Buffalo Box recommendations/condemnations

[Adam Carlson]

I am looking at printer sharing devices for a mixed PC/Workstation
environment.  After looking at some of the literature, I am most
impressed with a unit from Buffalo Products in Oregon.  We have two
PC's (parallel ports) and two Sun's (serial or parallel) which need to
share a Laser printer (serial or parallel), a draft printer (parallel),
a plotter (serial) and possibly a modem (serial).  The Buffalo SL has 4
parallel and 6 serial ports, each configurable as input or output.  It
also has two modes of device selection, for MS-DOS it has a pop-up
menu, and for Unix, a command string can be sent from an input port to
connect to a chosen output port (Works well with output filters from
lpr).  All of this is available in the $500 range.

The only problem I'm having is finding people who use this product so I
can get some firsthand reactions to the company, the service record,
the unit's reliability etc.

If anyone is familiar with this product and/or company, please send me
your opinions, I will post a summary if asked to.

Thanks
Adam Carlson
acarlson at laurel.math.umass.edu