Re: Is acquiring a second-hand Model 170-- is this a good idea? -- MIDRANGE-L

I run www.netshare400.com

See inline

At 05:43 PM 9/26/2002 -0500, ed_doxtator@baxter.com wrote:

I've seen that there are a number of discontinued AS/400's coming onto the
market, particlualrly the pee-wee football-sized Model 170's, for less than
$2k.  This seems a reasonable price to me... or is it?  I've never _bought_
an AS/400; I just use the ones my employer happens to have lying around.

They used to be about the same price even if the features were different,
now it looks like they are basing the price on the features. It still might
be worth waiting for one with features you want, raid, 100/10, etc.

1. What sort of dance do I do with IBM to get an upgrade?  If I have to pay
for it, does anyone have any idea of how much?

I work with a business partner. Pretty much give them the serial number and
send money. $750.00 for a year, you have your choice V5R1 or V5R2, maybe
V4R5 still supported but not shipping the media for V4R5.

2. I can't remember the minimum requirements for V5R1.  I did install it on
our 170 (9404, I think, but do not quote me) and it went smoothly.  But
that was more than a year ago, and it was an upgrade from V4R5.  I recall
that the V5R1 installation process needed something like 128mb of free disk
space.

See  http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/support/planning/nav.html
it will run on a small 170, memory will make a difference and 8 gig is the
minimum I would use. I had it on 4gig and it was a nightmare, to put ptfs
on I had to permanently apply them for room. That was with the basic setup,
WDS, HTTP (including apache) WDS, query, SQL, and client access.

3.  Because IBM seems to to-and-fro with regard to what comes with base
OS/400, I have no idea what would be included with the OS.  I'd think the
key development components I would need are
   -WDS
   -ClientAccess
   -Interactive SQL (via STRSQL)
   -Developer kit for Java

You will pay extra for all but Java, getting it from IBM.
WDS see  http://www-3.ibm.com/software/ad/wds400/   click buy now for prices
Client access I would have to ask why you want it for, not everything in
Client Access requires a license, check the archives or maybe IBM's
page  http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/access/    for 5250
display/print look at the FREE  TN5250
http://tn5250.sourceforge.net/

ClientAccess
1. What sort of nightmare is this product to configure?  I remember horror
stories, but I haven't had to do it in ages.

Not so bad anymore, it only supports TCP/IP

Server
1. My thought was to use the AS/400 as a server, connected to the internet.
That is, I would connect the 400 to my DSL line and set up a little network
in the house (with my PC and Laptop), using the 400 as a firewall and all
that.  Is this feasable?

The firewall is gone off of the AS/400. For NAT I think you need two
network cards. You could read Scott Klement's Socket tutorial
http://klement.dstorm.net/rpg/socktut/index.html and write your own. I
would see if your DSL router does NAT and see if you can direct request to
it to a server behind it. Also look at exit programs on the AS/400 for
added security if you are directing traffic to it.

Environment
1. How much heat and dust can a 170 tolerate?  Most systems I've used are
in raised-floor computer rooms.  The only AS/400 I used in an "untreated"
environment was in the UK; it seemed to handle heat and dust reasonably
well.  It certainly tolerated my thumb-fingered programming.

See
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/iseries/v5r1/ic2924/info/phyplan/models/250.htm

2. Apart from backups, what sort of maintenance is advisable?

They pretty much just run. If you do not have hardware maintenance you can
not download some PTF's, check the archives.

As for the "why would I want to do that"?  I do have an actual business
reason.  (My wife wouldn't even countenance me spending the money
otherwise.)

If it is to write software you might want to look at the time share
services, which www.netshare400.com is one.

Also look at a new 250 it comes with all the software you want except WDS
http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/hardware/mod250.htm
if IBM would include WDS it would be a pretty good system.

The AS/400's on E-bay from IBM do NOT have a tape drive.

Mine came in a box truck, they could get tractor-trailer in here. I forget
what freight was but it was around $300.00

John Ross
www.netshare400.com