Re: Off-the-wall networking question

["Simon Biber" <xbiber@bigpond.net.au>]

The company is still in operation, they make similar devices, now called the
DiscZerver. See www.microtest.com for more information. There is an
announcement on their Support page which says "Effective October 1, 2000,
all DiscView and DiscPort products are discontinued."

Simon.

> I recently acquired (thrift store) an unusual network device--at least
> one I had never seen before.  It's called a "discport", manufactured
> by Microtest, and it has an RJ-45 network connector and a DB-9F
> AUI port, and a DB-25F labeled "To CD-ROM".  It also has a couple
> of DIP switches to set it to 4 Mb/s or 16 Mb/s (!).
>
> Inside it sure looks like it has an NCR SCSI controller and a TI LAN
> controller, plus a few dozen smaller SMDs.  It was manufactured
> in mid-'95.
>
> I'd like this to be a way to "mount" a CD-ROM on a network, but
> just how that could work (file system??) is a mystery.
>
> Anyone know what this is, and what it can do?  Is documentation
> available?