Let's see if I can reply to everyone at once: Ken – thanks for the info. However, we are trying to move to some sort of newer technology. We have lots of the old stuff. In particular, we want the multiple-sessions-on-one-display capability.
Ed/Glenn – So far, the Visara UTC-L is the one box we are considering. I'm trying to find out if people who have them are happy with them and, also, what competing products are out there. And Glenn – thanks for the feedback on the Visara terminals. They are our current best choice so I am happy to see that you like them. Radoslaw & Glenn – let's see if I can answer your questions somewhat together: 1. Why coax and not Ethernet? Primary, the ethernet network and switches are out of our control. If we have a network outage we do *not* want to lose all of the consoles to 50+ MVS images all at the same time! We are in an old building already replete with a coax infrastructure so it works for us. In other places in the building we rely on baluns. If something goes wrong with any of that it affects only one terminal at a time, not everything together. 2. Our HMC's & SE's are on the corporate ethernet network. We recognize that as an exposure. However, our need to access the HMC's is somewhat limited and the SE's for the processor are directly accessible by simply walking into the computer room. 3. Windows vs. Linux vs. "something else" – We are trying to avoid Windows for a multitude of reasons – virii, updates, licensing, lack of support, to name a few. We want these to be consoles and just consoles. Operations will have PC's available that will allow them to log onto TSO, read email, and do general office "stuff". That is not what these machines will be for. The reason I am asking my questions is to see if anyone is familiar with any new devices that are still primarily MVS consoles. As for Linux, that is not as big of a concern, but for longevity we would prefer a box that does not have moving parts like a hard drive. 4. The 10 sessions & 4 sessions are for two different situations. The consoles I'm looking for are primarily for the 4 session capability. I want to help the operators to see 4 sessions on one screen. The 10 is the total number of sessions that can be configured on one coax on the Visara controllers. We would like these consoles to support this capability as well. 5. The keyboard issue is again because these are consoles. If we can get console-type keyboards for them then that is a good thing. 6. The "no mouse" is again because these are meant to be consoles. We are trying to put a lot of these in one place and mice just take up a lot of desktop real estate for no reason. 7. One of our options is to stay just the way we are. However, after 15-20 years the keyboards and monitors on IBM 3471's start to get a little worn out so hopefully we will find a good alternative for the future. Thanks everyone! Bob ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
