Very Computer

 >Sometime ago I bought a SPARC 20 with Solaris2.4. I had a big expectations and
 >plans for my department. BUT...

 >After installation I discovered that Solaris 2.4 can't work as  a main mail
 >server. OK, I have a Windows NT server which knows how to do this, so I setup
 >my Solaris to be a subsidiary machine. Anyway, NT sendmail doesn't have so
 >many bugs.

This is an absurd statement.  I have setup a number of Solaris 2.3 and 2.4
machines as the main mail server for a domain of other UNIX machines or PC's
and Mac's.

 >Then I tried to start NIS+. It is so buggy that is almost unusable.
 >Anyway, I don't need NIS+. Surprisingly DNS works fine.

If you did not need it, why bother with it?  Many sites which want NIS do
not run NIS, but rather the old NIS.  DNS works very well/easily in Solaris
2.x.

 >Then, another disappointment. I wanted to use the SPARC as a bridge between
 >campus network and my PC LAN. Naively I bought another Ethernet card, read
 >AsnwerBook, setup everything, reboot machine... Of course nothing happened.
 >Solais doesn't know how to route packets between lo0 and le1.

What do you mean "of course"?  Of course something should have happened.
You left out something, or a couple of somethings.  Among other things, with
the SPARC doing DNS and SMTP, you could simply have pointed the PC's at the
SPARC as the router without having to run two enet cards, unless you wanted
to firewall the PC's.

 >Then consultants came. Hour after hour, $100 after $100. Define gateways file,
 >delete gateways file, use subnetting, do not use subnetting, use broadcast,
 >do not use broadcast, define two defaultrouters, define one defaultrouters,
 >delete defaultrouters...

It was still not working?  Still no mail?  What were the problems they were
trying to solve?  We have seen a few expensive networking consultants coming
out of the PC/Novell background which could not find their asses with
both/all hands when it came to SPARCS, TCP/IP and the Internet.

 >After three months of battle I was on the beginning but with $60 000 less.
 >Then suddenly solution came. For $5 I bought a second hand UTP to coax
 >converter,
 >disconnected SPARC from the network and from the power plug (just to be sure
 >that
 >it doesn't work) and I WAS ON LINE!!!
 >Now, my PCs are connected to the campus network, Windows95 mail works
 >perfectly.
 >I can even use a Web browser!!!

 >I offered a guy to take a SPARC instead of $5 but he refused. I can understand
 >him. What to do with the SPARC now? Can anybody tell me is there anything you
 >can use it for?

Donate it to my department.  I am sure I can find a use for it.

 >Alex

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Since I find it useful, I'll take up your $5 offer, and will even pay
shipping to the UK!

Pete.
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: After installation I discovered that Solaris 2.4 can't work as  a main mail
: server. OK, I have a Windows NT server which knows how to do this, so I setup
: my Solaris to be a subsidiary machine. Anyway, NT sendmail doesn't have so
: many bugs.

IMHO, this is the most absurd thing I've ever heard! sendmail can be whatever
you want it to be, provided you have a person that knows how to deal with it.
Solaris machines are running entirely my enterprise in terms of email and
net connections providing services to almost 10,000 people with no major
problems..And even if you have noone capable of writing sendmail macros,
you can buy point and click systems like post.office that *will* do as
a "main mail server".

: Then I tried to start NIS+. It is so buggy that is almost unusable.

NIS+ is not unusable, it may be buggy (can you say install patches?) but it is
advanced, sophisticated, a major security improvement over NIS.

: Anyway, I don't need NIS+. Surprisingly DNS works fine.

Not everybody needs NIS+. DNS should work fine if you do not need to manage
the internal structure of your domain/enterprise other than host lookups.
And if you can't deal with NIS+, use NIS instead.

: Then, another disappointment. I wanted to use the SPARC as a bridge between
: campus network and my PC LAN. Naively I bought another Ethernet card, read
: AsnwerBook, setup everything, reboot machine... Of course nothing happened.
: Solais doesn't know how to route packets between lo0 and le1.

I'm sorry, but I'd rather say that you didn't get the Sun to route...and no,
reading the answerbook doesn't do it alone. Administration for a Unix system
takes much more than reading the fine manual...it takes experience,
experimentation and help from people that have been there before...

: Then consultants came. Hour after hour, $100 after $100. Define gateways file,
: delete gateways file, use subnetting, do not use subnetting, use broadcast,
: do not use broadcast, define two defaultrouters, define one defaultrouters,
: delete defaultrouters...

