While TurboGold shows potential, it's not for everyone. Users and administrators in small Notes environments will probably not notice the increase in performance without checking the statistics. When you move to a multiple-server, multiple-site network, the benefits become more apparent. With 5,000 users saving a couple of megabytes' worth of traffic daily, your entire network will run faster.

Get Your Motor Runnin' Stampede claims that TurboGold cuts replication times and network traffic in half. When I tested a beta version in Network Computing's Manhasset, N.Y., lab, I was startled that a mere four floppy disks could handle this task.

I installed TurboGold on a Notes server running Windows NT 4.0 SP3 and Lotus Domino Server 4.6, which I also use for e-mail. You can install TurboGold Verifier, which supports Windows NT and Windows95, directly on the Notes server or on a client that has access to the Notes server and will act as a proxy. Installation is relatively straightforward, with one stipulation: You must stop the Notes Agent Manager service by typing "tell amgr quit" on the Notes server console. If you don't, installation will take about 20 minutes instead of two. (Stampede aptly points this out in the product manual.) The Verifier installs itself as an NT service configured to start up automatically when the server starts. Unfortunately, you will need to reboot the server at this point, but only this one time.

TurboGold Client installs on any Windows 3.1x, Windows95 or Windows NT machine running the Notes client. As with the Verifier and Manager, the Client install is like a walk through the park. It starts up automatically with Notes and is completely transparent to users. If for any reason the Client cannot connect to the Verifier on the server side, it will display a dialog box that tells you that it couldn't locate a Verifier and then shuts itself off.

The TurboGold Client lets you fine-tune your configuration by specifying cache size, frequency of cache verification and WAN-link time-outs. The Client also provides statistics for replications and throughput, including bytes saved and time saved.

So, How Fast Does It Go? The more you replicate, the more you notice just how fast TurboGold works. However, the typical user who uses Notes for mail and maintains local replicas of a primary database may not notice the difference. In the lab, I tested TurboGold's speed by deleting the local replicas of my mail database, name and address book and two discussion databases. I first replicated these information sources without TurboGold and then replicated them with TurboGold while on the network. The time difference was about 30 seconds, as reported by the Client, for approximately 80 MB of replicated data.

Rich Neves is a senior LAN engineer with CMP Media. He can be reached at rneves@cmp.com.