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From: conrad@popvax.uucp (M20400@c.nobili)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm
Subject: Re: Freeware IP Mailer (Actually, ping &c for the Mac...)
Summary: superserver/client provides ping, who{,is}, finger &c for Macs
Keywords: superserver client ping unix internet services Macs
Message-ID: <6567@husc6.harvard.edu>
Date: 28 Apr 91 03:49:27 GMT
References: <1991Apr25.202454.18872@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@husc6.harvard.edu
Organization: Harvard University, Office for Information Technology
Lines: 59

In article <1991Apr25.202454.18872@midway.uchicago.edu> marc@ellis.uchicago.edu (marc jacobson) writes:
>
>Another application we are looking for is "ping" capability, either in 
>conjunction with the above program, or standalone.  And any other nifty
>kinds of utilities that we could distribute to professors who are going
>to soon be ethernetted and macified.
>

I know I posted something about this some months ago, but I'll be danged if I
can find a copy of what I said.  It's a bit of a drag since I can only give the
names of some things, without the info on where you can grab them from via ftp.

There is a program called superserver someplace which you can install on one of
your local unix machines.  Basically it is some sort of daemon which looks for
connections on a particular port from the client program which you will use to
access the service(s).  ANY user on the unix machine can publish any service
which he or she has the priveleges to execute.  Of course the service must be
able to take input and produce its output in a relatively simple fashion.

So, you get superserver and install it on a unix machine.  You (and others) can
then publish various services to the superserver process.  Then anyone who can
reach your machine can use client (that's the name of the desk accessory that
can be gotten with superserver to connect with it) to execute one of those pub-
lished services.

I had installed this on a machine a while back and found it quite useful.  It
was nice to have all of the simple little unix things like ping and who and 
finger at the reach of my mouse.  All of these things are often necessary, but
it is quite annoying to have to fire up a telnet or tn3270 session and log in
to a "real" computer just to find out if someone is logged on or if some machine
is reachable from somewhere else....

I apologize for not having the location information for this software.  I looked
on one of my unix accounts and found this scrap of information though.  It was
in a file called NOTES which came with the superserver stuff.  Perhaps someone
can supply the ftp archive site name...?

     If you have questions, comments, bug reports, large amounts of excess cash,
     horny women, etc., send a letter to koreth@ebay.sun.com.

(Please don't flame ME about this person's preferred forms of compensation....)
(P.S.  Does this sort of appeal actually work???)

Well, I hope this helps some people.  The cool thing about a superserver/client
pair is that it is very general.  You can execute all sorts of programs from a
Mac DA.  You don't have to log in to another machine first.  And you have the
same user interface for all the services.  Many of these services would not be
worth writing separate applications for.  And it would be a pain in the *ss to
have lots of little applications like finger and who and ping kicking around on
your Mac anyway....

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