

Networking Help Request - MD Phospherimager

John Edward Hill hill at mcclb0.med.nyu.edu
Sat Jun 25 08:11:50 EST 1994

In article <3388.2dbba83d at mbcl.rutgers.edu>, harrison at mbcl.rutgers.edu writes:
> 	Hello,
> 	I'm am trying to get a Molecular Dynamics Phospherimager on 
> 		Thanks,
> 		Rhonda Harrion  (rhonda at buenga.bu.edu)

We have successfully used PC-NFS on Molecular Dynamic's
PhosphorImager(R) to allow users to move files to a NFS mounted
computer (SUN workstation, VAX running Multinet's NFS software, etc.). 
They then FTP their files from the workstation to their desktop
computer (since most use Macs, FTPing is simple using Dartmouth's
excellent Fetch program or VersaTerm's FTP Client).

The only hassle was getting PC-NFS installed properly because of the
abysmal quality of the manuals (the information is there but spread
across 3 or 4 manuals with no good indexing or cross-referencing). 
Tech support at Molecular Dynamics was quite helpful, however, so the
installation was not a huge problem.

If the user's desktop computer runs some flavor of NFS, they can
transfer files directly to their own computer in the same manner. 
(So far, no one wants to buy the software when they can do it for free
as described above.)

You could also transfer your files directly between the
PhosphorImager(R) computer and another computer using FTP (FTP and
Telnet come with PC-NFS).  However, it's not recommended to allow
FTPing _into_ the PhosphorImager(R) computer (to avoid possible
conflicts of someone trying to FTP into the computer at the same time
someone is scanning), and our experience is that FTPing from the
PhosphorImager(R) computer was more complicated than most of our
Mac-oriented users wanted to learn.  They generally found it easier to
use the Windows FileManager to drag their files to the NFS mounted
computer, which shows up as just another disk drive.  Since they
already know how to FTP from their Mac, the learning curve is almost

Good luck!  Let me know if you need additional information.

John Edward Hill, Ph.D.            |  Department of Cell Biology             
Internet: HILL at NYUMED.MED.NYU.EDU  |  New York University Medical Center
  EARN/Bitnet: HILL at NYUMED.BITNET  |  550 First Avenue                  
212-263-7689    FAX: 212-263-8139  |  New York, New York  10016-6402

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