Timothy
Parker Consulting Incorporated
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Questions and Answers Part 3 Q: Will all my Windows NT 4.0 software run under Windows Professional? A: No. There are some packages that will not run properly and are not supported under Professional. The issues are being dealt with, but some software vendors are still insisting clients run the older version of NT. Check with all your software vendors before migrating, as uninstalling back to NT 4.0 is a real pain. Q: How many NICs can I install in a Windows Professional machine? A: As many slots as you have available, essentially. I have seen some Windows Professional machines with outboard EISA/ISA expansion boxes running eight NICs. I’ve heard of more than that being run at the same time. The issue is usually system resources, as most network cards need individual IRQs, memory addresses, or other system-specific attributes. There are multiple-NIC single cards, which may solve your problem if you don’t have enough slots on your motherboard, and I’ve used a couple of these with Professional. Q: Quick question: I am designing some small point-of-sale systems for a client. I want to use Linux as an operating system because it is cheaper and more reliable than alternatives. Is Linux available in a reduced size kernel? A: Yup, there are versions of Linux designed for embedded systems. Do a search on the Web or a Linux site (such as www.linux.org) for the latest information. There are several large companies who have adopted Linux for POS systems (Home Depot, for example). Not having to pay license fees for an operating system reduces ownership costs for these devices dramatically. Q: I’ve read several articles on Wireless networking. Is it good enough for commercial installation yet? A: Although wireless technology has come a long way in the last two years, I would still be hesitant to rely on it at this point. The speed and reliability issues are being solved, but wireless can still be flaky. I tested a system last month that seemed fine, until a concrete wall got in the way, and then it failed utterly. Most buildings have concrete walls! I wouldn’t worry about using wireless inside a single room, for example, but if there’s more than a few walls in the way, check with the wireless manufacturer for specifications and speed guarantees. Don’t believe the latter: the vendor I tested promised average speeds of around 3Mbps and peaks of 10Mbps. In practice, we measured sustained averages of about 200kbps and peaks just over 1Mbps (very short peaks, by the way). In a nutshell, I still feel wireless is not quite ready for prime time yet, even with the new 802.11b standard now approved, except perhaps for home or small office use. Q: I have a Web server on which I run an e-commerce site. I can’t afford tens of thousands for fail-over machines, clusters, or any of the fancy disk array systems on the market. We’re small, but growing. I can’t afford to lose any customers. How can I assure reliability for the server and the collected orders? A: You haven’t got too many
options on a very limited budget. Essentially,
you have two issues: maintaining the web server, and backing up the data. If you
want always-up web sites on a budget, look at web hosting.
Plans range from under $50 a month and up, depending on requirements and
setup. The only way to maintain an always-up web server on your premises is to
have backup machines and redundant connections to the Internet with failover
capabilities. This means two
machines minimum, and two Internet connections. The two machines do not have to
be identically configured: the backup can be a much slower, less powerful
machine. You hope it is only needed
for very short periods of time when the main machine fails. For data backups, consider software that
constantly makes backups of changed files to a medium such as another hard disk,
a removable disk unit like a Jaz drive, or to a network device. There’s lots
of software that will perform this function for you, depending on your operating
system. Some turn-key systems, such
as Net Integration Technologies’ Mark II with IDB (Intelligent Disk Backup)
can be configured for Web server and backup device all in one (I wrote about
these devices in previous Held Desk columns). When funds are tight, it’s
unreasonable to expect to be able to run an always-up Web server from your site.
I highly recommend you consider hosting instead. It’s cheaper and
backups are usually automatic. Q: In a Help Desk column you
wrote about Phoenix Technologies’ firewall based on the Cobalt Qube.
I can’t find Phoenix or their Web site.
Are they still around? A: Phoenix was bought out by Cobalt Networks and some of their adaptive firewall software has been adopted by Cobalt in the current generation of Qubes. Support for the older Phoenix firewall software itself is spotty, as I found out at a client site. Still, I wouldn’t replace existing Qubes at this point. The Phoenix firewall is still a great package. |
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