kenb@amc.com (Ken Birdwell) (04/23/91)
Well, I've received quite a number of requests for this, so I've decided to post it. It's quite long, so I recommend that rather than read it now, you save it and read it later. <note: it's a bit over 300 lines> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uw-coco!yoda.eecs.wsu.edu!eric (Eric Schneider) If you want to be to access files on your AT from the NeXT, and you aren't using the AT at the same time, then you might look into SOSS (Son of Stan's Server) a Copylefted NFS server for MS-DOS. Now let's see if I can remember were to find it!. Ah yes, it's spdcc.com. Let me know if this is something you are looking for. BTW, you will need a network card on the AT, like a WD8003E (about $179), and you should be able to copy files from the NeXT to the AT for backup to tape also. Eric Schneider ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uw-coco!cobalt.cco.caltech.edu!madler (Mark Adler) The hardware to do it should only run about $200 for an ethernet card. As for the software, you need NFS on the PC. I've seen it from Sun (and that should work with the NeXT since NFS on Suns works with the NeXT), but I don't know how much it costs. If you can find someone who has it, maybe you can pilfer a copy. (I didn't say that. I've never even heard of Sun's, really your honor.) Mark ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uw-coco!sdcc14.UCSD.EDU!ph600fbj (james dehnert) My neighbor hooked his pc up as a terminal. I don't know for sure, but i think he could have transfered files between the two machines. Try a serial to serial terminal set up and use a ps comm package with kermit. That should do the trick. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uw-coco!csn.org!datran2!smb (Steven M. Boker) Its really, really easy and much less expensive than you've been told. Buy a WD8003 or WD8013 (western digital ethernet card). ~$180 to $250 depending on your supplier. Get NCSA telnet from ftp land and you're done. If you want to get fancy and you have another $300 to blow you can get PCNFS from Sun or Beame and Whitesides and you can have the NeXT act as an NFS server for your AT. Shared filesystems and all that for $550 tops and less that $200 if you're willing to live with FTP transfers. Steve ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uw-coco!PSUVM.PSU.EDU!DWN2 It sounds like you want a solution similar to what Jess Anderson recommends. Right now, this is probably the best/cheapsest. At some time if SLIP is running on the NeXT you can connect the machines via the serials ports. If you'll settle for file transfers, fo the time being, what follows is a note I sent someone on making a cable. If you want a copy of SLIP and are able to do what's necessary to transform it to a NeXT version, it can be found at emu.utexas.edu I haven't the time or the knowledge to get it up on the NeXT If you want to know how to run a cable between the two and use something like kermit, I have this set-up on my NeXT <-> 386SX. [I assume that the AT serial ports are the same as the 386SX, or modify accordingly.] You need to get a connector for the NeXT serial port - 8 pin din - this was the hardest part for me as Radio Shack doesn't sell them. My uncle in California got one at some computer warehouse. The info on cables is in /NextLibrary/Documentatio n/NextUser/SerialPorts.rft The cable looks like this (for 040): function mini-din RS-232 DTR 1 20 DCD 2 8 TXD 3 2 GND 4 7 RXD 5 3 RTS 6 4 CTS 8 5 The pins on the mini-din look like this: FLAT_PART_OF_DIN_ |_| 8 7 6 5 4 3 _ 2 1 _ | | So just wire together the cable (no one seemed to have one made, e.g. NeXTConn- ection) and connect the machines. I use kermit, which I have to use as root to get to work, newer versions may work better, also the kermit version for NeXT I have only goes to 9600 baud, too bad because the PC kermit goes to 19200. My .kermrc file in the root directory looks like: set line /dev/cua set speed 9600 and the PC kermit is set to 8 N 1. Transfers work well, but 19200 would be great. BTW kermit for NeXT is at most ftp sites. Hope this is what you were looking for. Oh, total cost is about $6.00 Dave + Dave Norton email to dwn2@psuvm.psu.edu + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uw-coco!faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU!pts (Paul T. Shannon) I suggest you look at PC-NFS. This allows your AT to use the NeXT disk. Sun first marketed this. I think Novell has a version out now. Sun sold us a copy for < $200. It worked great for me. - Paul ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: "Adrian Goldman, WIM, Rutgers" <uw-coco!ocelot.RUTGERS.EDU!GOLDMAN> Well, at work, I've connected up a Compaq 386/20 running os/2 (which I like) and my NeXT (which I also like). The solution I'm using is an ethernet card (with an NDIS driver) and pc/tcp for os/2 from ftp software in MA. They also make pc/tcp for dos. It includes (eg) nfs client (& server I think), so should solve your problem. It should cost ca 500-1k, because a card will run you say 200-300, and the software is, I think, around 300. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uw-coco!ee.tamu.edu!cantrell (Pierce Cantrell) How about a $250 solution. Just buy an Ethernet card for the PC-At ($250 or less) and get a copy of NCSA telnet (Free). Then put both machines on thinwire or twisted pait ethernet. If you don't have a network to put them both on just put an 8 ft thinwire cable between them. Then ftp as much as you like. -pierce ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uw-coco!wimsey.bc.ca!jchin (Joseph Chin) You didn't mention which OS you're running on the AT. But I assume you are running MSDOS on the AT. This makes it a bit more troublesome ... but there is definitely no shortage of possibilities: 1) I have a 386SX networked to my NeXT. The 386SX has a Western Digital WD8003e ethernet card and runs Sun's PC-NFS software (which I got for peanuts from a local university's PC support centre because the version was an older one, but it works). I can mount file directories on the NeXT from the PC. I can even do user authentication, but I haven't been able to access the NeXT printer from the PC yet. I'll figure that out when the need arises. Total cost: approx. $200US for the WD8003e and $400-$500 for the PC-NFS (new, not too sure about this one). 2) I've heard of a public domain TCP/IP package for MS-DOS PC. This will not give you NFS, but you'll still be able to FTP files to/from the NeXT to the PC. 3) Serial connection. You can always use a $10 serial cable to connect the NeXT serial port to the PC's serial port. You'll then use file transfer programs such as rz/sz (Zmodem protocols) on the NeXT side and a communication program of your choice (it must support the protocol used on the NeXT side) on the PC. 4) PLI or DIT floppy drives. For less than $500, you can hook one of these babies to your NeXT. Then you can read/write 1.44MB MS-DOS floppies! These drives also support 2.88MB NeXT floppies. Hope this info is useful. Usual disclaimers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: Will Raymond <uw-coco!cs.unc.edu!raymond> Do you have Unix running on the AT - if so - just use NFS, FTp or rsh. If not, maybe what you need is pc/tcp from FTP Solutions - or some other package that allows DOS to Unix transfers. You'll need an ethernet card of course. I have a '386 running Interactive 5.3 2.2 with NFS - TCP extensions - cost about $643 hooked into my cube - runs great on the 386 end. OS 2.0 has some hosed up nfs type progs. - and it doesnt like it if the '386 rlogins from anything but csh. If you need any more details - please email me. Will ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: Michael D. Callaghan <uw-coco!wam.umd.edu!mikec> I have my AT-compatible on an ethernet LAN with my NeXTCube. I typically use my 1.44meg disk drive on my AT, since I don't have a floppy drive on the Cube. I purchased a 3-Com 3C-503 ethernet board, and some nfs client software. Now I have my NeXT /client partition mounted as G:\ on the AT. For what it's worth, I'm thinking of selling the whole set up, since I have SoftPC on my Cube now. It's actually faster than my AT. I should warn you, though, that unless you have a 386, you'll run into a memory problem. I cannot run a lot of my accounting packages when I have the nfs TSRs loaded. I have reboot to update my acct. system! It is really wonderful to be able to telnet from the AT, though. There are typically two people in my computer room. One of us can usually get by on a single-window vt-100! Lastly, I've heard that there exists a piece of software that runs under Windows 3.0 that will allow multiple telnet sessions, each in its own window. Or you could purchase the new X-Client software soon to be released (don't know the name) for DOS, and get Mouse-X for the NeXT, and the AT could be an X-Windows Client! I want to try that! