Unix/MS-Dos Networking (Long, but don't let that scare you)

[Adam Carlson]

Given the size of this post, please respond to me so as to save the
huge chunks of it that will invariably be quoted in the responses from
floating world-wide.  If I receive requests to do so, I will summarize
to the net.

Thanks to all who are willing to read my ill informed spewing and help
me become better informed.

Hi, I am relatively new to the world of networking and system
administration and am considering alternative solutions to a
particular networking problem.  I would appreciate any advice from you
net gurus out there.  Here is my situation.

We have a pair of Sun 3/80's running SunOS 4.1 and Yellow pages
connected to an ethernet and the internet.  We also have 3 onsite PC's
(1 286, 2 386's) with another one on the way (386).  These are all
running MS-Dos.  One of them (and the one we are waiting for) are
AT&T's and were shipped with MS-Dos and Sys V R3.2.  Most of our
consultants work on the Sun's most of the time and occaisionally on
the PC's.  Most of our administrative staff work pretty much
exclusively on the PC's.  Some of our administrative staff and our
consultants have PC's at home as well.  We also have some draft
printers, a plotter a laser printer a terminal server and a modem
(with more possibly coming in in the future).  Right now, the
peripherals are shared by the Sun's and PC's through a Periph. Sharing
device. (A "Buffalo Box", which I highly recommend.)  Other than using
the PC's as terminals, there is no other communication between the
Unix and Dos sides.

The goals I wish to achieve are:

1) Have certain information on the PC's accessable from more than just
one location.  i.e, have our administrative database available to more
than just one secretary.  At least, I would like to have all the PC's
be able to access this information so the Director can look up our
current funding situation without having to ask our secretary or
borrow the "Master floppy" containing the database.  It would be nice
for our Unix users to have access to the same information, but they
would also need to be able to run Dos programs to use it.  Similarly,
it would be nice to have transparent access to information on the Unix
side from Dos.  (Read: Dos file server for Unix and/or Unix file
server for Dos)

2) Have that information available to dial-up users from their PC's at
home.  This is very important.  A lot of our people work from home
and/or are on the road a lot.  It would be really good to be able to
dial up and run Systat from a remote PC.  (I guess Slip would be one
way to go, but it seems a might slow.)

3) Have multiple resources available to the all the machines. (For
instance, the Qic-24 Tape drive that the Sun's use to back up the PC's
and/or the DC2000 tape drive in one of the PC's available to the
others).  This includes printers, plotters, modems, terminal servers
and backup devices.  As well as disk drives or partitions.

4) Maximum flexibility.  Our department is characterized by being very
chaotic and this is reflected in our computing environment.  We may
set up a lab with 25 PC's for student use someday soon, and I would
like a network to be able to handle that.  We have clients with a
variety of needs for both hardware and software, and if possible, it
would be nice to be able to add machines to the network for some of
our on campus clients quickly and easily and then remove them when
they are done.  Also, we have a variety of hardware types to be
supported, at times we have had Mac's, PC's, Sun's etc. here.

5) Support both server-client and peer-peer networking.  There may be
one big Dos workhorse that we can devote to being a server, but I also
want to be able to share resources from all my PC's and hopefully my
unix boxes too.

6) It would be preferable not to tie up one machine solely for file
server duty.  This is not, however a necessity.

What I have thought of so far:

Getting Sun's PC-NFS or some other such program (I hear FTP Co's
PC-TCP is good).  And using the Sun's as file servers.  This will
allow shared data, and with slip remote access.  It will also allow
resource sharing (printers, modems, etc, but not backup device as far
as I can tell.)  It won't allow dial up users to use PC programs from
a terminal, Resource sharing PC-PC or PC-Sun (Only Sun-PC).

Getting a PC Network like Novell or Lantastic.  This will allow PC-PC
sharing of both files and resources.  It will not allow dial-up
network access (as far as I know, I could be wrong).  It will also not
aid in PC-Unix communication as far as file-sharing, resource sharing
etc.

Getting a PC-Network and using our ATT PC which came with MS-Dos and
Sys R3.2 Unix to bridge the Unix/MS-Dos gap.  This seems to be the
best option so far.  It will allow resource sharing in all directions
(PC-PC resource sharing, PC-Unix file sharing).  It will allow people
to dial in to their Unix account and then run Dos applications, which
seems like it would be faster than Slip, since you don't have the
bottleneck of all disk accesses taking place over a modem line, only
terminal i/o.  Apparently even a dumb terminal can use it (although
graphics obviously wouldn't work and there is some tricky keyboard
mapping to be done.)  I would have to buy a package on my ATT called
SimulTask that let's me do this.  I also don't know how well my ATT
running Sys V is going to talk to my Sun's running Basically BSDish
SunOS.  Can they do NFS mounts to each other, for instance?

Finally, I have not really taken a good look at the option of getting
some OS-independant network like TOPS running.  I have no knowledge of
these beasts at all.

What I would like to know:

Aside from comments regarding anything I have already mentioned, I am
also looking for 1) new ideas that I haven't thought of 2) specific
information about PC-PC, PC-Unix and Unix-Unix (SysV-BSD) networking
software, hardware, issues 3) Recommendations for Ethernet cards for
the PC's (Since they will almost inevitably need them.) 4) What did I
leave out so that I can be more complete in future postings, and think
about it now, since I've obviously forgotten to.

advTHANXance
Adam Carlson
-- 
Adam Carlson                  | It's good to know that if I behave
acarlson at math.umass.edu       | strangely enough, society will take
Statistical Consulting Center | full responsibility for me.
UMass @ Amherst               | - Ashleigh Brilliant