Partnership platforms

Too often, it's difficult for colleagues to collaborate. One reason is that determining the best way for groups to work together paralyzes many IT departments.

We looked at three products that attempt to solve the collaboration problem by giving organizations multiple means of communication. All the products include a Web server, an e-mail server and some means of interactive discussion, in the manner of Usenet newsgroups.

SoftArc's FirstClass Intranet Server (FCIS) came out tops in our tests. This sophisticated bulletin board system (BBS) runs on Mac OS and Windows NT. It can communicate with client systems over dial-up connections as well as TCP/IP, IPX and AppleTalk. FCIS comes with its own custom client and also allows full access to browser users. The product offers many features:threaded discussion lists; standards-based e-mail that integrates with FCIS' proprietary messaging services; news services that link to Usenet newsgroups; chat services; file archives accessible via the FirstClass client software and File Transfer Protocol (FTP); and the ability to send list server traffic to a conference.

FCIS' bundled client interface and the interface presented through Web browsers are well-designed, and there's even telnet support for die-hard command-line junkies.

The system is extensible and has attracted a flock of third-party developers. In short, we were very impressed. FCIS is good looking and well-featured, and the system's overall performance is excellent.

Running a close second was Cobalt Networks' Qube 2, a hardware and software bundle. The hardware includes a 64-bit Reduced Instruction Set Computing processor with 16M bytes of RAM, a 3.2G-byte hard disk, two 10/100Base-T Ethernet interfaces, a PCI slot and a high-speed serial port for dial-up Internet services. The software includes Linux 2.0 with the Apache 1.3 Web server, standards-based e-mail, FTP, firewall and IP gateway services, and a content search engine.

You can do all the setup and maintenance through the product's Web interface, except for the initial IP configuration, which you program on a control panel on the back of the server. Qube 2 also supports telnet access, although you need a good working knowledge of Linux to succeed with telnet.

Qube 2's user interface is completely Web-based. It organizes all the product's facilities hierarchically, keeping the presentation clean and simple.

Finishing a distant third was the Santronics' Wildcat Interactive Net Server (WINS). To misquote Dorothy Parker, this is not a product to be tossed aside lightly - it should be thrown with great force.

WINS started life as Wildcat, a multiline dial-up BBS, and over the years IPX and IP networking were added. In its time, Wildcat was one of the very best BBS products available, but it has become long in the tooth. Santronics purchased WINS from Mustang Software late last year and appears to have done little to make the product its own. Throughout the software and documentation there are references to Mustang's name, phone numbers and Web site. Moreover, Santronics has done little to modernize the product, which came out in 1996 and was antique by market standards at the time it was acquired by Santronics.

While WINS does have conferences, newsgroup support, proprietary and Internet e-mail, and a Web interface that all work well, we found the product to be overly complex, clumsy in certain areas and a poor value.

Custom client access

SoftArc's FCIS and Santronics' WINS have special client applications. Both let you access their server applications from a Web browser.

The FCIS client is easy to install. When you run the client, you are presented with a logon dialog that is a little more complex than we'd like to see for a general user environment. The dialog lets you choose a settings file in which a set of logon parameters is stored. The logon parameters include the server you want to log on to as well as the user name, and optionally, the associated password, which is masked for security.

Unfortunately, if you choose to save the password there's no way to erase it without entering and storing an incorrect password - hardly an intuitive process. The real issue is that you probably will not want users to be able to save passwords at all; sadly, that is not something you can disable.

As soon as you get connected, you are presented with a window containing folders for each service: mailbox, news, conferences and help. Double-clicking on a folder opens a separate window, so you can wind up with a lot going on quickly. What the client needs is a "Window" menu item to make it easy to jump from window to window.

Other than these minor criticisms, the FCIS client is very well-engineered. It responds quickly and looks good.

In sharp contrast, the WINS client is ugly and overly complex to install. Called Navigator, the client is a collection of applications that can be run directly from a toolbar or as helpers to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

You can't access a WINS server with Navigator over an IP connection. You need the intermediation of something called a "virtual Winsock." This subsystem has compatibility problems with Windows 95, 98 and NT and Explorer 4.0 Active Desktop - the latter must be switched off if the virtual Winsock is run. In short, this system is a real pain to install and may be incompatible with the majority of corporate desktops.