: After three months of battle I was on the beginning but with $60 000 less.
: Then suddenly solution came. For $5 I bought a second hand UTP to coax
: converter,
: disconnected SPARC from the network and from the power plug (just to be sure
: that
: it doesn't work) and I WAS ON LINE!!!
: Now, my PCs are connected to the campus network, Windows95 mail works
: perfectly.
: I can even use a Web browser!!!

I'm really sorry for all the trouble you've gone through, it just seems to
me that you were just short of a good administrator...simple & easy...
Sun servers (and AIX IBMs) run my entire enterprise and do things that
would be impossible otherwise, and that is beyond the regular email/file
server jobs. I really believe it takes the right people to either make
or brake the finest systems....

: Alex

Sincerely,
        Petros

Petros Michalis                           //  Systems Administrator

I'll double the going offer to $10 and pay the shipping. Just let me
know when you want the money.

-Scott

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                             Reading, MA

Disclaimer:  All of the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own,
             yada yada yada...

*******************************************************************************

After installation I discovered that Solaris 2.4 can't work as  a main mail
server. OK, I have a Windows NT server which knows how to do this, so I setup
my Solaris to be a subsidiary machine. Anyway, NT sendmail doesn't have so
many bugs.

Then I tried to start NIS+. It is so buggy that is almost unusable.
Anyway, I don't need NIS+. Surprisingly DNS works fine.

Then, another disappointment. I wanted to use the SPARC as a bridge between
campus network and my PC LAN. Naively I bought another Ethernet card, read
AsnwerBook, setup everything, reboot machine... Of course nothing happened.
Solais doesn't know how to route packets between lo0 and le1.

Then consultants came. Hour after hour, $100 after $100. Define gateways file,
delete gateways file, use subnetting, do not use subnetting, use broadcast,
do not use broadcast, define two defaultrouters, define one defaultrouters,
delete defaultrouters...

After three months of battle I was on the beginning but with $60 000 less.
Then suddenly solution came. For $5 I bought a second hand UTP to coax
converter,
disconnected SPARC from the network and from the power plug (just to be sure
that
it doesn't work) and I WAS ON LINE!!!
Now, my PCs are connected to the campus network, Windows95 mail works
perfectly.
I can even use a Web browser!!!

I offered a guy to take a SPARC instead of $5 but he refused. I can understand
him. What to do with the SPARC now? Can anybody tell me is there anything you
can use it for?

Alex

 rad> Sometime ago I bought a SPARC 20 with Solaris2.4. I had a big
 rad> expectations and plans for my department. BUT...

Just for the rest of the world: He is flamebait...

 rad> After installation I discovered that Solaris 2.4 can't work as a
 rad> main mail server. OK, I have a Windows NT server which knows how
 rad> to do this, so I setup my Solaris to be a subsidiary
 rad> machine. Anyway, NT sendmail doesn't have so many bugs.

Uhh, like, get the source.  NT sendmail came somewhere and probably if
you knew anything at all, you would get where the NT people got it
from (ftp.cs.berkeley.edu ring bells?!?!, probably not).

 rad> Then I tried to start NIS+. It is so buggy that is almost
 rad> unusable.  Anyway, I don't need NIS+. Surprisingly DNS works
 rad> fine.

Well, if you don't need NIS+: DON'T USE NIS+!!!  Surprisingly that the
two are not related at all.

 rad> Then, another disappointment. I wanted to use the SPARC as a
 rad> bridge between campus network and my PC LAN. Naively I bought
 rad> another Ethernet card, read AsnwerBook, setup everything, reboot
 rad> machine... Of course nothing happened.  Solais doesn't know how
 rad> to route packets between lo0 and le1.

If you are trying to route packets between lo0 and le1, then you are
really doing something wrong.  I going to give you the benefit of the
doubt and say that must be a typo...

Solaris does know how to route packets between network devices.  It is
just you do not take the time to figure out the wonderous ndd command
and read the start up scripts.  This seems to me to be complete
incompetence on your part.

 rad> Then consultants came. Hour after hour, $100 after $100. Define
 rad> gateways file, delete gateways file, use subnetting, do not use
 rad> subnetting, use broadcast, do not use broadcast, define two
 rad> defaultrouters, define one defaultrouters, delete
 rad> defaultrouters...