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uw-coco!oddjob.uchicago.edu!oconnor!op (Operations) my own personal advice would be to buy a nice ethernet card for your PC and PC-NFS software from FTP software, therefore you have FTP, NFS, and all that nice stuff (fujitsu, printers, etc) available to both systems. you could get really fancy and have the NeXT mount the PC drives and vice versa. although that probably really wouldn't work. no guarantees. worst case with an ethernet card and Phil Karn's KA9Q software would be ftp'ing back and forth everything you want to x-fer. of course this solution would involve stringing thin-net or twisted-pair (whatever both the NeXT and the PC e-net card both support ) between the two. in my mind this would be the cheaper, smart thing to do. reply to: oddjob.uchicago.edu!oconnor!mjt ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uunet!wang.com!ice (Fredrik Nyman) Whee... Absolutely easiest: get an Ethernet board for the AT. An 16 bit Ethernet card would be good, but an 8bit card is fine too. I've used 3Com's 3c503 boards extensively, and these puppies are pretty good. Now you'll need software. I'd recommend that you get NCSA Telnet and the Clarkson packet drivers. This will give you FTP, which should be a good start as it's free and lets you transfer files quickly. If you need to *share* files, it becomes a tad trickier. NFS should be *the* way to go, but I'm not aware of any public domain implementations. If you're willing to shell out some money, check out FTP software's PC-FTP and Interdrive package (e-mail to info@ftp.com). You may also want to check with Sun about their PC-NFS package. They recently came out with a new version. The previous version was a dog, but they might have improved it. Let me know if you need info about where to grab NCSA Telnet and Clarkson's packet drivers. I could even e-mail them to you, it's no biggie. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uunet!galileo.govt.shearson.com!nwc (Nick Christopher) I hooked my NeXT to my PC using: 3Com 3C501 board in PC (501 is an old card model 503 or etherlink II are newer) 8' segment of thin net Sun's PCNFS The 3Com and cable segment would fit into your $$ range but I have a feeling the PCNFS is expensive (mine was a leftover from work). But there are public domain and/or cheaper software packages than PCNFS - ask around after these and if you could forward me any useful answers. PCNFS lets the PC use NeXT's disk and provides telnet and ftp. Most packages offer similar setups. Few if any let the UNIX box access the PC's disk. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: uw-coco!gibbs.physics.purdue.edu!murphy (William J. Murphy) The $500 solution is this. Buy an ethernet card ~$250. Call Beame and Whiteside about their Telnet and NFS packages (416) 648-6556. The telnet costs $97.50 to educational discount, the nfs is ~$200. I have played with the telnet and find it works quite well. The NFS hasn't been ordered, but if it is any help, the Purdue University Computing Center (PUCC) has decided that this is the package that they will use for the PC to Unix system file sharing. They tested a variety of the NFS/telnet packages. B&W came out on top. I don't work for PUCC, I am just passing on their advice which I've been given. Don't buy a 3C501 ethernet card from 3COM, it sucks. Bill Murphy murphy@physics.purdue.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: anderson@dogie.macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) I have a (so far) $200 solution: a Western Digital Ethercard Plus (16-bit, thin wire) and ten feet of thin wire. Using NCSA packet drivers and version 2.3beta15, I can telnet to the NeXT from the AT and ftp in both directions. So far, it's just a little LAN consisting of the two machines. Still to be tried is PC NFS (or something) to share file systems. Still to be tried is SLIP to connect to the office (I'm real interested in TeleConnect in that [ha ha] connection). The ultimate goal is that my little LAN will join the Internet, und zen za vorld! :-) --