Just a few questions

[WEISSBORN at ntcvx1.sdr.slb.com]

I have a few questions that those in the "sun-light" may be able to help
me with.

#1  A lot of sun-spot articles talk about ftp and how I can get all sorts
    of good-stuff via ftp.  What do I need to be able to ftp?  Modem?
    Phone-line? Local UNIX connection?

[[ You need a connection to the Internet.  A modem or a UUCP link will not
suffice.  However, everything that I make available through the Rice
archives is also available via an "archive server".  To find out more
about that, send a message containing the word "help" to
"archive-server at rice.edu" (or "...!rice!archive-server").  --wnl ]]

#2  We have several 386i/250's in offices around the country.  We currently
    have an application that suggests we use a 60mb swap space for performance
    reasons.  Through a lack of documentation, my personal machine has only
    16mb of swap.  I am getting reports from the other sites that their
    machines are a little "flaky", ie. mysterious crashes, losing windows,
    etc.  When I use my machine and run the same application, duplicating
    the exact sequence of events, my machine performs flawlessly.  The only
    difference is the size of the swap space.  Has anyone else seen this?
    Also, why does the application run on my machine with just 16mb of swap
    instead of the suggested 60mb?

#3  I recently received 4.0.1 for the 386i.  After we realized that we would
    have to restore the individual partitions to get a 60mb swap space,(the
    install procedure labels the disk for you) I partitioned my swap to
    be 60mb.  I then proceeded to to restore the individual partitions.
    Everything worked fine until I got to the /files partition where it
    would work for awhile but would quit with the following message
	st4: failed cmd=8 1 0 0 a 0
	st4: error: sense key (0x3): medium error,
		error code (0x11): hard data error
		sense = f 0 0 3 0 0 0 8 3 11 0 10 0 0 0 0 0
    I cleaned the tape drive and tried again for 3 more times and each time
    it failed in the same place with the same error.  I then tried the install,
    letting the disk get the default label and the tape read in fine - no
    errors.  Can anyone shed any light on this one?

#4  I have just tried to DNI 6.0 up and running on the 386i but to no avail.
    It did run fine under 4.0.0 on the roadrunner but under 4.0.1 it sees
    the other nodes on our ethernet but the other nodes say it is unreachable.
    When trying to dnilogin from the roadrunner to another node, I get the
    message: "Can't connect to remote node: Remote node failed to respond".
    This DID work under 4.0.0.  Did Sun Improve something and forget to
    tell me?

And last but not least
#5  I have picked up bits and pieces about the GNU software.  How do I find
    out what are the current versions?  How do I get the software(ie, do
    I need to be able to ftp or is there an archive-server somewhere)?

[[ General inquiries about the GNU Proeject should be mailed to the
Internet address "gnu at prep.ai.mit.edu".  --wnl ]]

Anyhelp you can give would be greatly appreciated.  By the way,  because
of our mail gateway, I may not be able to reply back to you so don't think
I am being unsociable.

Bill Weissborn
Schlumberger Well Services
12770 Coit Rd. Suite 210
Dallas,  Tx.  75251
(214) 980-7924
(I think this will let you send mail to me)
@relay.cs.net:WEISSBORN at ntcvx1.hub.sdr.slb.com