Web access

If you choose to access your collaboration server via a browser, be warned that neither FCIS nor WINS support Web access via Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections. To overcome this, only allow client access across the Internet through a virtual private network product. SSL access is an option on Qube 2.

Logging on to an FCIS server with a Web browser is much cleaner than with the FCIS client. You only need to enter a user name and password. Once you get in, you're presented with an interface that does everything the FCIS client does, although the Web interface is a little slower than the custom client.

Web access is the main interface for the Qube 2 server. Users who want to make changes or look at private content have to authenticate themselves; unauthenticated users can only browse the public content. Qube 2's Web interface works well for access to administrative functions and user services.

Santronics' WINS makes Web access more difficult. Let us save you a lot of time when you're trying to set up Web service: You need to add a link on the Web service's default home page to let users access HTML content. Unfortunately, the details are not in the paper documentation; they're in the online help file called "Administrator's Guide" under "Enabling Dynamic HTML."

If you don't provide the link to HTML content, you'll only be able to see links that assume you're running the client software. In that case, following a Web link to a service will invoke the appropriate WINS client application as a browser "helper" program.

When you do access the WINS server through HTML, you'll find a clean and well-organized presentation of services, in sharp contrast to the rest of the product.

Services

All the products support Simple Mail Transfer Protocol/Post Office Protocol 3, internal e-mail lists and integration with external e-mail lists and newsgroups. WINS and FCIS have their own proprietary messaging systems as well, and FCIS and Qube 2 also offer built-in Internet Message Access Protocol 4 support.

Discussion groups are supported on all products through Web interfaces. WINS and FCIS also provide access through their client software. WINS' discussion interface, particularly in the custom client, is functional but could use some cosmetic work.

The performance of all these products is dependent on the platform on which they are installed and the specific configuration selected by the administrator. We found no performance issues in our testing of any of the products.

FCIS Web services are well-documented and extending them to create custom content is covered in depth. FCIS offers a large number of custom HTML tags that reference the product's features, such as the messaging system and conferences. The server interprets these tags on the fly to create dynamic Web pages.

Qube 2's Web services are provided by the bundled Apache Web server. Unfortunately, Cobalt doesn't document ways to extend these services. In various places in the administration system, you are warned that certain unspecified modifications may invalidate the warranty - not a very helpful approach. Qube 2 provides a basic page-building system through the Web interface, but because it also supports FrontPage extensions, it's better not to bother with it in favor of the better tool.

If you really want to, you could set up WINS to create Web content by running external custom programs, but it is neither simple nor based on any standards such as Common Gateway Interface.

Installation and documentation

Installing FCIS is straightforward, but the process becomes much more complex when you begin configuration. FCIS is a complex product, and despite the extensive and well-written documentation, there's a lot to learn once you go beyond the basics. On the other hand, when you compare FCIS to, say, Lotus Notes or Novell GroupWise, you have a collaboration application that is a lot less expensive and arguably more manageable.

Installing Qube 2 is simple, and configuration is straightforward. The paper documentation is minimal, and while more can be found on the Cobalt Web site, you can get by without it.

However, if you want to create a configuration that goes beyond the basics, there's not much support. This means that multihoming - assigning multiple IP addresses to a single network interface, changing the configuration of the FrontPage extensions and handling e-mail through the Web interface are not supported, which seem to be significant omissions. Even so, Qube 2 is outstanding in terms of performance and its value for the money.

As for WINS, we've said it already: The product has an eccentric and aging architecture and is poorly documented. We can't recommend it.

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Gibbs is a Network World contributing editor and columnist, and a marketing and technology consultant. He can be reached at mgibbs@gibbs.com.

Scorecard

More information on SoftArc's FirstClass Intranet Server

More information on Cobalt's Qube 2

More information on Santronic's WINS

Microsoft ships more collaborative BackOffice
Network World, 05/11/99