Content area
Full Text
In this issue, we took something of a departure from our usual practice by offering three single-product reviews.
First, we gathered several products that will work well in departmental networking scenarios, or in the enterprise for that matter: a network-attached RAID and a heavyweight color laser printer that also attaches directly to a network.
We didn't stop there, however. We also fired up Novell NetWare 4.2 for Small Business and found it to be a worthy potential competitor for a similar product that hails from Redmond, Wash.
All in all, this is a solid set of networking products that VARBusiness Labs recommends to resellers who are setting up customers' networking infrastructures.
---
NetWare for Small Business 4.2
Shipping since the first day of Fall Comdex, the latest version of NetWare for Small Business, Version 4.2, includes many additions and extensions that let it compete with Microsoft's NT 4.0 Small Business Server. Price-wise, a five-client license for NetWare for Small Business 4.2 costs $1,295, compared with $1,495 for a five-license version of Microsoft SBS.
NetWare for Small Business 4.2 comes on six CDs, one for the server installation, one for client installation and several for other bundled products. We found the product easy to install and get running to the point that we had a functioning network. It also seemed to us that once a reseller had configured this product andinstalled it in a customer location, the end user could continue to administer it, performing routine tasks that local administrators need to accomplish, such as adding users or groups of users.
One of the nice things about the product is that it has a relatively large maximum-user count (50-twice as large as that for Microsoft's product), and you can purchase additional licenses for users one at a time up to that limit. The software includes several bundled products, including Novell's Border Manager Fast Cache, which speeds up Internet access; Netscape's FastStart server, which provides Internet services; virus scanning from McAfee Associates; and NetObjects Fusion for easily generating Web pages. Those bundled products are provided on a separate "Partner CD" in the package. On separate CDs are also Oracle8 server and German company Tobit Software's (www.tobit.com) network fax software.
We reviewed the Gold Candidate 2 set of...