On Thu, 29 Feb 1996 09:57:22 GMT+01, Bo Johansen wrote:
 
>Another reason for not changing platform is that image analysis
>systems often are attached to a LAN. To put a PC on a Mac-net or a
>Mac on a PC-net is next to impossible or at least annoying to the LAN
>manager (and often expensive).
 
This definitely is a non-trivial issue. However, there seem to be several
aways of solving it. We are lucky in that our institutional Ethernet
supports MAC and PC (and UNIX (SGI or SUN, in our case), of course)
platforms, all of which we use for imaging. The easiest way to get data
from one machine to another is by binary FTP. We ship large numbers of
image files (usually either TIFF of BioRad format) all around the building
(and the world sometimes) by FTP. What you need to get this system working
best is fixed IP numbers for each machine, rather than using the BOOTP
protocols which mean that any machine can have any IP address each time
it is connected - this makes it very hgard to dial up the address of the
machine you want to FTP to!!! Of course it is MUCH easier going from MAC to
MAC on an AppleTAlk network via their Ethernet connections, but overall it
is not too bad. There are programs around like MACLan which lets your PCs
talk to MACs and vice versa by Appletalk / Ethernet. .... and if all else
fails, you can cart around MO drives etc, as discussed here many times.
 
If you do not have a well set up and maintained network and you have to do
it yourself, then it seems the only half reliable way to do it is to have
all your computers essentially with the same hardware and running the same
operating systems network software. This means brand name PCs, MACs or
SGIs - trying to do it with a mixed bunch of various no-name PCs is almost
impossible from the experience around these parts (the PC I am writing on
now will NOT communicate properly with most of the other ones I use!!!)
 
Did any of that make sense? Hopefully!
IAN
Professor Ian Gibbins
Department of Anatomy and Histology
Flinders University of South Australia
Phone:  +61-8-2045271
FAX:    +61-8-2770085
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]