Off-topic:non-scsi tape backup?

[Edward J Young <eyoung@linus.cudenver.edu>]

Sorry if this is off-topic, it's just that this list has proven to be so
helpful in many areas. Please suggest any alternate news groups that may
be better for this question. 

I've not been receiving the debian-users
digest list lately
and am reposting this in part to test if this bounces, and to reissue the
question. 



I'd like to get my tape backup working under Linux. 

I have a connor QIC-3020 Travan tape system. This drive has a separate
controler which is connected to an ISA slot. It uses the same IRQ (6)
as the floppy and the same DMA channel (2). I believe this is a tape
drive which could connect directly to the floppy controler, but I
never could get it working that way. 

My questions are: 
Is anyone familiar with this type of tape backup system, and has
gotten it working under Linux? 

Do    I need the interface card or is it better to run it directly
from the floppy controler? I'm not interested in performance (speed)
since I'll do backups lat at night. 

Is this an ftape issue and if so, how do I proceed to configure? 

Thanx in advance for any help. 

Regards, 

Ed Young