langz@athena.mit.edu (Lang Zerner) (06/05/88)
Hi. I have a friend who has a network of PCs in the office of his small
company (3com ethernet, about 4 or 5 real PCs and 2 or 3 diskless 3stations).
He has been researching the possibility of setting up a multiuser dialup
system, and so far all of the PC-based solutions he's found have been too
inflexible or too slow. He needs to be able to have custom login shells for
each user, multiple 9600 baud dialup lines, and network compatibility (in the
sense that the system can access the network fileserver while respecting file
locks).
I posted here recently to see if anyone had any ideas for a PC-based solution,
and the only suggestions were variants on "what you are asking for is a Unix
box." Personally, I agree. I know that I can get custom shells and 9600 lines
on just about any decent Unix box in the >$6000 range, but I don't know
anything about the network considerations. I have seen PCs spliced into a
network based on Unix machines, but I've never seen a Unix box added to an
MS-DOS-based network.
If you have any knowledge or experience in this area, please mail me (I don't
usually read this group) and let me know if this is possible. If nothing else,
getting a Unix system into his office will probably yield me Yet Another
Account, so I'm all for this idea if it is feasible. If you are actually
runnig such a system, I'd appreciate it greatly if you would send me a
description of the system, including equipment manufacturers and physical
configuration diagrams, so I can convince this guy that the idea really
works and maybe install it. Finally, if you have any pointers to other sources
of information which may be helpful, or if you know of another newsgroup which
is more appropriate for this question, please let me know about that, too.
Thanks much!
Be seeing you...
Lang Zerner langz@athena.mit.edu ihnp4!mit-eddie!athena.mit.edu!langz
"Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage..."
-- Bill Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, I.v.19