Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!east!hinode!geoff From: geoff@hinode.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans Subject: Re: PC/NFS and NCSA Telnet reprised Message-ID: <2469@east.East.Sun.COM> Date: 24 Aug 90 11:35:51 GMT References: <1990Aug20.185329.8200@naitc.uucp> <999@ncis.tis.llnl.gov> <1324.26d51b97@waikato.ac.nz> Sender: news@east.East.Sun.COM Reply-To: geoff@east.sun.com (Geoff Arnold @ Sun BOS - R.H. coast near the top) Organization: Sun Microsystems PC-NFS Engineering Lines: 37 Quoth hamish@waikato.ac.nz (in <1324.26d51b97@waikato.ac.nz>): #In article , nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) writes: #> Yes, your self-admitted ignorance shows. The packet driver is for sharing #> the device with *different* protocols, not the *same* protocols. The only #> way to run NCSA Telnet over PC-NFS is for NCSA Telnet to *use* PC-NFS. #> That is, if you want to avoid booting. #Hmmmm.... # I'd better go back and try again. I could have sworn that I was running them #both together just a couple of weeks ago, with no problems whatsoever. The #reason was because poeple didn't like the NFS telnet so I told them to just use #the NCSA one. It seemed to work There are certain PC networking applications whose drivers "nest" well with other packages: they take over the interface to the network adapter (vectors, registers, shared memory config, etc.) cleanly and restore it on exit. There are obvious hardware dependencies here: if the device includes "write-only" state, it's tough to recover. (There are also some dependencies on the way the PC-NFS driver was written: if the "interruption" of the network app. appears to the PC-NFS driver to be a hardware glitch of some kind, some PC-NFS drivers will reset and recover.) Some of the builtin NCSA drivers (not packet drivers) are well-behaved in this way. (I believe the 3C501 driver is one example, but I haven't checked in ages.) In these cases, you can boot with PC-NFS and then successfully run the network app; while the latter is running, PC-NFS is effectively suspended. You must obviously make sure that you don't stir PC-NFS into life by (e.g.) referencing an NFS-mounted drive from within the application, but apart from that limitation everything may just work for you. Geoff -- Geoff Arnold, PC-NFS architect, Sun Microsystems. (geoff@East.Sun.COM) -- To receive a full copy of my .signature, please dial 1-900-GUE-ZORK. Each call will cost you one zorkmid.