 20" monitor w/remote control). Looks to be a start for a machine that should be a real workhorse for my wife & me. (I'll actually probably still use the 3/60, as an X term, if nothing else....) I will, of course, want to augment the machine, & get it comfortably established in the home net. To accomplish this, it seems to me that I'll need a few things, and so after spending about a week scanning ads, I figured I'd do a reality check by writing to the list. So, roughly in order by decreasing priority: * A hub. Well, I could use a ThinNet <-> UTP converter... but in the event we add any more devices, they'll probably be UTP... and I'm planning to get a hub that has a small number (8) of UTP ports & a BNC port. (Will probably have AUI, but I don't really need both -- I still have some AUI <-> BNC transceivers left over.) Actually, I've already placed an order for this, so mentioning it here is merely to show that I wasn't overlooking it. :-) * I should probably give somewhat more serious consideration to a UPS of some reasonable sort. Given that the SS5 (Solaris 2.5.1) has the "poweroff" command available, I should be able to cobble up something reasonable as a program/script to run if the UPS detects that things are getting too dicey.... Any (contra-)recommendations? * A CD drive. Now, this could be interesting.... I'd prefer (again) for this to be internal. And I've heard good reports on Plextor's drives (up to 12x now, and they apparently can be jumpered for either whatever PCs normally use or 512-byte blocks. So what I'm wondering is how feasible would it be to try to obtain the usual SS5/20 CD drive mounting hardware, but put one of these fancier drives in it. I've assembled a few SS5s before; I don't recall seeing anything particularly weird about the drive itself.... Am I overlooking something...? * A parallel port cable -- 530-1857/H5 (mini-26 (M) to Centronics 36(M)) so I can finally use something faster & more reliable than serial to communicate with the HP LaserJet 4P. SunExpress offers 'em for $60, and at least one person with whom I've corresponded has indicated that I'm unlikely to find a much better price. (I gather it's a matter of supply & demand -- the mini-26 connectors aren't things that are often found in nature....) * More disk.... :-) (I have about 2.5 GB on the 3/60.... I expect I'll move 2 GB of that over, at some point.) I saw an ad on the net where someone was offering the internal SS5/20-type drives (Seagate STxxxx-WC; 80-pin connector) for about $195 without the "harness" (or "sled", as I've seen them called), and $295 with the harness. That seemed a little much, so when I saw someone offering the harnesses alone for $15 ea., I sent a check for 2 of 'em. Again, this isn't as urgent a matter as some of the other things... but I think I'd prefer to leave as much of the stuff inside the chassis as is feasible. (I have limited space here... and though I may be misguided on this point, I trust the Sun engineers to have designed a better cooling system that the sorts of jury-rigs that I've been using.) * Memory -- I'll probably want to add another 32 MB fairly soon (though this isn't as urgent as some of the other things); I'm seeing prices from around $260 - $280 or so for such a part. Anything weird to watch out for here? * I found that a Sony stereo dynamic microphone seems to work OK, though audiotool doesn't seem especially pleased with the dynamic range. I may goof around with other mikes.... Oh; a question: I gather that the (audio) "line in" & "line out" (stereo) signals are at an appropriate level for a normal audio pre-amp? (I figure I should be able to fabricate appropriately-terminated cable....) I welcome suggestions & pointers; I would be especially appreciative of warnings of pitfalls into which I'm (otherwise) likely to stumble. (I'll probably also consider getting a faster MODEM -- I've been using a couple of Telebit WorldBlazers, but 14.4 is getting slower all the time.... At least this SS5 has separate A & B serial ports!) Thanks, david -- David H. Wolfskill david@dhw.vip.best.com - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 12:42:14 -0600 From: "Mark Steph" Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V10 #3 To: , Suns-at-Home@tigger.net-kitchen.com > There may be some good news, however. The local cable TV company is > beginning to offer Internet service, and is looking into allowing > people who've registered their own class C domain with the Internick > to use a cable-modem attached to their home network for a direct 'net > connection, for a reasonable fee. not to be a thunderstorm seeking parades, but: Is there actually anyone out there that *likes* their cable company and trusts them to provide quality net access in a secure manner? From what I have seen almost everyone in the US seems to be suffering from TCI cable. I have yet to see them even supply a quality cable signal. I also have my doubts as to if they will provide some sort of switched networking such that you and your neighbors are not on the same network segments. (I wonder what the Jones's are looking at today....) > > > 2) What's involved in connecting a SPARCstation running Solaris 2.5 > > to an ISP ? > > > > I gather that I will need a modem and set up PPP but is there more ? > > (e.g. how is mail handled if at all, what about ip-numbers and name > > resolution ?) > > PPP? Bletch! Try to fond someone who will let you have a direct > connection with your own registered IP domain, without PPP. > Unless you have some sort of high bandwidth serial ports (i.e. > than 38.4K as on a standard tty port) you will be very disappointed with any ppp connection using a sun. Pity. I have a pc with a broken modem that can't go above 21.6K that screams as far as network connectivity goes when compared to my sun. This sort of implies that if you get a cable modem (and I haven't seen one, so I don't know what options they have) see if you can get one with a 10baseT connection rather than a serial connection. Otherwise, you'll hit the same bottleneck. -- Mark Steph - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 15:49:54 -0800 From: "James W. Birdsall" Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V10 #3 To: Suns-at-Home@tigger.net-kitchen.com "R. D. Davis" writes: >Just about all of the so-called Internet >service providers seem to refuse to provide a reasonably priced, true, >direct, Internet connection, which doesn't involve PPP or part-time >(not full time!) SLIP. This must be area-dependent. In the Seattle metro area, I had no problems finding a provider for a dedicated line with which to connect my class C network to the world at large on a full-time basis. >There may be some good news, however. The local cable TV company is >beginning to offer Internet service, and is looking into allowing >people who've registered their own class C domain with the Internick >to use a cable-modem attached to their home network for a direct 'net >connection, for a reasonable fee. I have heard that the InterNIC is rejecting requests for class C networks from private individuals, presumably to make what's left of the address space last a little longer. What they *are* doing is giving ranges of networks to ISPs. Around here, if you want to connect a network and don't have an assigned number already, you get an appropriately-sized subnet of one of your ISP's networks with your connection. >PPP? Bletch! Try to fond someone who will let you have a direct >connection with your own registered IP domain, without PPP. Ignore this. While Mr. Davis generally has some justification for his opinions, in this case his fear and loathing has gotten the better of his technical knowledge. The reality is that PPP is simply a tool which can be used anywhere there is a requirement to move packets over a serial channel (in the broad sense of one-bit-at-a-time, not limited to RS232). While it is most frequently used to connect Windows and Macs via dial-up phone connections, it can be and is used to connect entire sites over higher-speed physical connections, and is quite probably used on what even Mr. Davis would consider a real connection. Depending on the quality of your local phone lines and whether your ISP is a local phone call, one can have a full-time connection over a regular phone line simply by having one's modem redial any time the connection is lost. Picarefy.com is connected in this manner and provides a variety of services to the world at large, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at minimal cost ($150/month for the connection and about $25/month for the phone line) and high reliability (depends on the provider, of course; I could probably get the connection cheaper, but I'd rather pay a little more and have a *good* connection). --James - ------------------------------ End of Suns-at-Home Digest ******************************