[comp.os.os2] LAN Manager Questions

Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes) (02/27/90)

Under LAN Manager, can a DOS workstation act as a server to the Net?
Or can DOS stations only be clients?

Thanks,
Will              (sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Will)

harish@guille.ECE.ORST.EDU (Harish Pillay) (03/01/90)

In article <27348@cup.portal.com> Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes) writes:
|Under LAN Manager, can a DOS workstation act as a server to the Net?
|Or can DOS stations only be clients?
|
|Thanks,
|Will              (sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Will)

As far as I know, a LanMan server must be an OS/2 machine.  The DOS machines
are either clients or servers.

---
Harish Pillay                                       harish@ece.orst.edu
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Oregon State University

bruceki@microsoft.UUCP (Bruce KING) (03/07/90)

  There's two answers to your question.  The question is "Can msdos-based
servers serve file requests from lan manager based clients?"  The answer to
that one is yes.  You can set up a network of msdos based servers and have
them serve requests from os/2 or msdos clients.  

 Here's where it gets tricky: You CAN'T do that with DOS lanman.  What you need
to do is use the server portion of the MsNet product.  You can mix and match
msnet and lan manager servers and workstations on the same network.  

  Typical example:  "I've got a network based on ungermann bass network
adapters and their 'net one' networking software.  Can I put os/2 lan manager
servers or clients on this network?  "

  Yes.  Ungermann Bass is a licensee of MsNet, and their "net one' product
is compatible with os/2 lan manager.  From a "net one" client you can
send and recieve file requests or device requests. 

  Same holds true for 3com's 3+share product, at&t's starlan product, and so
on.  I'm mentioning brand names here for examples, not as endorsement of
product.  

Product			Server software		Client software
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Os/2 lan manager	Yes			Yes
Unix Lan Manager	Yes			No
Msdos Lan Manager	no			Yes
Msdos MsNet		Yes			Yes

  For information/pricing/availability, the best person to contact is your
current network vendor of hardware or software.  

  There ARE some functional differences between the different software packages
although they will all work correctly with one another.  In particular

Product			Encrypts	Share comm	Share		Share
			Passwords	Devices		Printers	files
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
os/2 lan manager
server			yes		yes		yes		yes

unix lan manager
server			yes		yes		yes		yes

msdos MsNet server	no		no		yes		yes

  If you're interested in more detail, we offer classes on lan manager and
os/2, down to the device driver level.  Give me a call for a course catalog.

Bruce King/Lan Instructor/Microsoft University/(206) 882-8080 bruceki@microsoft

Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes) (03/10/90)

>  There's two answers to your question.  The question is "Can msdos-based
> servers serve file requests from lan manager based clients?"  The answer to
> that one is yes.  You can set up a network of msdos based servers and have
> them serve requests from os/2 or msdos clients.  

Well, actually, I intended my question to be "Can MS-DOS computers act
as *application* servers to client programs, where both client and server
are running under an unmodified version of LAN manager."  So would it be
possible to set up an MS-DOS application that accepts named pipe requests
from either OS/2 or MS-DOS client programs?

Thanks,
Will              (sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Will)   

bruceki@microsoft.UUCP (Bruce KING) (03/13/90)

  You can run named pipes between applications as long as the network you
are running on top of supports named pipes.  All versions of lan manager
support named pipes, all versions of os/2 support named pipes.  

  The network product that preceeded lan manager, MsNet, does not support named
pipes and so cannot support their use.  

  Synopsis:  If you run lan manager, whether it's an os/2 server, an os/2
workstation, or an msdos workstation, you have the ability to support named
pipes.  If you run MsNet, you cannot use named pipes unless you wrote your
own support for it.  

  So if you set up a network consisting of one os/2 server, one os/2 client
and one msdos client all running lan manager software (msdos lan manager in
the case of the msdos client) you could run named pipes to any of those
machines, and everything would work fine.  You can add MsNet machines to
that network, and they would be compatible with the lan manager systems
as far as shared devices and shared files go, but you would not be able to
use named pipes to or from them.  

  That answer your question?  

  Bruce King / Microsoft U / (206) 882-8080 / bruceki@microsoft.UUCP

alistair@microsoft.UUCP (Alistair BANKS) (03/13/90)

In article <27727@cup.portal.com> Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes) writes:
>>  There's two answers to your question.  The question is "Can msdos-based
>> servers serve file requests from lan manager based clients?"  The answer to
>> that one is yes.  You can set up a network of msdos based servers and have
>> them serve requests from os/2 or msdos clients.  
>
>Well, actually, I intended my question to be "Can MS-DOS computers act
>as *application* servers to client programs, where both client and server
>are running under an unmodified version of LAN manager."  So would it be
>possible to set up an MS-DOS application that accepts named pipe requests
>from either OS/2 or MS-DOS client programs?
>
>Thanks,
>Will              (sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Will)   


Named pipes must be 'created' on the net to be 'opened'. DOS based machines
cannot 'Create' named pipes, but can 'open' them.

Thus DOS machines can only be clients to a named pipe 'created' on a
server.

Server operating systems that may 'create' named pipes using either
LanManager or a ported version are:-

OS/2 - LanManager, Net One, IBM LanServer, 3+Open, Compaq LanMan, etc etc
VAX VMS - Dec's have ported LanMan to VMS
AT&T Unix - AT&T have ported LanMan to Unix
(LM/X, jointly developed by Microsoft and HP is our name for the
portable version of LanManager)
HP have LM for their Unix flavour.
IBM MVS - I've forgotten the name, but someone else has announced they
are porting LM to MVS.

... and so the list goes on...

The common factor for servers, and 'creation' of named pipes is multi-tasking.

DOS cannot wait around in a second task when a client signals an open
on a named pipe, so creation makes no sense.

Hope this clears things up.
Alistair Banks
OS/2 ISV Group
Microsoft

Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes) (03/18/90)

<  So if you set up a network consisting of one os/2 server, one os/2 client
< and one msdos client all running lan manager software (msdos lan manager in
< the case of the msdos client) you could run named pipes to any of those
< machines, and everything would work fine....  Does that answer your 
< question?

I'll interpret the above to mean that you could run an MS-DOS machine as
an application server using named pipes over a LAN Manager system.  If 
this is so, then, yes, this answers the question.

Thanks,
Will              (sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Will)

Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes) (03/18/90)

< Named pipes must be 'created' on the net to be 'opened'. DOS based machines
< cannot 'Create' named pipes, but can 'open' them.

< DOS cannot wait around in a second task when a client signals an open
< on a named pipe, so creation makes no sense.

It does.  Thanks.

Will              (sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Will)