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From: ward@chinet.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Networking with PC's -- inquiry
Message-ID: <1119@chinet.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 28-Feb-87 05:28:44 EST
Article-I.D.: chinet.1119
Posted: Sat Feb 28 05:28:44 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Mar-87 15:01:35 EST
References: <200@trwspf.UUCP>
Reply-To: ward@chinet.UUCP (Ward Christensen-)
Distribution: world
Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix
Lines: 25


  I thought I'd reply to this item with a small "tutorial" on the IBM
networking product, its LAN software.  While hardly comprehensive, this 
should give you a 'quick' overview.
  There are fundamentally two kinds of stations: those that serve, and those
that don't.  The lowest level is called a 'redirector', because when you go
after a disk, the software redirects it to the server; ditto for a printer.
  You can have both local and remote printers, local and remote disks.  No
disk-less booting.
  The server is set up by creating sub-directories, then giving these
individual "network names".  This is like the logical-to-physical mapping
used in "lots of things" like IBM OS JCL, etc.  Thus, I could create a
directory called \shared, but tell the network is is "mailbox".
  Then the "using" PC's would say "make mailbox my M: drive".
  The server dictates what kind of access the users can have - i.e. 
whether they are read/only, or can have create, delete, etc.
  To summarize: a subdirectory on the server becomes a "drive" on the
user's PC.  People can share a directory, or you can have it exclusive for
a user.  
  A user could have an LPT1 that is local, and an LPT2 that is on the network.
  One of the complaints I hear is that the only 'security' is that a RESOURCE
can have a password (i.e. you have to enter a password for a drive, when
booting), but USERS don't have passwords.  There are no ID's, etc.
  There are also asynch servers and remote netbios access, but I have no
familiarity with them.