Small Lan Lore: Tricks Of The Trade

When talking with clients about the possibility of installing a local area network (LAN) in their office, I often see a curious mix of emotions in their eyes. "Sure, it would be great to have a network," I hear. This is usually followed up, though, by a quick, "But we can't possibly justify the expense of the hardware, software, and additional personnel!" Further probing generally reveals that the speaker is envisioning a 100-plus workstation, multiple-server monstrosity, complete with an over-air cond itioned room where a UNIX server hums and a local network guru resides, unapproachable by mere mortals (probably due to his perpetual sore throat).

Current resistance to the introduction of networks is very much like that facing personal computers (PCs) in the dawn of computer age. In those days, most executives imagined computers as frightfully expensive rows of cabinets, with spools of tape myst eriously jerking left and right. But once PCs showed up on employees' desks, they proved indispensable (in addition to being far less costly and troublesome than their dinosaurish ancestors). So it is with networks; they have found their way into all kind s of companies -- small, medium, and large -- and wherever they come, they turn out to be money- and time-savers.

In this article, I'II share some of the tips and tricks I have learned while setting up and managing LANs in small and medium-size companies in Tokyo. For the sake of simplicity, we'll concentrate on networks based on Novell NetWare 3.11/3.12. Some may question whether this is the best NOS (Network Operating System) for a small network, since NetWare requires a dedicated file server, and the software itself is by no means cheap.

Admittedly, there are other products offering peer-to-peer networking at far less expense. I have found, though, that most companies which start their adventures in NetLand with Artisoft Lantastic or a similar economic solution soon end up migrating to a more powerful and flexible system, such as Novell NetWare. Some of the main reasons are that NetWare has become a de facto industry standard for LAN operating systems, and Novell offers unparalleled support in terms of hardware, software, and the avail ability of trained technicians.

Most of what I will cover in this article is applicable to almost any LAN. So, if your office is still in the realm of free-standing (non-networked) personal computers, maybe I will convince you to plan a network. And if you already are a proud owner o f a LAN, perhaps I can offer some suggestions that will help you save some money or utilize your system more efficiently.

Setting up

LANs have come a long way from the times when it took several days of work to install a network with just a few workstations. Nevertheless, planning and installing a local area network is a job for a specialist (in spite of what manufacturers of LAN ha rdware and software may want you to believe). An experienced consultant should be able to set up a basic LAN (say one for 10 users) in one day, with minimal disruption to your employee's work. Providing, that is, that the network has been carefully planne d beforehand.

Unlike two or three years ago, all hardware and software that you will need to set up your network can be quickly and conveniently purchased in Tokyo, either by a visit to Akihabara or by placing an order with one of the firms specializing in computer equipment. Careful shopping will also show that, in many cases, the prices here are no longer twice those in the US. While local prices are still more expensive than overseas prices, factoring in the costs of shipment and the lack of support one experienc es by shopping overseas should persuade even the most money-conscious that it makes sense to buy the hardware and software locally.

The question of support in the case of a LAN is much more critical than when planning the purchase of standalone PCs or their software. Most small and medium-size companies do not employ full-time ITS (information technology systems) staff; in case of problems, especially with the NOS itself, you will need quick help, which in most cases only the supplier of the software can (and is authorized to) provide. The same advice applies to buying a dedicated file server, if you decide to make that investment; the reliability of a server is far more critical than that of a workstation. Even if the rest of your computers are clones originating on some island in the East China Sea, you should plan to spend some extra cash on a brand-name server with extended war ranty or an on-site maintenance contract.

For cables, NICs (network interface cards), and other small hardware, check out the major computer stores in Akihabara. For a dedicated file server and the NOS, call a reputable local computer company or systems integrator.

Printing on a LAN

One of the major benefits of having a network is the ability to share printers. For reasons I have never been able to explain, many people seem to think that printer sharing requires expensive additional hardware. Nothing could be further from the trut h. If you have a Novell-based LAN, you can typically connect three printers directly to the file server and share them freely among all workstations. The only requirement is that your server have three Centronics ports: LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3.

More printers can be connected to workstations and also serve as network printers, but in my experience, this is rarely needed on networks of less than 20 workstations. Unless your office does a lot of printing, two or three reasonably fast laser pri nters connected to the file server will do the iob nicely (and in many cases, this will let users print faster than on printers connected directly to their PCs, due to Novell's efficient print spooling and queuing).

Nihongo blues

Naturally, a major concern locally is the ability of network hardware and software to handle Japanese. I would like to assure everybody that the days of the "nihongo blues" are (almost) over.

Let me give the example of one of my customers. Their office has a LAN on which the only piece of Japanese hardware is a mouse pad. The NOS is Novell NetWare 3.11, US version. All of the workstations run MS-DOS 6.2/V, Japanese Windows 3.1, and Japanese versions of advanced graphics and DTP software, such as Corel Draw and PageMaker. All these applications print efficiently in Japanese on the network HP LaserJet printers and store their files on the file server. (The only limitation is that the file nam es have to be alphabetic, not kanji or kana. If Japanese file names are really essential, the solution would be to change the NOS to the Japanese version of NetWare.)

