tmkk@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) (01/27/91)
Hello there. Our campus' networking people are currently in the process of
hooking up the building in which I compute to the campus backbone network
(and through that to the rest of the Internet). When the connection is
completed, I'd like to take advantage of direct connections to our campus
computing facilities (I'm currently dialing up with a modem at 2400bps :-(
I'll describe my hardware and software setup with hopes that some kind
net.folk will take a few moments to drop me some "bootstrap help" email
on how to get connected.
What I have:
IBM PS/2 model 70 with 2Mb RAM
3Com Etherlink II ethernet board (currently connected to a 3Com 3+ share
LAN; when the campus net gateway is installed, the same thin coax will
connect me to both).
MS-DOS 3.3
MS Windows 3.0 (Note: I don't use this very much, as the compiler I use
works best from the command line, but I wouldn't mind switching to Win3
to do my telnetting. Either a plain DOS or a Windows 3.0 solution is
equally OK).
What I can probably get:
Ftp software's PC/TCP package (our campus has a site license). I'd prefer
not to, as it will cost our department money and thus I might not be able
to get this right away/at all ;-) Clearly, a PD/freeware solution is
preferable.
What I would like to do:
Telnet
Ftp
NNTP News (if possible)
What are my options?
I've been (trying to) follow the traffic in this group for some time, but
am a bit lost. My understanding so far is that I need a packet driver
(which one I don't know) and a telnet/ftp package which can make use of
the packet driver. My questions include, but are not limited to:
Which packet driver should I get?
Which telnet/ftp package should I get to work with the above packet driver?
What sorts of problems will I experience in terms of conflicts with the 3Com
3+ share network? Will I have to log out of the 3Com in order to make a
TCP connection? Does the type of LAN I'm on change the answers to the first
two questions about packet driver and software package?
Within the next year we'll be switching over to a Netware 386 LAN OS. How will
this change affect my options?
If you can provide some guidance WRT the multitude of questions above, I would
greatly appreciate hearing from you.
Thanks!
--
Scott Coleman tmkk@uiuc.edu
"Unisys has demonstrated the power of two. That's their stock price today."
- Scott McNealy on the history of mergers in the computer industry.