🚀 go-pugleaf

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Greetings all! I'd like some recommendations about networking
possibilities on the Macintosh. The situation I have is as follows:
We have 5 Macs (3 II's, 2 Plus') in a small business environment.
One machine is the "main" machine where all current work is stored
on (yes, it gets backed up every day!). The other 4 machines are
work stations, and work done on them is transferred to the main
machine for storage and backup at the end of the day. This has
worked fine in the past, however as the amount of work being done
increases, it's starting to take quite a bit of time copying files
to and from the main machine using floppies (not to mention messy
having floppies floating all over the office). What I would like
to do is somehow network all 5 machines so that files can be
transferred to and from the "main" machine directly. At the moment
I've been told of 2 ways to do this:

1. buy a sixth machine with a large capacity hard drive. This unit
will become the "main" machine, and using Appleshare the other 5
can access it's hard drive.

2. TOPS. Supposedly suitable for my needs, allowing me to make the
hard drive of the main machine "available" to the other machines
on the network for transferring files to and from it.


Questions:
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1. What other alternatives (if any) are available?

2. Which alternative would you recommend to me? (would especially
like to hear from those that use a similar setup on a regular basis)

3. What memory constraints are involved on the machines in use? (Our
Mac II's have 2 meg, the Plus' have 1 meg. I understand TOPS comes
as a desk accessory...is 1 meg enough considering I have several
other DA's installed already?)

4. What about speed? How fast does TOPS transfer files, and how much
does it slow down the machine being accessed?


Any replies GREATLY appreciated. Please reply via e-mail if possible
as I am not a regular reader of this group. Thanks in advance...


			-Ray

wilmott@topaz.rutgers.edu