Choosing Grex's medium-range priorities

Mar 12 14:28 UTC 1996

With the long-term planning meeting coming up later this month, this seems
an opportune time to ask on-line: What would you like to see as Grex's
priorities in the coming months?  Item 37 talks about the merits of Usenet
news in particular.  What other things do or don't you want to see Grex focus
on?

response 2 of 32:

Mar 12 16:31 UTC 1996

Not sure that money is a consideration?  I'd much rather see us get
Usenet than (for instance) limit the access of non-paying users.

I'd say:

*  Move to the Sun 4
*  Move to the Sun 4
*  Move to the Sun 4
*  Move to the Sun 4
*  More bandwidth
*  Move to the Sun 4
*  Move to the Sun 4
*  Get the Sun 3 working as a mail machine
*  See if we can get gryps to stop crashing

response 4 of 32:

Mar 12 21:40 UTC 1996

  I'd like to see the talked about web-based conferencing become
reality and I'd like to see picospan and newuser upgraded in an effort
to overhaul conference presentation, so that more new users know about
the conferences and can more easily create .cflists  I'd also like to
see the Intro conf robh proposed.  These hardware upgrades are important
but they are not the solution to everything.

response 6 of 32:

Mar 13 02:35 UTC 1996

Agreed.

response 8 of 32:

Mar 13 06:44 UTC 1996

Actually, I'm interested in talking about all types of future plans, not just
financial ones.  The budget is a major factor in deciding what to do next,
but so is staff time, and other resources.  We can throw all kinds of project
ideas in the hopper, then go through the list and figure out which ones are
feasable and desirable.

Other project ideas:
 * Moving Grex to a new location
 * Putting Grex on a UPS

response 10 of 32:

Mar 13 07:02 UTC 1996

1. Move Grex to the Sun 4
2. Switch to all 9600 bps lines
3. Move Grex to something faster than the Sun 4 (probably; we'll see!)
4. Get a higher-bandwidth Internet connection
5. Get a UPS
 
And outside the above priority scheme, move Grex to a new home,
as opportunities arise, and add more dial-in lines as needed to
keep the lines free most of the time.  (As $'s permit, of course.)
 
Depending on prices, it seems to me we may be better off getting
a faster CPU for Grex and keeping mail on the same system as it
is now...probably simpler, and possibly cheaper.  Or maybe the
Sun 4 will obviate the need for splitting mail off on a separate
machine, who knows!

response 12 of 32:

Mar 13 09:56 UTC 1996

I'd like to see us get keberos or something like it up, so that we can
sensibly manage a distributed computing environment without needing to
compromise on security issues.

gryps uses static routes.  Networking-wise, we have a really simple
configuration.  If it goes to the 152.160.30.* subnet, it goes to our
ethernet, otherwise, it goes out our PPP link.  This never changes, so
is ideally suited for static routes.  ISP's that offer PPP & have
multiple redundant network connections have a strong need for some sort
of dynamic routing protocol, such as RIP or GATE, but these introduce a
whole host of new isues, such as protecting routers against bogus or
malicious routing information.  So, it's really quite fortuitous that we
don't have any of those needs, and we count our blessings each time we
think of our nice simple static routes.

response 14 of 32:

Mar 22 17:21 UTC 1996

  I wonder if it's worth considering getting a SPARCserver 2 instead
of a Sun 4/400.  It's not VME, but that doesn't seem like that important
a consideration except for memory, which would need to be replaced
anyway.  It uses SIMMs and needs a memory card for above 64M RAM,
but with used SIMMs hitting $12/meg now and falling fast, it might be
a viable alternative to the still cheaper RAM used in the Sun 4's, by
the time Grex is ready for another upgrade.  Lower power usage might
provide a significant savings.
 
  Price-wise, I've seen bare SS2s for $500.  Sun 4/470s and 490s seem
*much* rarer, and I don't know what they sell for.  Are SS2's as
reliable as Sun 3's and 4's?  A comparison of some system features:
 
  3/260                4/260          4/470         SS2 (4/75)
  4 MIPS               10 MIPS        22 MIPS       28.5 MIPS
  8 hardware contexts  16 HCs         64 HCs        16 HCs
  128M physical RAM    128M physical  96M physical  128M physical
  VME bus              VME bus        VME bus       SBus

response 16 of 32:

Mar 23 07:39 UTC 1996

The current version is 2.1.  It's available vi FTP, or I have it on floppies.

response 18 of 32:

Mar 23 16:05 UTC 1996

  I read the ad in misc.forsale.computers.workstation, but I just checked
again and can't find it after a casual search.  If you're interested in
getting it, let me know and I'll look harder.
 
  I was checking on the prices for Sun 4/200 boards, as the price came up
during the meeting.  David Case (dcase@case.com), a used workstation dealer,
is selling them for $100.  I don't remember if Grex uses 10Base-T, but he's
got $20 SynOptic 508A 10B-T transceivers, too.  "Modern looking little
Ethernet transceivers with lots of little indicator lites."

response 20 of 32:

Mar 23 18:27 UTC 1996

  Ahso, maybe the 96M on a 4/400 is on the board itself.  I just saw a 4/470
for sale with 196M, 128 of it on a single card.

response 22 of 32:

Mar 24 06:43 UTC 1996

  From memory, the 4/470 with 192MB RAM and other incidentals
was $4000.  Another person was selling a 4/470 with 32MB RAM,
1GB disk, and I think monitor & keyboard for $850, but with
shipping estimated at $240(!) if you want the case & monitor.

response 24 of 32:

Mar 24 18:57 UTC 1996

We do that a lot, I'm afraid.  We aren't always good at getting things done
in a timely fashion.