You hired bad consultants, but this is always a relfection of the
people hiring. :)

 rad> After three months of battle I was on the beginning but with $60
 rad> 000 less.  Then suddenly solution came. For $5 I bought a second
 rad> hand UTP to coax converter, disconnected SPARC from the network
 rad> and from the power plug (just to be sure that it doesn't work)
 rad> and I WAS ON LINE!!!  Now, my PCs are connected to the campus
 rad> network, Windows95 mail works perfectly.  I can even use a Web
 rad> browser!!!

Well golly gee, nobody cares.

 rad> I offered a guy to take a SPARC instead of $5 but he refused. I
 rad> can understand him. What to do with the SPARC now? Can anybody
 rad> tell me is there anything you can use it for?

This either a) a prank in which case I feel like the fool, or b) you
are serious, then I apologize for the insults and will happy to take
your machine and pay you US$500 plus shipping for your machine
(including monitor, disks, etc) COD.

cfs

[stuff deleted]

: Then consultants came. Hour after hour, $100 after $100. Define gateways file,
: delete gateways file, use subnetting, do not use subnetting, use broadcast,
: do not use broadcast, define two defaultrouters, define one defaultrouters,
: delete defaultrouters...

: After three months of battle I was on the beginning but with $60 000 less.

We had two so-called Oracle DBA superstar consultants who robbed us of
$200/hour each for a year.  They specilized in nothing but citing buzz
words in front of the upper managment.  I wonder why no trade magazine
has had any article on those high tech con men.

Anchi

You may have missed the 10blah-blah-blah patch which came out in a new revision earlier today,
and obsoleted the 10blah-blah-blah minus 1 patch your $un Consultants installed for you yesterday
afternoon. The new 10blah-blah-blah patch revision will moooost certain fix your problems :->>>

Welcome to Solaris Patchmania!

Im riding the patch waves all day long with 4 different SPARCs - Make it $100 and ship it to
Norway immediatly, then I can finally set up the extra SPARC 20 backup server I have been longing
for...

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    >> Then, another disappointment. I wanted to use the SPARC as a
    >> bridge between campus network and my PC LAN. Naively I bought
    >> another Ethernet card, read AsnwerBook, setup everything,
    >> reboot machine... Of course nothing happened.  Solais doesn't
    >> know how to route packets between lo0 and le1.

    R> What do you mean "of course"?  Of course something should have
    R> happened.  You left out something, or a couple of somethings.
    R> Among other things, with the SPARC doing DNS and SMTP, you
    R> could simply have pointed the PC's at the SPARC as the router
    R> without having to run two enet cards, unless you wanted to
    R> firewall the PC's.

Using sparc20's as routers between networks or to increase redundancy
in the network is one of the things supported by sun.

    >> Then consultants came. Hour after hour, $100 after $100. Define
    >> gateways file, delete gateways file, use subnetting, do not use
    >> subnetting, use broadcast, do not use broadcast, define two
    >> defaultrouters, define one defaultrouters, delete
    >> defaultrouters...

    R> It was still not working?  Still no mail?  What were the
    R> problems they were trying to solve?  We have seen a few
    R> expensive networking consultants coming out of the PC/Novell
    R> background which could not find their asses with both/all hands
    R> when it came to SPARCS, TCP/IP and the Internet.

Agreed. It should have taken them 3 day max to get everything running.
Hm, 3 days is probably on the high side. If they really known what they
were doing maybe one and a half day. Probably necessary to do some follow-up
work afterwards like overseeing performance.

    >> After three months of battle I was on the beginning but with
    >> $60 000 less.  Then suddenly solution came. For $5 I bought a

I could probably do that in one week for lets say 1800 dollars.
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Quote:> I offered a guy to take a SPARC instead of $5 but he refused. I can understand
> him. What to do with the SPARC now? Can anybody tell me is there anything you
> can use it for?

--Brian O'Laughlin

It's not only buying a computer that makes it work --- plug it !!

Marcus

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___________________________________________________Marcus Thiessel____________

 phone: +49-531-391-7733                   Institut fuer Netzwerktheorie
        +49-531-33178                                   und

______________________________________________________________________________

It's not only buying a computer that makes it work --- plug it !!

Marcus

--
___________________________________________________Marcus Thiessel____________

 phone: +49-531-391-7733                   Institut fuer Netzwerktheorie
        +49-531-33178                                   und

______________________________________________________________________________