Network (ftp) access to ms-dos hard disks ??

[Larry Williamson]

    I need to know if it is possible to access the hard disks on a
ms-dos machine that is on a network of Unix and msdos machines.  The
dos disk is to be accessed while the dos machine is busy with other
work.  The dos machine is running a dedicated application (that we
wrote). 

    The dos machine is reading data from a number of input devices and
archiving this data to a unix file system.  A unix workstation is
processing this data and at random intervals, data is sent to a dos
machine for output.  The input and output dos machines may or may not
be the same.  The input data may or may not ever be output.  All input
data will be put on a unix file system. 

    Getting the data to the Unix file system seems easy enough.  Its
the other direction that seems a little difficult. 

The problem: To get the data to the dos hard disk.  Will I have to set
up the dos machines to poll the unix workstations for data? I would
rather have the unix station dump the data to the dos hard disk and
the dos machine would then only poll its own hard disk for the
existance of the data. 

    I assume that I will need some advanced network software.  I
expect to use something like ftp, tcp/ip, and whatever else is
necessary.  What do I need to run on the dos end?  Is the Netbios
software necessary?


    I've done a bit of research on this but it seems that all the
books that I've seen assume you are setting up a Novell network.  And
of course, they answer the questions you might have in such a
situation.  These books have been no help to me. 

    I have not been able to get a straight answer from anyone I've
talked to recently about this.  The salesmen promise you anything.
The technical people that I know have never done this, so they are
not sure.

-- 
Larry Williamson                      Focus Automation Systems
UUCP: watmath!focsys!larry    608 Weber St. N, Waterloo, Ontario N2V 1K4
                                          +1 519 746 4918