ISCs SMB/IX.

[Paul Guthrie]

We got a copy of SMB/IX from Interactive recently.  This is a
server message block/NetBIOS type PC network, providing file and
printer sharing.  At first glance it seemed to be a nice inexpensive
network, as a 15 user server is <$1000 (compare that to PC-NFS at
$300 per PC!).  Here's what we found:

* It was supposed to come with telnet.  It didn't.  They said it
wasn't in good enough shape to ship.  

* The vt100 emulation on the rlogin program is attrocious.  It
doesn't even do reverse video.

* The printer sharing leaves lots of spool files around that it
never cleans up.  OK, we know how to write cron entries, but this is
annoying. 

* The rlogin program sometimes takes several invocations to actually
get a login prompt. 

* ISC support knows nothing about this product.  We had to get all
the way to the product manager (who was very helpful) to get any
answers.  

To make a long story short we returned it.  It looks like it will be
a nice small easy networking product eventually, but as of right
now, without any useable way to login to a ISC UNIX host we couldn't
use it.  The product manager said they will be actively supporting
and enhancing it, but as of right now it's not too good.

Anyone know if ISC will be providing Lan Manager anytime soon?  I
would expect thay would with SystemVr4 at least.
-- 
Paul Guthrie
chinet!nsacray!paul or pdg at balr.com or attmail!balr!pdg