Cover V05, I01
Article

jan96.tar


New Messages

Correction:

In Larry Reznick's article, "Scheduled Rebooting," in the Nov/Dec 1995 issue of Sys Admin, a line of code in the section entitled "rebootsys Script" (p. 117) lost its back quotes. The line should have printed as follows:

`echo`cat\\`echo $PROGS | cut -d" " -f2\\\`\``

We apologize for any inconvenience our mistake may have caused our readers.--mm

Editor's Note:

Some time ago, I asked for help locating public-domain stacks and utilities for TCP/IP on DOS. Several readers responded with suggestions and pointers, and recently I've done a little web-surfing of my own. I thought I'd share a few links that you might find useful:

For a nice overview of TCP/IP packages, both commercial and not, for both Windows and DOS, ftp

/pub/dos/info/tcpip.packages

from

ftp.cac.psu.edu.

For an incredible compilation (over 100 pages) of everything you ever wanted to know about (PC) NFS, ftp

/pub/tcpip/pcnfsfaq.txt

from

seagul.rtd.com.

(If this site is no longer valid, just do a web search on pcnfs and faq -- the faq is available from a number of sites.)

This document says that there are no free or shareware NFS clients available. In fact, there is a shareware NFS client named XFS available. Unfortunately, I haven't yet found a URL for that package. If one of my readers knows where to source XFS, please drop me some email.

For some components that may not be indexed in the above materials:

merit.edu

see /pub/ppp/pc and /pub/ppp/etherppp.zip.

Thanks to Ed Lott, Jim Niemira, Frederic DeMees, and our own Kevin Taute for helping with this information.

--rlw

From: Doug Smith
Subject: UNIX, TCP/IP, and Macs (May/June 1995

I manage a system similar to the one Donald Stone described in his article about networking UNIX and Mac ("UNIX, TCP/IP, and Macs," May/June 1995). There are a few other good possibilities for point-and-drag file transfer that may have been overlooked.

The GatorBox has software available called GatorShare that allows UNIX directories available through NFS to be mounted on the Macintosh just like any other networked drive. The Mac users can transfer files without learning any new techniques. I believe GatorShare ships with the GatorBox but may be an extra cost item on some models.

Another good way to handle the problem is with one of the shareware ftp clients available for the Mac. The two most popular are Anarchie and Fetch. Both offer a friendly Mac interface for browsing and ftping files. Anarchie even allows drag-and-drop ftp when used with recent Macintosh system software.

One other thing. The NCSA Telnet software includes ftp capabilities. It's not friendly for the Mac user but I've used it to automatically transfer files to a local Mac hard disk under control of a UNIX shell script. For example, the user selects a report from a menu on the UNIX machine. Moments later a file appears on his hard drive ready to be imported into his Excel spreadsheet. There are even ways to have the spreadsheet start up, load the file, and run a macro to manipulate the contents. Very slick!

Doug Smith, SGA
Loves Park, IL
dougs%sga@wheaton.wheaton.edu

Thanks for the extra information. I'm particularly grateful for the Mac-related information, as I haven't had much personal experience with Mac products. -- rlw

From: Ed Schaefer
Subject: USNO update

In our article, "Time Services from the US Naval Observatory" (Jul/Aug 1995), Steve Friedl and I gave a phone number for the clock at the Observatory. We've since learned that at some point in the future the phone number for the clock will change from 202-653-0351 to a new number: 202-762-1594. When the change will occur is not known. Readers can consult the web page at

http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/phones.html

to find out the current phone number.

Dear Robert Ward,
I could not help but notice that your advertisement conspicuously excludes Linux from the list of "All versions of UNIX."

Our network runs on a mix of SunOS, Solaris, BSDi, SystemV, SCO, Linux, and Windows NT/3.x/95. I believe there are a great many shops using Linux in a production environment. In fact, one of our criteria for hiring system personnel involves that they do not make the mistake of ignoring Linux when they discuss the systems with which they are familiar.

I might subscribe to your magazine despite this, but not without first knowing your opinion of whether Linux belongs in the list of "All versions of UNIX". Come to think of it, you see fit to mention PICK and Xenix... but not even BSD? I find that strange and it has made a first impression on us of your possible cluelessness, or perhaps that your advertisers control your content. Please help me resolve this question.

Sincere regards,
James McGill
fishbowl@bilbo.pic.net

Well, I hope the theme on this issue assuages some of your doubts.

Yes, Linux belongs in the list. (Frankly I'm wondering how PICK got on it?) I wouldn't extrapolate too much from the copy in a direct mail piece -- not even if it has my name on it.

Are we clueless? I don't really think so, but I'd rather let the magazine speak for itself. Check it out. If you find something useful, then we've done our job.

But thanks for pointing out the marketing gaffes, anyway.

--rlw