nlane@well.sf.ca.us (Nathan D. Lane) (04/30/91)
Does anyone have any info on the company with the best licensing policy for PC-NFS? I'm trying to replace Novell Netware by "hiding" unix boxes as PC network servers - however, the cost advantage I thought was there is not with PC-NFS costing $205.00 per PC. Any public domain implementations would be great - the product only has to be able to make a Unix directory appear as a virtual dos drive (E: or whatever) and do dos print services through the Unix box. Caveat: These people don't want to ever see Unix...(except the system administrator) - just DOS and they want a cost advantage (or I want to prove that there IS a cost/performance advantage). Please mail any responses and I will post a summary. Thank you in advance. -Nathan Lane Digital Technology Service Santa Barbara, CA nlane@well.sf.ca.us
ajayshah@alhena.usc.edu (Ajay Shah) (05/01/91)
In article <24496@well.sf.ca.us> nlane@well.sf.ca.us (Nathan D. Lane) writes: > >Does anyone have any info on the company with the best licensing policy >for PC-NFS? I'm trying to replace Novell Netware by "hiding" unix >boxes as PC network servers - however, the cost advantage I thought >was there is not with PC-NFS costing $205.00 per PC. Any public >domain implementations would be great - the product only has to be >able to make a Unix directory appear as a virtual dos drive (E: or >whatever) and do dos print services through the Unix box. >Caveat: These people don't want to ever see Unix...(except the system >administrator) - just DOS and they want a cost advantage (or I want >to prove that there IS a cost/performance advantage). Beame & Whiteside has a very cheap product. 416 648 6556 And when the day is done, administering a Unix server is far, far easier than administering a Novell server. You have to learn something to get both going, but Unix admin software is way too classy. With Novell you're hooked to their user-friendly tools. With Unix you can say things like find . `awk '{ }'` -exec etc. -ans. -- _______________________________________________________________________________ Ajay Shah, (213)734-3930, ajayshah@usc.edu The more things change, the more they stay insane. _______________________________________________________________________________
rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) (05/01/91)
nlane@well.sf.ca.us (Nathan D. Lane) writes: >.. PC-NFS costing $205.00 per PC. Any public >domain implementations would be great - the product only has to be >able to make a Unix directory appear as a virtual dos drive (E: or >whatever) and do dos print services through the Unix box. (Sorry for posting rather than e-mailing, as requested...) There isn't any public-domain client implementation yet, but my guess is it would take less than 3 person-months of work to create one using SOSS as a base. If you're working for a company with a large number of DOS machines, you might be able to get the time budgeted to do this work, and the glory which comes from having a *lot* of other companies/individuals using it. Anyone out there who would like to take on this project? It basically involves creating a TSR which intercepts software interrupts, redirecting a drive letter's I/O to the already-implemented SOSS network code. -rich
geoff@hinode.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top) (05/01/91)
Quoth rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) (in <7447@spdcc.SPDCC.COM>): #(Sorry for posting rather than e-mailing, as requested...) There isn't #any public-domain client implementation yet, but my guess is it would take #less than 3 person-months of work to create one using SOSS as a base. If #you're working for a company with a large number of DOS machines, you #might be able to get the time budgeted to do this work, and the glory #which comes from having a *lot* of other companies/individuals using it. # #Anyone out there who would like to take on this project? It basically #involves creating a TSR which intercepts software interrupts, redirecting #a drive letter's I/O to the already-implemented SOSS network code. Hmmm... I think that if you ask any of the groups that have actually built such a beast (Sun, FTP, B&W, etc.) they'd say that your estimates of the time and complexity seem a little optimistic :-) Yes, I know "Undocumented DOS" answers many of the questions, but not all... However, don't let me deter you! Geoff -- Geoff Arnold, PC-NFS architect, Sun Microsystems. (geoff@East.Sun.COM) -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Sun Microsystems PC Distributed Systems ... -- -- ... soon to be a part of SunTech (stay tuned for details) --
nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) (05/01/91)
In article <5847@eastapps.East.Sun.COM> geoff@hinode.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top) writes:
Hmmm... I think that if you ask any of the groups that have actually
built such a beast (Sun, FTP, B&W, etc.) they'd say that your estimates
of the time and complexity seem a little optimistic :-) Yes, I know
"Undocumented DOS" answers many of the questions, but not all...
On the other hand, a free one could be written to a single version of DOS,
whereas the commercial versions don't have that luxury.
--
--russ <nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu> I'm proud to be a humble Quaker.
It's better to get mugged than to live a life of fear -- Freeman Dyson
I joined the League for Programming Freedom, and I hope you'll join too.stan@cs.uiuc.edu (Seemong Tan) (05/02/91)
In article <5847@eastapps.East.Sun.COM>, geoff@hinode.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top) writes: |> Quoth rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) (in <7447@spdcc.SPDCC.COM>): |> There isn't |> #any public-domain client implementation yet, but my guess is it would take |> #less than 3 person-months of work to create one using SOSS as a base. |> |> Hmmm... I think that if you ask any of the groups that have actually |> built such a beast (Sun, FTP, B&W, etc.) they'd say that your estimates |> of the time and complexity seem a little optimistic :-) So I guess putting an undergrad on it as a summer project would be out of the question then... rats :-). |> |> -- Geoff Arnold, PC-NFS architect, Sun Microsystems. (geoff@East.Sun.COM) stan
lwj@cs.kun.nl (Luc Rooijakkers) (05/03/91)
In <NELSON.91May1124643@sun.clarkson.edu> nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) writes: >In article <5847@eastapps.East.Sun.COM> geoff@hinode.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top) writes: > Hmmm... I think that if you ask any of the groups that have actually > built such a beast (Sun, FTP, B&W, etc.) they'd say that your estimates > of the time and complexity seem a little optimistic :-) Yes, I know > "Undocumented DOS" answers many of the questions, but not all... >On the other hand, a free one could be written to a single version of DOS, >whereas the commercial versions don't have that luxury. From _advent.txt in the latest version of the MSDOS Interrupt List: @ Ever wanted the full scoop on undocumented MSDOS calls? Run to your @ favorite bookstore and ask for @ @ Undocumented DOS: @ A Programmer's Guide to Reserved MS-DOS Functions and Data Structures @ Andrew Schulman, Raymond J. Michels, Jim Kyle, Tim Paterson, David @ Maxey, and Ralf Brown @ @ 694+xviii pages, 7-3/8" x 9-1/8" @ Addison-Wesley @ ISBN 0-201-57064-5 @ $39.95 (book and two 5.25" disks) @ @ Don't buy it for the Appendix derived from the Interrupt List, buy it for a @ full hypertext version of INTER490, a script-based interrupt monitoring @ utility, source for a sample network redirector, discussions of ************************************** @ TSRs/multitasking/networks/installable file systems/debugging, lots of @ examples, etc. This book is supposed to be available within a few months, so... -- Luc Rooijakkers Internet: lwj@cs.kun.nl Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science UUCP: uunet!cs.kun.nl!lwj University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands tel. +3180652271