I have been working on learning to install Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, server edition. Microsoft sent CPCUG a copy to use for training and evaluation. I guess that I am too much of a DOS person and had too many built in prejudices that prevented me from learning it earlier. That's one of the traits of a self taught person, they sometimes cling to their real knowledge base. Where they feel comfortable and there isn't anything wrong with that. Just keep plugging and then the new stuff will all of a sudden hit you and you wonder why you did not get it before. It is like a bolt of lightning which all of a sudden hits. All the pieces start falling into place and it then becomes much easier and much less frustrating. Some of you that upgraded to Windows95 from Windows 3.1 are starting to feel that way now.
I started out a DOS person and then a Windows 3.1, now I am more familiar with Windows95. At each stage of my knowledge level, It took a bit longer to grasp the concepts but once I got over the hump. Piece of Cake <G>
That's the real way to learn something is to just keep plugging and trying different methods and procedures. I think that I have WindowsNT down pretty good now. I installed it on a Pentium 133 with 16 megabytes of RAM and it worked quite well. Once I learned a few points on setting up the network protocols and such. I have a Novell 3.12 network and now it co -exists with my NT 4.0 network.
With 3.1 gigabyte hard drives down around $200, I think that the minimum size hard disk should be around 2.1 Gig. That is the limit for a DOS FAT type of file system. (Of course the minimum file allocation is 32,000 bytes if you partition it all as one drive letter) Terrible waste of space. I have been opting for the 32bit fat system, called NTFS in Windows NT, HPFS in OS/2 and 32bit FAT in Windows95 OSR/2 version. (OSR/2 is the version that is only supposed to be Installed on new computer systems by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). It can be purchased by people who buy new systems from many of the vendors or suppliers. Or go to one of the many Computer shows in the area and you can buy it for around $65.
With the announcement that Windows98 will be delayed to later in 1998, I see that this could spur sales of the OSR/2 version of Windows95. People who buy the huge new hard disks should not have to put up with 32,000 byte cluster sizes. I recommend that you opt for either Windows NT 4.0 workstation (Only if you have some real generic hardware) or OSR/2 of Windows95. Both support the 32bit file system that ends up with either 4,000 byte clusters or in the case of NT, 512byte clusters. This way your hard disk size limitations are not set at 2.1 gigabyte by using the DOS FAT system. With such huge hard disks, it is now more apparent than ever that you need BACKUP, BACKUP and more BACKUP. Invest in a good tape backup system or at least copy your critical files off to floppies so that I don't hear you whining when your hard disk crashes.<G>
Another valuable and neat feature in Windows NT is that you can give everyone in your household their own userid and password. Also you can not let them into your files or programs by restricting access to only certain areas and options. Let them install their software the way they want it. NT 4.0 Workstation requires a login and you as the administrator can do all kinds of neat thing with security. As the NT Administrator, you can see what they do but not vice-versa. As usual, your mileage may vary. Of course this all depends on you setting it up correctly and putting a password that can't be guessed into the administrators userid.
At the CPCUG Saturday seminar on the 20th of September I was impressed with the
nationwide
program that Carol Hyatt wrote about in the September monitor. ThinkQuest is a
project where
students form teams with other schools and come up with an idea for a Web page
that would be
innovative and provide a tool for learning. The winning students could receive
up to $25,000 per
student and the teachers could get up to $5,000. And their schools could get
money also. The
idea seems to be quite sound and hopefully some of you would be available to
help the teachers
who are advising the students. Many teachers are not HTML (Hyper Text Markup
Language),
experts. HTML is the language or procedure for creating WWW pages. They will
need some
mentors to help them over the rough spots. We all know that many of the
students are way ahead
of the teachers on Internet related subjects and unless some of us volunteer to
work with the
teachers/coaches, they might get bogged down. If your willing to be available
for consultation on
creating web pages and such. Send E-Mail to Carol Hyatt to sign up. Her E-mail
address is
chyatt@mindspring.com. I volunteered,
now it's your turn.
Rich Schinnell is the 1st VP for Capital PC, retired from the USN and Vitro
Corporation. He
does a bit of small business consulting on the side and enjoys assisting members
on the Help Line.
He can be reached at schinnel@cpcug.org
or by phone in the evening at (301) 949-9292. He does
quite a bit of volunteering at the CPCUG offices during the early part of the
day but disappears in
the early afternoon to take his nap. <G>
http://www.cpcug.org/user/schinnel
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