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*             RUNNING      EZYCOM      OVER    A   NETWORK             *
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I decided to write this text file to remind myself as to how I setup the
Bulletin board to run effectively over a network.  Seeing as this may
also be useful to others I decided to release it into ECF_UTIL.

I assume here that you already have some knowledge on how to configure
Ezycom and how to run it.  I would also recommend that once you install
a basic working network, that you familiarise yourself intimately as to
how it works before setting up Ezycom to run multi-line over a network.

Firstly, getting a network together:

There are two ways, the simplest is to go out and buy a two-user
network package, like Novell Netware Lite or Lantastic.  These can be
purchased at a reasonable cost from most software outlets.
Harvey-Norman in Australia does stock them both at reasonable prices.
These packages come complete with cables, T-connector, terminators and
software for two computers.  I would whole heartedly recommend this
option if you have little or no idea what you are doing !

The harder way is to purchase separately two Ethernet NE-2000 jumperless
BNC network cards for around $60->$75 each.  Make your own cables, and
buy two terminators, and acquire the network software from software outlets.

This option can be cheaper, but beware make sure you know what you are
doing.  It is very easy to have problems crop up with the hardware side,
and with little or no helpful documentation with either the network cards
or networking software you could find yourself in a fix.

Secondly, getting the network working:

I won't go into the installation details.  Generally speaking this part
is pretty straightforward if in doubt check your networking software
manual.  Set up all the machines as Servers, once the installation has
finished, setup your network drives.  Unless security is very important I
don't see much point in setting up multiple user accounts, simply make one
account with all privileges set to on with Supervisor privilege set to on
as well.

Thirdly, running Multi-node Ezycom on the network:

As we are running a BBS package, and comm's these days are quite fast it
is essential to have the BBS software on each machine.  Running any
software through the network in my opinion is really un-necessary.  To avoid
hassles with duplicate filebases and message bases on each machine, I
suggest you have it on one machine only.  From now on I will call it the
MASTER machine and any others SLAVES.  The MASTER machine should be the
fastest machine on the network as it will be sharing hard-disk's and you
will get the BEST throughput of your network without the need for
memory-hogging network caching software.

Now you should have each machine with its own copy of Ezycom on its
hard-disk, with network drives mapped to the MASTER's Hard-disks and or
CD-ROM's.  Make up a batch file to automatically log into the network
and map the drives.

Now to get everything up and running...  Assign each machine a node
number, eg the MASTER= Node 1, Second machine = Node 2 etc.

Run Config -n? for each machine.  I found that it is easier to setup one
node and then copy all the .EZY files to each machine.  Then do a Config
-n? and change all the file-paths to match what the network drive map is
like on each machine.  I suggest that you should also consider mapped network
drives as cd-rom drives, and turn on the CD-ROM flag.  The reason being
that EzyProt wil copy the files over the network to your local drive for
downloads and hence increase performance on downloads (I'm assuming here
that Peter will implement this eventually in 1.10 although I get 1650
cps here over network drives without copying by using a 4k transmit fossil
buffer).

Now thats about it....

Maintenance:

I suggest all maintence be done on the MASTER computer only, whilst this
is being done all other nodes should be off-line.  This is important !
In my opinion the only maintance that can be 100% reliably done with users
on-line is mail-tossing.

To make sure all the nodes are off-line setup con-current events so that
inbound calls are not answered and/or set to mail-only events.


Final Word:

You will have problems, bugs to sort out yourself whilst you install
your network.  It is for this reason I strongly suggest you understand
how the network runs before you even attempt to run multi-node Ezycom
over a network.

However the benefits are big.  Using a network you obviate the need for
special comm cards with funny IRQ's, obviate the need for fast machines.
You can use 16Mhz-286 boards as Slaves with 1 Meg of ram and a 40 meg
hard disk.  And you get a smooth FAST BBS for each node, none of the
jerkiness inherent of running lots of lines on one machine under a
multi-tasker.

And you can reliably run DOOM, whilst the BBS is running :)

Finally, here is my setup:

MASTER:

486-DX-50 with 8 Meg RAM, 2-540 Meg IDE HD's, 3 CD-ROM drives.  And a
generic brand jumperless NE-2000 BNC network card.

SLAVES:

286-16 with 1 Meg RAM, 40 Meg HD, 16550 Serial card, Generic NE-2000
network card.

386-40 with 1 Meg RAM, 40 Meg HD, 16550 Serial card, Generic NE-2000
network card.

All of this is networked under Netware Lite v 1.1 (which I get el-cheapo
at a auction sale)

Anyway, I hope this all helps someone.  If there is something I've
missed you can e-mail me at 3:711/510 or through EC_SUPPORT.

John Pallister
(3:711/510)
