Editor's Note

A December 1997/January 1998 Issue?

If you noticed that this issue is called the December 1997/January 1998 issue, you may be wondering why we combined two issues. The politically correct answer is we are responding to the general slowdown the computing industry experiences in December. For example, many companies, such as Novell and NetWare Users International (NUI), shut down their offices for one or two weeks in December. Because few companies announce new products in December, we didn't think we would deprive you of receiving vital information by combining two issues. Also, we know it's difficult to keep up with your reading during the holiday season. This way, you can finish reading the December 1997/January 1998 issue in January and be ready to receive the February issue.

A more honest answer is we need a break! Every year, the NetWare Connection staff watches Novell and NUI employees leave for an extended December vacation. We, on the other hand, spend the holiday season getting the January issue printed. (In fact, attending our printer's holiday breakfast party has become an annual tradition.) This year, we decided to join our Novell and NUI colleagues and actually observe the holiday season.

Don't worry; we won't make a habit of combining two issues. You will continue to receive a new issue of NetWare Connection each month.

Debi Pearson

Letters to the Editor

Another Mass Storage Solution

I enjoyed Linda Boyer's article about mass storage solutions in the November 1997 issue of NetWare Connection ("Storage Space: Will Bigger and Faster Mass Storage Solutions Be Enough?", pp. 6­21). This article was very informative and, for the most, part right on the money. One tape drive technology was overlooked, however: tape Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID). When used in a RAID configuration, digital linear tape (DLT) can yield a transfer rate of 20 MB/s of uncompressed data. A single unit can provide a capacity of up to 300 GBs, and multiple units can be daisy-chained to provide an even greater capacity. An added benefit is that a tape RAID solution offers online access to stored data.

ICEbox TA/4 from LAND-5 Corp. uses 5 DLT4000 drives, and ICEbox TA/7 uses 5 DLT7000 drives in a rack-mountable enclosure. These products are an extremely fast option for large amounts of data. The ICEbox line also includes disk arrays and servers with or without internal RAID cages.

Kathleen Albright

LAND-5 Corp.

Beta Software Saves the Day

I just want to share an experience that might be helpful to other users. I recently installed IntranetWare on an untested server, and to be expected, I ran into a few problems. The main problem was that my Toshiba CD-ROM drive was not recognized. As a result, the keyboard froze up whenever I tried to install files from a CD-ROM. Because the DOS partition was too small, I could not copy these files from the CD-ROM onto the DOS partition and then install the files. To compound the problem, I had no Internet access, so I could not even download the updated CD-ROM drivers.

Fortunately, I had the beta version of Moab, and I decided to see if this version included the updated CD-ROM drivers. I found some current IDECD files, copied these files to the server, and continued the installation process without any hassles.

This experience taught me three important lessons:

1. Thou shalt know thy hardware and any potential conflicts.

2. Thou shalt obtain the necessary drivers for thy hardware.

3. Thou shalt keep updated drivers for thy hardware within reach at all times.

I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't had the beta version of Moab! By the way, keep up the great work with NetWare Connection--not a month goes by that I don't learn something new.

Doug Lancaster

NetWare Connection, December 1997/January 1998, p. 4