Local disk drives

Most computer publications and NOS manuals tend to assume that the workstations do not have hard disks (or have only very small ones). In the world of small and medium LANs, however, this is not always so. Typically, a workstation started its life as a n ordinary stand-alone PC, and thus is equipped with a hard disk that may be filled with applications and data. Properly utilizing the local hard disks is a good idea in terms of convenience and cost-efficiency. I would especially recommend setting up Jap anese applications -- for instance, the Japanese version of MS-Word 6.0 for Windows -- on a local drive because they contain some files with file names in Kanji and Kana. The data created with these applications can, of course, be stored on the file serve r.

Not all programs and data need to be shared between the users. Even if other users occasionally do need to access those files, there are utilities that will allow users on a network to access another workstation's hard disk. (An inexpensive one is the XTree Server included with XtreeNET software.)

Data backup

Unlike stand-alone PCs, workstations can benefit from a centralized backup system. Increased data security and ease of backing up are among the main reasons that many managers decide to tie their PCs into a LAN. The best solution is a central backup de vice located in the file server. This can be a SCSI tape drive (probably the most economical solution), an MO (magneto-optical) drive, a WORM (write-once, read many) drive, DAT (digital audio tape), or other device. Thus located, a backup device call both perform backups of the file server itself and the workstations' local hard disks (often in the background while the staff are working on their PCs).

Although preferrable, such a solution is often costly, mostly because of high prices of good backup software. A less common, but still workable and far cheaper solution, is an inexpensive tape drive connected to one of the workstations. This can easily back up the file server and -- indirectly -- other workstations. (Indirectly, because the data has to be copied to the file server's hard disk first, something that a well written batch file can easily do.) If your local drives contain Japanese applicati ons, I recommend buying a tape drive locally, with software for DOSN and promising full NetWare support.

Sharing files

A concern that often arises when considering the installation of a LAN is the ease of use of the file server's shared data storage. Will users have to be retrained? Are the applications network-aware ?

This in large part depends on the person doing the installation. Netware's excellent MAPping utility allows the administrator to camouflage any drive or directory on the file server as just another drive letter In my practice, I have met very few appli cations that would have problems recognizing such drives. If your users (and applications) know how to access drive C:, they will just as happily work from drive G: or drive U:. Nor are the network drivers (for instance, IPX.COM and NETX.EXE), which have to be loaded into a workstation's memory in order to access the network, likely to cause any problems. On most PCs, they can be loaded above the first 640KB of RAM and then forgotten.

Notebooks on a LAN

These days, there are more and more notebook computers in offices. Notebooks can benefit from a LAN just as much as (or even more than) traditional desktop PCs. Connecting a notebook to a network is easy with the use of parallel-to-l0base2 (or 10baseT) adapters. For notebooks with PCMCIA slots, there are also special network adapters on a card; while these are faster, they may be somewhat troublesome to install (and they also add new meaning to the term "memory hog").

Several modern notebooks, for instance the NEC Versa series, employ new, high-speed printer ports. For such machines, a parallel port network adapter is simpler, cheaper, and almost as fast as a PCMCIA solution. Unless, that is, you need to run disk-in tensive applications directly from the file server, in which case you will want as fast an adapter as possible.

Once on the network, a notebook computer gains the power that so far has been denied it. It can access far more data than would fit on its hard disk, as well as multimedia devices, CDROMs, modems, printers, etc. Backing up data is also a snap (which is worth remembering, since notebooks are generally the least-frequently backed up computers in a typical office).

Always up, or sometimes down?

Large networks remain operational 24 hours a day; their servers are brought down only for maintenance purposes. On a small network, though, there is little reason to leave the server running all night and on the weekend (unless this is when you schedul e your backups or other automated tasks). In Japan, electricity is not cheap. A server can draw 300 KWH per month if operated day and night. Running it during work hours only would reduce that to about 75 KWH.

A major concern in deciding whether to shut down the network and turn off the server each night is the question of hardware longevity. Some engineers believe that a computer will fail sooner if subjected to daily changes of temperature, such as that re sulting from turning it on and off. Others say, though, that this effect is negligible compared with ordinary tear and wear on working components, especially the hard disks. Almost everybody turns off their workstation when going home for the night, thoug h, and failures of workstations on small LANs are no more (or less) common than failures of file servers. The optimal solution is probably to get a long-term warranty or maintenance contract, back up regularly, and not worry about whether or not you shoul d turn off your computers.

Questions?

When planning and maintaining a network, you are sure to come up with many other problems and questions. Dealing with those is the job of a network technician or consultant. If you have questions concerning this article, however, or general questions a bout LANs that you would like to see covered in a future article, you can contact me on Internet (MB@TWICS.COM) or in care of the magazine. Happy networking!