By David Strom (5/27/96)
What if I could bring a box into your network and have it setup as a web server in less than one minute without any knowledge of what a web server is or does? Don't think it is possible? Then take a look at a new product from Compact Devices called TopSpin. It is about the size of a small paperback book and has the easiest system I've found for putting up a quick and dirty web server, and at a reasonable price too. This is truly plug and play.TopSpin comes with connectors for Ethernet and SCSI ports, but the real treat is that inside the box is a bare-bones web server that is part of the product's firmware. But there is a catch: you'll need to buy a separate SCSI CD-ROM drive and attach it to TopSpin, and then store your web pages on your own CD-ROM. Given that both CD-ROM drives and burn-your-own CD equipment is fairly cheap these days, I think this is a great solution. It is also the ultimate in a secure server: no one can erase or otherwise alter your web pages since the CD-ROM is read-only.
This is an interesting concept: you can set up several mini-web servers around your company, and then drop them onto the network without nary a care about what happens to them. It has great potential for Intranet applications, such as serving up a public archive of documents or corporate policy manuals, since you have the ultimate control over changing content: when it is time to update things, you merely replace the CD.
Granted, the kind of application that lends itself towards this type of web server is somewhat limited: forget about running Java applications, or doing any CGI scripting, or doing daily content updates, or analyzing your log files: none of that is possible with TopSpin. It merely dishes up files for others to browse.
You can still buy this product if you don't want to run your own web server: indeed, the TopSpin device functions well-enough as a network-attached CD-ROM server, similar to Microtest's Discport. However, there are a couple of differences: first, the CDs connected to TopSpin are available to both NetWare and IP users alike (Discport is just for NetWare), and second, the CDs can be mounted as NFS drives. And most importantly, TopSpin is less than a third the price of the Discport. But you do get what you pay for: while TopSpin functions adequately in sharing CDs on the network, the Discport and a new product from Meridian might be a better choice for administrative flexibility and more features.
The way TopSpin is administered has a dizzying array of choices: you can attach a terminal to the communications port on the front, and type commands directly to the box. I needed to do this to get it setup with the proper TCP/IP address: but that was really all that I needed to do to get the box running on my network. Once you have an IP address, you can perform further administration from your web browser. Or, you can telnet to the box and type the same commands that you would do with a locally-attached terminal.
Finally, if you must, you can run the Windows graphical tools that accomplish the same tasks. This is great -- it is nice to have choices. The only features that I couldn't perform with the browser were the CD-ROM sharing setup screens, which are easier to do with the supplied Windows software.
There are a few drawbacks to TopSpin: one is its documentation. Given the tremendous administrative flexibility, it is hard to figure out some critical commands, such as the initial login to set the IP address (you need to use the username of root, but I was trying "supervisor." Silly me.) or the way to setup NFS file mounts. I had several calls into tech support and found out that they do not actually support the complete PC-NFS specification in my release of firmware running on the box. This was an issue, as I was unable to connect to the TopSpin server using InterCon's NFS/Share running on a Macintosh.
And I also had trouble connecting to a shared CD-ROM via a Windows 95 machine running either Microsoft's or Novell's IPX stack, although no problem when I used Windows 3.1 running Novell's VLMs. Another call to tech support discovered that the way TopSpin does its automatic detection of frame types is somewhat flawed. Once I reset TopSpin to handle the proper IPX frame type, I was able to connect via the Microsoft client -- Novell's Window95 client remained unworkable.
But these are just really minor points, and I don't want you to lose sight of the main purpose of the product: as a quick and dirty web server. Overall, this is an impressive box that does just a few things but does them well and is almost simple enough to be Everyman's Web Server. All that is needed is perhaps a bundle with a CD-ROM writer and this product would be perfect.
Cons: Documentation leaves a lot to be desired, and getting all the features working will take several calls to tech support.
Compact Devices , Los Gatos, Calif.
408 354 6575 408 354 3797 fax
price: $795
Platform: Windows 3.1/95 administration software included (but the product can be administered via any web browser)
(C) Infoworld Publishing Co. 1996