SUMMARY -SUN/MAC/PC Connectivity

From: David Morgan edl/z x4427 (etlddmn@etlxdmx.ericsson.se)
Date: Mon Mar 06 1995 - 23:13:48 CST


Hi Kerry, Sun-managers

Sorry for the delay in forwarding my responses, but here you go......

(BTW.// I intend to use SAMBA as I have tested this with my setup in the
office and Connected Windows '95 Beta (Microsoft TCP/IP) to Sun 4.1.3_u1 rev B)

Hope it helps some......!

Dave Morgan
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| Dave Morgan - Systems Support | Email: etlddmn@etlxdmx.ericsson.se |
| Ericsson Data UK Limited | Phone: +44 (1444) 234427 |
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1.

You can buy the ftp software tcp/ip package and get idrive, more or less nfs
for dos. You can ount unix filesystems as dos disks. For example, my home
directory on my unix system looks like drive e: on my dos system.

I have also seen a demp of an nfs program for windows on the net. I looked
at it once, but it does not work under dos, so I scrapped it. I know that
idrive does filename remapping when necessary, I am not sure about the other
package.

--Matthew

2./

Hello,

We are using a configuration close to your. We have Suns, Macintosh's ans Pc's
with Windows 3.1.
On the Suns there is SunOS (Solaris 1.x)
On the Pc's there is PcNFS 5.1 ans soon PcNFS PRO 1.1
On the Macintosh's we have a GatorBox gateway with the GatorShare software
since our Macintosh's are on AppleTalk. If your Macintosh's are on EtherTalk
you may use uShare on the Macintosh's or NfsShare on the Suns.

 -Frédéric Piard.

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3./

>I guess I am asking whether their are any NFS clients for Macintosh's and for
>PC's/NT's?

This is a previous summary...

>> I need a PCNFS Client software for Windows NT 3.5.
>
>My solution:
>
>I could by the NFS Software for NT from:
>NetManage
>Beame & Whiteside
>Intergraph
>FtpSoftware

For the Macintosh's there is software from Intercon Systems
(www.intercon.com & ftp.intercon.com) that works, but is rather slow. If
you already have Ethershare installed, it works, is stable and fast, and
can co-exist with NFS!

>Is this possible? Has anyone out there done something similar? Are there any
>caveats I should be aware of?

Ethershare for Mac's & NFS for PC's and other UNIX machines works for us!

------------------ Tom Mornini -----------------------------------------------
                   Parallax, Inc.
                   Cool PIC development tools & the BASIC Stamp

4./

Dave,
If you are running Ethershare on your Macintoshs you are off to a good start.
Although there are NFS clients for the Macintosh (NFS/Share from Interconn
Systems) they are substantially slower than the Ethershare solution. If you
move your Mac users from Ethershare to NFS...they may kill you.

Your best bet is to find NFS clients for the PC's and NT boxes and define the
exported file systems on the servers as AppleTalk volumes through Ethershare.
Let me know if you have any questions about the Ethershare specifics.

Jay

5./

> The PC's are running Windows for Workgroups.

 Appletalk (or rather Ethertalk) is available for PC's, as is PC-NFS.

> The Macintosh's are running MacOS 7.5

 I don't know for a fact but would be surprised if SOMEONE didn't
have a WfWG protocol for Macs.. I know PC-NFS for them exists.

 
> The Sun is running 4.1.3.U1B

 SAMBA will do "Windows for Workgroups" and is quite free.
CAP will do Ethertalk and is also free.

> The NT Box.... (well!)

 NT can do WfWG. Several vendors do NFS for NT; including Beame & Whiteside.
SOme of the confusion is that WfWG-protocol has about a billion names.

> But I also want to use the Microsoft TCP/IP Drivers on the PC's, (maybe just
> get the NFS clients to use on top of this).

 This is not a problem. (almost) everyone supports them...though god knows why
(we use packet drivers).

> I guess I am asking whether their are any NFS clients for Macintosh's and for
> PC's/NT's?
>
> Is this possible? Has anyone out there done something similar? Are there any
> caveats I should be aware of?
>
> I would like to hear about all relevant experiences.

 You may want to check out

        http://www.biostat.washington.edu/pc/pcnfs.html

 The "tips" section has a pile o' not-very-well-organized information
on things beside PC-NFS.

-- 

-Dave Fetrow fetrow@biostat.washington.edu http://www.biostat.washington.edu/biostat/staff/fetrow.html

5./

Where I work (part time), we run a Sun 5 serving IBM's via pcnfs. I believe that the client software which we run is commercial. It seems generally reliable, but has one or two annoying problems. I can find out more on request. The server software consists of a single, fairly small freely distributed daemon in addition to normal nfs server daemons. I don't know if the client software runs under NT, or even workgroups.

We also serve Macintoshes using netatalk. This package requires loading a kernal modual, it is bascially an apple-share server for Unix. From what I have seen, it is reasonably easy to install and generally reliable once running.

Both netatalk and at least the pcnfs daemon (pcnfsd) should be locatable by archie. I can probably dig out the actuall ftp sites given a few days if necessary. Both of these packages allow printing to unix printers from the other machines, although our PC's have trouble with this when printing from a floppy.

If you find other/better ways to do this, I would like to hear about it. (A summary would be fine, if there is enough demand)

I hope that this helps at least a little bit.

--- Ben Galehouse Muse over the meaning of life too bg2c+@andrew.cmu.edu much and you will fail to live it.

