Unix vs Novell (HA..)

[Daniel A. Graifer]

In article <1991May07.193108.15803 at chinet.chi.il.us> les at chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) writes:
>In article <42078 at cup.portal.com> scarroll at cup.portal.com (Scott A Carroll) writes:
>>  Well this should spur a debate.  I need a little help convincing our more
>>then brain dead MIS people to STAY with Unix.
>
>[stuff deleted about supporting a DOS network from a unix host]
>I've had experience with AT&T's StarGroup product - can anyone comment
>on any of the other networking solutions or compare the features?
>
>Les Mikesell
> les at chinet.chi.il.us

We use PC-Interface from Locus Computing.  I believe this is available for
all of the SYSV/386 unix ports, and is bundled in by some vendors.  I've
even heard that it is considered a standard part of V.4 for '386.  Their
literature says it's available for BSD, Motorola, MIPS, etc.  It is
fairly old as DOS/Unix integration products go (at least 4 years) and has
stabilized well.  We are running the older Version 2.8.7.  The current
release (which our OEM hasn't ported yet) I believe is 3.1, which is supposed
to fix the few minor complaints we have.  The product provides:

    1)  Connection via token ring, ethernet, or RS-232 serial, or a 
    	combination (multiple simultaneous links are supported).  I've
        never tried the TR, but you should be able to connect a bunch
        of PCs on an IBM token ring network across a bridge (cheaper
        and faster than a router) to your ethernet and into you unix
        host.

    2)  A connected unix host's file system appears as a DOS drive to
    	the DOS client.  Unix filenames that are not legal DOS names 
    	are translated to a legal, unique DOS equivelent.  Unix
    	file permissions are observed, and record locking is supported.

    3)  A PRINTER command that permits all three LPTn devices to be
    	selectively trapped and spooled to any unix command or pipeline
    	on any connected host.  The default (on SYSV hosts) is "lp".
    	Timeout and DOS program exit triggers are supported.  (For
    	example we've used this to translate Epson control codes to
    	HP LaserJet codes for DOS programs that are too stupid to
    	know about printers with multiple character escape sequences)
        This is a major departure from any PC based NFS client I've
        seen.

    4)  A vt100 terminal emulator.  You can open EMulation sessions
    	to multiple hosts, including hosts which are not "connected"
    	for file/print services.

    5)  An "ON hostname" DOS command that attempts to execute its 
    	command line arguments as a unix command/pipeline on the
    	selected host.  Input/Output redirection is supported, in
    	which the DOS CR/LF is translated to/from unix NL, and the
    	DOS ^Z EOF character is stripped/appended:
    		ON %DEFSYS% date +%%T | time >nul:
    	in my AUTOEXEC.BAT file sets my PC's time clock to match
    	my default system host's  (which I store in dos environment
    	variable DEFSYS.  The double %% is to escape a % past the
    	DOS batch file processor.)

    6)  ON commands can be terminated with an ampersand (&), which
    	runs them asynchronously (in the background).  stdout and
    	stderr go to a spoolfile, which you can reconnect to DOS
    	stdin at any later time (before or after the process
    	completes).  Hitting BREAK while an ON process is running
    	suspends the process and elicits a prompt to continue, abort
    	or background the process.

    7)  The newer versions support NDIS drivers, which in combination
    	with Hughes Lan Systems' ProLinc, should let you run Novell,
    	NFS/Telnet, and IBM PC-network (NETBUEI/DLC) simultaneously
    	on the same PC.  (I haven't tried this, I will as soon as
    	our vendor ships the 3.0 upgrade).  PCI runs over UDP/IP, so
    	there is no theoretical reason why it could not co-exist
    	with a PC NFS client or Telnet client (which is TCP/IP).
    	(There have already been numerous discussions in this group
        of using packet drivers to integrate NFS/Telnet and Novell
        using packet-drivers to route the TCP and IPX packets. You
    	should be able to route UDP and IBM's DLC packets as well)

    8)  It doesn't use a lot of DOS memory (<50K).

    9)  There API interface kit for developers, and it is compatible
    	with Locus' PC-Xsight X-terminal server.

    10) It's relatively cheap (compared to Portable Netware).  <$200
        for each client, Usually a few $K for the host, but it depends
        on the host.  Be careful, their copy protection scheme on the
        client side is nasty.

We have no connection with Locus Computing except as very satisfied 
customers.  I just wish Prime would hurry up with the next release!
Locus can be reached at (213)670-6500, (617)229-4980, or in England
at 0296-89911.

Dan
-- 
Daniel A. Graifer			Coastal Capital Funding Corp.
Sr. Vice President, Financial Systems	7900 Westpark Dr. Suite A-130
(703)821-3244				McLean, VA  22102
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