On 20 Feb 99, at 13:01, Pinelands wrote:

> I have a few questions about a LAN that I use and I would like to
> learn a bit more about how LANs work and what restrictions you can
> impose on the users.
>
> 1) Is it possible to limit the size of the data that one user can
> send to another user on the same network. So for instance to prevent
> users from sending each other large games over the network ?

  Some network applications, such as FTP servers, *may* provide bandwidth
limitations as a feature.  From the point of view of the network itself,
such a restriction would be considered a defect, and there are other
applications that DON'T offer this as a feature.

> 2) Is it a major operation to format the network drives...so as to
> clear all the unused files and perhaps illegal programs that may be
> on the networks drives ? Has anyone done this on a big network
> successfully ?

  Network drives?  Are these drives on a server, or shared drives on
users' machines?  i.e. Does this really need to work across the network,
or is it sufficient to run it on the server?

> 3) Is there a way to prevent the use of IP based programs (like Netbus or
> BO) from being used on the network ?

  Well, the simple answer is not to use IP, but that might not be an
*acceptible* answer.  It *might* be possible to get this effect with a
firewall/router, especially if the network is switched -- if it's not, it
would be pretty easy to bypass.
  The default ports used by BO and NB are well-known, and can be
blocked under NT.  But in-house you may need to deal with non-default
configurations as well...

> 4) Why do networks need both Novell Netware and Windows 95/98 to be run ?
> What is Netware ? Wouldn't it be better to have NT running the Win95/98
> machines instead of a third party's program ?

  "Networks" don't.  YOURS might, especially if the purposes of the network
include providing access to server-hosted applications that run under
NetWare.  See #3 above -- if your network doesn't run IP, IP-based programs
will have difficulty; Netware prefers IPX, and you can use MS Proxy 2.0's
Winsock proxying as a gateway from your IPX LAN to the IP Internet.

> 5) Is an intranet better suited to a network that comprises mostly of high
> end machines or is it perhaps a good solution to a network that still has
> 486's on it ? What are the advantages to using and intranet instead of a
> normal network setup ?

  What's an "intranet"?  The definition I'm used to is "a LAN that uses
TCP/IP and so supports the same protocols internally as the Internet
uses".  The other definition I've seen seems to be "a LAN with
private/local HTTP (web) servers on it", presumably using web/cgi-based
applications on the server side instead of Netware (or other NOS)
applications.
  486s are probably underpowered for servers any more[*].  But they can
still make decent clients, regardless of what networking protocols are
used.
  Servers don't tend to be heavy users of CPU, but they do need lots of
RAM and fast disk access -- and a CPU that can keep up with those.



David G

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