6./

Hello,

I'm currently doing this with a mixture of software. I have PCNFS for the PCs (there is also a client for NT) and I am using CAP60 for the Macs (Columbia Appletalk Protocol). The Macs all have MACTCP and share the users home directory from the SUN.

If you don't want to get involved in PCNFS, then get samba for your SUN and your SUN will look like a WfWG server(i.e. all your PCs can see it, though you need to install the Windows TCP IP stack (which is what you wanted anyway)).

PCNFS uses it's own stack and will not coexist with WfWG TCP/IP stack.

Hope this is of some use. -- Tom.

7./

NT will work if you have at least one machine that is running AS (Advanced Server). We have a configuration in our office that is SUN (4.1.3), Digital OSF/1 box (oops sorry as of today Digital UNIX), and an NTAS machine (just happens to be a Digital as well, running AS 3.5). No problems, with the exception of printing. X applications (taken from the SUN) work well, and drives can be mounted (I'm running Xcursion on the NT box), and everything is fine except trying to print from Windows Apps to the printer attached to the SUN. A brief fling with printing through the Digital Unix box went well ... but the SUN had problems.

I also had problems with NTAS trying to print through a SUN at home (running Solaris 2.3). Had to do with lpr/lpd.

Next time around I would make the NT box the print server.

Good luck. Watch for security holes ... and think about security issues getting resources from the SUN (if that is of concern).

Rog -- ____________________________________________________________________ roger.harmston@dynamis.BC.CA (home) |Work Phone: +1.604.380.1636 roger.harmston@strategic.Victoria.BC.CA |Work FAX: +1.604.380.7737

8./

The best solution is NFS. My experience is that this keeps you in an environment that works for file sharing with a minimum of additional pains.

I use Intercon NFS/Share for the Mac's and Sun's PC-NFS but I'm not too sure about the later for WFW. But I am sure that there is an NFS product that will work in that environment.

9./

> I guess I am asking whether their are any NFS clients for Macintosh's and for > PC's/NT's? Several (for the mac that is), NFS/share works fairly well. Tenon has a new product NetTen that seems to be fairly solid. The problem is the resource fork. Some of the products put it in a .rsrc directory and others use apples "standard" of %filename. The other boxes won't know it is part of the same file. > > Is this possible? Has anyone out there done something similar? Are there any > caveats I should be aware of?

Macs and suns, a pcnfs box and OS/2. I avoid NT like the plague. It is you know. 8-) Microscrew hasn't seen fit to standardize it so I ignore it. If they would do that it could be fairly usefull. The nfs in NT should be close enough to work, with a little luck you could make it. > > I would like to hear about all relevant experiences.

The two fork filesystem of the mac is a nightmare when using other machines, at least until you get tools written the handle the 2-halves of a file. > > I realise that this list is primarily to do with the management of Sun > Workstations, but I am concerned with the effects that this type of operation > may have on the Sun in question! > > > ADV-thanks-ANCE > -------------------------------------------------------- Larry Ash Sys Administrator Office: (309) 266-0537 Casper Star-Tribune Casper Wyoming email lar@trib.com --------------------------------------------------------

10./

Hi Dave,

We currently have Macs (OS 7.5), PCs (NT Windows & WFW) and Suns happily talking together using TCP/NFS. The packages we use are:

for the PCs - NETMANAGE Chameleon NFS TCP/IP for Windows. available from NETMANAGE Inc 10725 North De Anza Blvd. Cupertino, CA 95014 USA PHONE:(408) 973-7171 FAX:(408) 257-6405 Email: support@netmanage.com

for the MACs - InerCon NFS /Share. available from MacWarehouse Unit 6, Wolsey Business Park, Tolpits Lane Watford Herts WD1 8QP PHONE: 0800 181 332 FAX: 01923 234 112

I have also heard that SUPER TCP/NFS from Frontier Technologies Corporation might be a better solution for Windows PCs because of it's use of Vxd technology. The British distributer of this product is: E92 Plus Ltd., St. James House, 9 - 15 St. James Road, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 4QH PHONE: 081-399 3111 FAX: 081-399 5111 Email: e92plus@e92plus.co.uk

Hope this helps.

-- Steve Keating Systems Administrator X-CEL Communications Limited Surrey, UK

spkk@x-cel.demon.co.uk

Disclaimer: My views are not those of my employer.

11./

Have you considered a Novell server as a bridge? They work very well as protocol translators and so on.

12./

Dave,

There are nfs clients for the mac and PC. Wallangong (not sure of the spelling; I have their literature somewhere) makes NFS clients for both. Sun makes PC-NFS for the PC and windows though you may have have trouble running netbeui and TCP at the same time. There are probably other sources for each.

john

13./

I have everything except for the NT boxes and my Suns are running Sol 2.3. We use CAP on our Macs, PC-NFS on the PC's. I have read good reviews on a product call PC-NFS for NT or something like that from Intergraph Corp in Huntsville, AL USA to handle the NT boxes. I once attended a Microsoft seminar (1-2 yrs ago) on WFW and networking and found to my surprise that they were using a 3rd party TCP/IP instead of their own. I'm not suggesting anything out of this, thought you might want to know. Hope this helps. I know their are alot of products out there. The biggest problem will be (at least with PC-NFS from Sun) is memory on the DOS side.

-- Don Turrentine, Information Systems Specialist UAB - Cardiac Rhythm Management Laboratory det@dukebar.crml.uab.edu

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