Talking recently to our accounts manager with RM, he said that Connect 3 will only run with Windows machines and there is a danger in connecting either an

It's certainly the case with previous versions of connect or its antecedents, RM heavily customised the MS network software - because they wanted, inter alia, to provide menus on screen before booting from the network. They particularly customised the network boot prom, and a few windows DLLs. At one time I was told that I'd have to pay a premium to allow a non-RM *windows* PC to use an RM network, and without the appropriate network card, my Elonex and Dell machines couldn't log in. Many thoughts went through my mind. A fee for the customised code? A way of making non-RM machines more expensive than RM's own kit? There may have been legitimate reasons, but at the time I was unclear what they might be and rapidly lost interest in their system. This was a long time ago. I'm sure it's not like that now.

Apple or a Linux machine to the network "because of the DNS server running under Windows". This seems total clap-trap to me, and a ploy to ensure > no-one infects their network with some inappropriate, but superior, OS.

A DNS is a DNS is a DNS. Unless they modified that as well?

What he *might* mean is that it is possible for a samba server to cause an NT server to sulk.

True. Just make a mistake and make your Samba machine the pdc for an NT domain which already has one. What an expert salesman! But surely the RM salesman would know we aren't that incompetent ? The bottom line: if you use a proprietary product, which RM connect might or might not be, then 'standard' products are unlikely to behave they way they do elsewhere. -- ******************************************************************************** All mail sent and received may be examined to prevent transmission of unacceptable material. Wellington College does not accept responsibility for email contents. Problems to postmaster@wellington-college.berks.sch.uk. Website: http://www.wellington-college.berks.sch.uk ********************************************************************************