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From: michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com (Michael L. VanLoon)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: Best platform for INN server?
Date: 03 Mar 1995 05:44:21 GMT
Organization: HeadCandy Associates... Sweets for the lobes.
Lines: 47
Message-ID: <MICHAELV.95Mar2214421@MindBender.HeadCandy.com>
References: <1995Mar1.140817@wittenberg.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mindbender.seanet.com
In-reply-to: mandrews@wittenberg.edu's message of 1 Mar 95 14:08:17 -0500
cc: mandrews@wittenberg.edu
In article <1995Mar1.140817@wittenberg.edu> mandrews@wittenberg.edu (Mike Andrews, Comp Ctr) writes:
I'm going to be setting up a dedicated NNTP server, running INN 1.4sec,
on a VLbus 486/66 with an Adaptec VLB SCSI controller and a 3com 3c509
ISA ethernet card. This machine won't be used for anything else, except
maybe a backup DNS server. Things like X, binary compatibility, etc
aren't important, but speed and stability are.
I run a news server with INN 1.4 at work, getting almost a full feed,
hundreds of megabytes a day. I run NetBSD-1.0 on DELL OmniPlex P66
with 32MB of RAM, an NCR 53c810 SCSI controller (built-in), a DEC
500MB drive and two Seagate 1GB Hawk drives. I don't run X (I rarely
even turn on the monitor).
The machine just runs. It never does anything bad. I rarely even
have to look at it, though I do log in daily to collect the diagnostic
mail (from daily scripts). I've only had it running for a little over
a month, but I've had over 27 days of uptime on it. It has never
crashed after I got a patched NCR SCSI driver (the one in 1.0 is a
very early version with a bug or two in it).
NetBSD works so well they're talking about setting up several more
internal news servers on NetBSD where I work, which will get used by
thousands of people. They're not real impressed with their current
commercial unix of choice.
I still *strongly* encourage people to avoid Adaptec controllers.
First, because of their hostile attitude to the free software crowd.
And, second, because BusLogic controllers work just as well, and tend
to cost a little less. If you have the option of running PCI, then
the NCR controllers are even more attractive, since they're
substantially less than either the Adaptec or BusLogic cards.
Basically, it boils down to disk and network performance while running one
particular application -- INN.
If you're looking for networking speed and stability, both NetBSD and
FreeBSD can deliver that. That is not Linux's area of strength.
--
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Michael L. VanLoon michaelv@HeadCandy.com
--< Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x >--
NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac, Amiga, HP300, Sun3, Sun4, PC532,
DEC pmax (MIPS R2k/3k), DEC/AXP (Alpha)
NetBSD ports in progress: VAX and others...
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