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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michelino who wrote (291)	2/26/1998 8:10:00 PM
From: Spots	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

Sorry if I missed posts relevant to this, but I've just been skipping through this thread catching up, as I only came upon it recently (Zeuspaul, you should have clued me in!). For Windows networks, NT can provide TCP/IP passthrough services. For an inhouse lan, why not? (Well, if you don't run NT, that's why not, obviously). I have a $20 switch box that switches a modem between two machines for fault tolerance. I actually have modems on both for other reasons (dial out on another line for proprietary access, such as BBS or transmitting checkfree payments), but the fast modem (56kb) can be switched cheaply. I guess this is a hardware/software solution in that both machines have NT (and can act as IP routers for the entire inhouse lan) and the modem switch makes either available for it in case of hardware failure. Which has happened (disk controller failure, geckkk). You get other things from NT, too, such as better recovery from GP faults in errant aps. Of course you also get less hardware support. Life's a trade off. My question got lost in all this. The question is, if you're going to the expense of setting up multiple PCs on an inhouse lan, what is the advantage of various proxy software packages over using NT and it's builtin TCP/IP routing services? For a bigger lan, sure, you've got the routing load. But for inhouse (I have 6 PCs in my inhouse network) it's mouse nuts. Uh, for pentiums. I guess if you're running 486's that's another reason. NT workstation costs little more than Win 95 and has other advantages, especially if you're doing serious networking (which you are doing if you have more than just a couple of PCs connected). Regards, Spots