BARR Solutions from Atac

Newsletter for Asia-Pacific Region

First Quarter, 2002

Atac Pty Ltd

Asia-Pacific Barr Distributor

• Happy New Year!

• Microsoft Ends Support for MS-DOS

• Frequently Asked Questions

• Have Your Say

• Receive the latest Barr catalogue

• Who else should get this newsletter?

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Your feedback is valuable to Atac and helps us provide the high standard of service which you have come to expect from us, and which we are proud to deliver.  Whether you have questions about our product range, a story to share regarding your experiences with Barr, or you would like to comment on our newsletter, just click here to send us an e-mail.  It's that easy!

The staff at Atac Pty Ltd take this opportunity of wishing you all a very happy new year.  With the events of last year leaving their mark on so much of the world, it is to be hoped that 2002 will be a safer, happier year for us all.

Microsoft Ends Support for MS-DOS

As at 31st December 2001, Microsoft officially dropped support for MS-DOS, Windows 3.x and Windows 95.  These products are now "out of date".  Many Barr installations still run on the MS-DOS platform, which we will continue to support for several years to come.

Most Barr DOS options have now been ported to the NT4 / Windows 2000 platforms.  Generous upgrade discounts apply if you intend to move away from MS-DOS.  If your Barr hardware is PCI based, you can use your existing hardware under NT4/W2K, and a software upgrade is all that is required.

The following products have direct upgrade paths from MS-DOS to NT4/W2K:

BARR/RJE (Mainframe file transfers)

BARR/SPOOL (Local Spooling functions - LAN)

BARR/PRINT370 (Drive Channel printers, including AFP pass-through)

BARR/PRINT TCP/IP (Receive from and send to TCP/IP Hosts)

BARR/PRINT CHANNEL (Bus & Tag, ESCON)

BARR/SYNC (RS-232, V.35, X.21, RS-445 comms)

BARR/802.2 LLC (IBM’s SNA protocol)

BARR/CHANNEL for SNA Server (Host Information Server)

The following products are NEW, and only supported under NT4/W2K:

BARR/NJE (Mainframe peer to peer comms.)

BARR/PRINT AFP (Print AFP files on your LAN printers)

BARR/PRINT390 for IPDS (IPDS pass-through)

BARR/CHANNEL to CHANNEL (Direct mainframe connection to channel)

BARR/PRINT to Metacode (Runs on W98 only)

The following products do NOT have a direct upgrade path:

BARR/TAPE

BARR/400 (AS-400 comms) (Use TCP/IP instead)

BARR/TWINAX (AS-400 comms) (Use TCP/IP instead)

All BARR ISA adapter cards (Upgrade to PCI required)

Many customers have upgraded to, or initially purchased the NT4/W2K Barr products, and are running them successfully already.  Moving to the NT platform allows you to take advantage of NT’s security, eliminate memory/storage constraints, upgrade to current hardware and work in a GUI environment.

If desired, we can supply an evaluation system which you can run in parallel with your DOS system until you are happy with the transition.  Contact David Kirk of Atac Pty Ltd today to discuss an upgrade from your Barr DOS systems and arrange a FREE 30-day Trial.

Q.  We need to configure a remote client for our main Barr Enterprise Print Server system so we can access it from another location.  Can you recommend any third-party software products that we can use for this purpose?

A.  Currently we recommend the product NetOp® Remote Control for remote client access to BEPS servers.  This software, which is similar to the more familiar product pcAnywhere®, has been tested extensively by Barr’s support department and has proven itself to be very reliable and easy to use.  pcAnywhere® has also been in use at several BEPS sites for over a year now, and has also performed flawlessly.

Q.  Is the Barr Enterprise Print Server software available for Windows® 2000?

A.  Version 3.0.21 of the Barr Enterprise Print Server supports Windows® 2000 and is now available.  Earlier versions of the BEPS software support Windows NT® but not Windows 2000.

Q.  Is it possible to load our Xerox resources via BEPS?

A.  BEPS can load Labelled Xerox resource files by either of two methods:

1. As normal print files.  Use Print Utility to “poll” the resources in from any accessible drive, with the file type set to “Xerox and VBM formats”.  Use the Settings button to assign default values for CLASS (or similar) so you can identify the files from normal print files.
   
   When you print these files to your Xerox channel-attached printer, BEPS will insert a DJDE record before the resource, to tell the printer to load the resource to disk, rather than attempt to print it.  You can find the settings for the DJDE’s IDEN, SKIP, OFFSET and character set on the NT printer itself, under CONTROL PANEL | PRINTERS.  Look on the DEVICE SETTINGS tab; these settings are ONLY used for resource loading, and are never applied anywhere else.

2. As Overlay referenced resource files.  This method allows you to control all aspects of resource loading, including whether the resources are left on the printer at job END (Permanent), or removed (Temporary).  There’s a bit more involved to make this work smoothly, as you need to know exactly what resources are required by each print job. However, once the process is set up, you can print any job to any printer, with no regard to whether you have the necessary resources present on the printer or not.  Contact David Kirk of Atac for assistance with this.

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Atac is the Barr distributor for Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.  Based in Melbourne, Atac consults, installs and maintains Barr Print and Communications products for corporate clients.