Novell in school

Hi!
Im system manager in Technical High School. We have been running Netware
for over 10 years and for now we have two servers; One on
teacher/adm-network and one for student network. Servers are running NW6.5
SP5 w/all Post5-patches.
We also run ZfD7
in my county there is 27 such High Schools with total 7000students and
3000 employers

We are now planing to switch to wlan-network all over, except
administration. Within 3years all students and tearches will own an laptop
with wlan.

Now we are facing a big flaw in Novell World, as many others also has
discovered. Novells lack of support for wlan.

First of all Novell Client doesnt work over NAT'ed net. You can't
authenticate over wlan-router that do NAT. This is because NCP doesnt
support this. Well this is not the big issue, but the biggest problem is
802.1x or lack of 802.1x.
As many know Novell Client doesnt support 802.1x Radius. You will need to
disable Novell Client as primary GINA and use Microsoft own(or others)
Radius Client. Then you have to initialize Novell Login. This need for
Radius has been a screaming need for us Novell Customers, but Novell
doesnt take this seriuos. Well i can understand since Novell still have
problem making Novell Client work stabel with a Netware-server :-)

So for us we will have to set in an extra server for Radius and take use
of an extra workstation client. Novell Client has given us allot of pain.
I don't think i can remember any software that has been under so much bugs
and updates. Still now when we use Novell Client 4.91 SP2 + Post-SP2
Patch-C there still happens "Cant find tree or servers".
Most students dont care anymore abt login to server and click Workstation
Only.
Especial now when they hold their own laptops. And the response from all
systemadministration is that they will stop using Novell Client.
Now they miss the flexibillity in filesharing and network drives. iFolder
save their privat documents, but now they cant share files like they could
do with Novell login.
Yes they could use NetStorage, but this is way to slow and unuserfriendly.

Another problem is syncronizing server/local user accounts. ZfD gives DLU
and Roaming Profiles, but its not as stabel as Windows Domain Login. Many
systemadministrators set up a Windows Server with AD and authenticate to
domain instead of local.

NOW! The step to migrate to Windows-world are very short!
AD is not as userfriendly as eDir and Windos Shares are not as flexible as
Netware drives, but is works without any extra clients and tird part
software.

Why couldnt Novell realize that this things is a killer for Novell!?

Microsoft copy and steal to make their platform userfriendly and without
need of extra software. Its all there!
There was a time when Novell Netware was the core authentication, filsys
and print platform and where Windows only runs apps as an
application-server. Now it is the opposite. Users authenticate to Windows
and AD and then run apps from Netware like Zenworks and iFolder.
Since Zenwork and iFolder also runs on Windows, why should users still
continue supporting Novell NOS?

Now Novell invest allott on SUSE Linux as Server and Desktop. All test i
have read is that SUSE is too slow installing, too complicate and too
different/user-un-friendly.
Why should users select SUSE when Windows is a platform all know and can
use without much training.

Novell should continue development on their well known platform like
Netware and make this stabel, userfriendly, secure and fast. They should
make Novell Client work like a domain-client. Develope eDir to support
more services like Radius.
Novell should work to integrate Netware to the bottom core in Windows
Workstations. Force Microsoft to open their code so Novell could take use
of it.

The problem for Novell is that now the step to pure Windows-world are very
short! And even hardcore Novell fanatic (like me) will be forced to
migrate til Windows(Not yet, but maybe within 2years).

Novell should be ashame since they doesnt listen to the needs from
customers. wlan is exploding around the world and need of simple platform
for cost of ownership is enormous.
Why use two/tree platform if one can do the work?

Novell Think!

PS! This message was triggered when i heard Novell will not develope NSS
anymore and NSS has now been passed by NTFS2(Win2000 and 2003).

--
Best regard,
Ronny Simonsen
Narvik - Norway

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