mra@srchtec.uucp (Michael Almond) (10/31/90)
We have decided to replace our existing 3COM Share based network with an NFS based one instead of upgrading to 3COM Open. We are considering both Sun's PC-NFS and FTP's PC/TCP. Asking which is better is probably an awkward question that really depends on what we want. Has anyone used both packages and chosen one over the other? We are mainly interested in mounting remove file systems, printing to network prints, using mail/news, etc. Sun uses Lifeline mail and FTP uses vmail and pcmail. Do these packages have any major differences? Does anyone now if PC-NFS is more robust than PC/TCP, or visa versa? Thanks. --- Michael R. Almond mra@srchtec.uucp (registered) search technology, inc. emory!stiatl!srchtec!mra Atlanta, Georgia (404) 441-1457 (office) .'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. Georgia Tech Alumnus .'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.
jbvb@FTP.COM ("James B. Van Bokkelen") (11/01/90)
There are number of differences between the packages, some of which may not matter in your particular situation. I'll summarize the facts, but note that I should be assumed to be at least a little biased... Sun has had print redirection for a long time. We just added it in 2.05. Ours has some features theirs doesn't (using LPR to send the job), but they have some we don't (print on timeout). Their IP/UDP/NFS TSR is smaller than our combination of TCP/IP kernel TSR and NFS TSR, but ours can be unloaded from the keyboard. Sun's NFS is faster than us on large (> 1Kb) writes. Their redirector is an INT 21 emulator, ours uses the INT 2F hooks. We support more hardware drivers, including 802.5. PC/TCP+ has more applications than PC-NFS, but you may not need an ICMP-based PING, 3270/VT220 multi-session telnet, or a multi-connection FTP server. We don't have a news reader in 2.05, and I don't think Sun has one either. You can get a version of CUTCP which runs with PC-NFS, but Clarkson's present policies won't allow the creation of one which runs with PC/TCP. Many aftermarket products (X servers, fancy terminal emulators, databases) are available for both transport stacks - ask the vendor. Our development environment is for MSC 5.1 and is usable with 6.0, Sun's is for MSC 4.0. Sun Lifeline mail uses POP2 to talk to a server Sun supplies with the package. I don't know if it is in binary form or not, but you'll need source to make it run on other machines. I assume that it can use a freeware POP2 server as well. PC/TCP's VMAIL command can use POP2, POP3 or PCMAIL (RFC 1056) to fetch mail, but you have to supply the server, either building freeware from source or using a supported one supplied by your host system's vendor. Presumably, most differences would lie in the mail user agent, since both schemes use batching protocols to talk to central mail servers. James B. VanBokkelen 26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA 01880 FTP Software Inc. voice: (617) 246-0900 fax: (617) 246-0901
sob@tmc.edu (Stan Barber) (11/12/90)
In article <9010311943.AA12833@ftp.com> jbvb@ftp.com writes: >We support more hardware drivers, including 802.5. PC/TCP+ has more >applications than PC-NFS, but you may not need an ICMP-based PING, >3270/VT220 multi-session telnet, or a multi-connection FTP server. We >don't have a news reader in 2.05, and I don't think Sun has one either. There are two news readers for PC-NFS. Once is based on the RED package from MIT and the other is more sophisticated. Both are available via ftp from bcm.tmc.edu (look in the NFS directory). They could probably be made to run under PC/TCP, but I don't have PC/TCP development environment. The sources to the two packages will be made available this Christmas, so you can do it yourself then. >You can get a version of CUTCP which runs with PC-NFS, but Clarkson's >present policies won't allow the creation of one which runs with PC/TCP. >Many aftermarket products (X servers, fancy terminal emulators, databases) >are available for both transport stacks - ask the vendor. Our development >environment is for MSC 5.1 and is usable with 6.0, Sun's is for MSC 4.0. Actually, I build PC-NFS applications using MSC 5.1. One minor change is needed to one header file in the PC-NFS toolkit. I have also used MSC 6.0 with good success thus far. Sun will provide the documentation on the header change if you want to do this. PC-NFS does not allow a large number of sockets to be open at one time. This makes X servers kinda hard to use. PC/TCP allows many more open sessions. >Sun Lifeline mail uses POP2 to talk to a server Sun supplies with the >package. I don't know if it is in binary form or not, but you'll need >source to make it run on other machines. I assume that it can use a >freeware POP2 server as well. Sun provides the source to the POP2 daemon. Once that works with LifeLine and with the Mac POPmail stack is available from bcm.tmc.edu in the nfs directory. [There is one extension for LifeLine and a couple for POPmail that needed to be included.] By the way, you might want to look at the newsgroup "comp.protocols.nfs" There are frequent discussions about the various PC products that implement the NFS client protocols. -- Stan internet: sob@bcm.tmc.edu Director, Networking Olan uucp: {rutgers,mailrus}!bcm!sob and Systems Support Barber Opinions expressed are only mine. Baylor College of Medicine
fks@FTP.COM (Frances Selkirk) (11/13/90)
tmc.edu!sob@tmc.edu (Stan Barber) writes: >>In article <9010311943.AA12833@ftp.com> jbvb@ftp.com writes: >>3270/VT220 multi-session telnet, or a multi-connection FTP server. We >>don't have a news reader in 2.05, and I don't think Sun has one either. > >There are two news readers for PC-NFS. Once is based on the RED package from >MIT and the other is more sophisticated. Both are available via ftp from >bcm.tmc.edu (look in the NFS directory). They could probably be made to >run under PC/TCP, but I don't have PC/TCP development environment. The >sources to the two packages will be made available this Christmas, so you >can do it yourself then. RED is already available for PC/TCP. I would not, yet, consider this adequate to say "we have a news reader." We have just started testing it. Frances Kirk Selkirk info@ftp.com (617) 246-0900 FTP Software, Inc. 26 Princess Street, Wakefield, MA 01880
jbvb@FTP.COM ("James B. Van Bokkelen") (11/14/90)
Actually, I build PC-NFS applications using MSC 5.1.... We had reports of problems with our MSC 4.0 libraries when used with 5.1, which was one reason we upgraded. I didn't know they could be avoided... James B. VanBokkelen 26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA 01880 FTP Software Inc. voice: (617) 246-0900 fax: (617) 246-0901