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TransSysPNI.txt
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TransSys PNI 1.11 release
13 August 1994
Software and Documentation is
Copyright 1993, 1994 by TransSys, Inc. and Louis A. Mamakos
All rights reserved.
TransSys (finally) announces the the general release of its PNI
software package.
WHAT IT IS
----------
This software distribution is the first (non-beta) release of the
TransSys PNI Software package. TransSys PNI is a very flexible and
configurable networking product for Motorola- and Intel-based NeXTSTEP
platforms. TransSys PNI is intended to be run on Release 3.1 and 3.2
NeXTSTEP systems. TransSys PNI will allow your NeXTSTEP system to
communicate with remote systems using SLIP (Serial Line IP) over
serial ports and other virtual devices. It has sophisticated packet
filtering abilities as well to control access to various services on
your system.
There are three versions of the software available:
PNI-SLIP -- A freely available version which implements SLIP. This
version is available both as a demo of the software and as a public
service to the NeXT community - NEXTSTEP systems should have a
SLIP solution available free of charge, as do many other platforms.
PNI-BASIC -- a commercial version of the software which implements
SLIP (as above) as well as CSLIP, which is SLIP with TCP Header
Compression.
PNI-PRO -- a commercial version, which, along with the PNI-BASIC
features, also includes IP packet filtering (including idle link
timeouts) and support for IP tunnels.
See the file 'ORDER', included in the demo distributions, for detailed
ordering information. TransSys recommends that only those users that
are already familiar with SLIP and IP networking in general attempt to
install and use the package. Of course, it costs nothing to try to
install the demo software, however, limited support is available.
RANDOM TOPICS
-------------
There are plans for an HP-PA version, but no estimated date for such a
version is available. For now, this package on runs on Intel and
Motorola based 3.1 and 3.2 NeXTSTEP systems. There are reports that
it runs on the first 3.3 pre-release kernel. I expect that version
PNI 1.11 will *not* run on the released 3.3 kernel which will include
IP multicast support and likely different kernel interfaces.
This version doesn't implement dial-on-demand, though PNI-PRO can
implement idle link timeouts using a very precise packet filter
specificiation.
WHERE YOU CAN GET IT
--------------------
A demo version of TransSys PNI is available via anonymous FTP from:
ftp://FTP.UU.NET/vendor/TransSys/TransSys-PNI-1.11.tar.gz
ftp://sonata.cc.purdue.edu/pub/next/submissions/TransSys-PNI-1.11.tar.gz
ftp://cs.orst.edu/pub/next/submissions/TransSys-PNI-1.11.tar.gz
the copy on FTP.UU.NET will only exist until the next release is
available, and should be considered to be the definitive version; the
ones on the Purdue and Oregon State archives will likely move to their
final resting places fairly quickly. Archive maintainers: please
remove any earlier versions you might have.
The base-SLIP only version is free of charge, just like TransSys
DialUp-IP. Other capabilities (CSLIP, filtering, tunnels, etc) will
be licensed at an additional charge.
Included is a SLIP-only license key string with no expiration date.
You can request a demo license key to enable CSLIP, packet filtering
and tunnels by sending a request to pni-demo@TransSys.COM requesting a
demonstration license key.
The demo version can be upgraded to other functions by purchasing a
license key which will enable the additional features. Existing PNI
beta test users can use the license key string:
jA@KiYiHhm6EgoKDruI
with release 1.11 until they make arrangements to purchase a license
key string if desired. This license key string expires on October 13.
If you are a user of previous beta versions of TransSys PNI, you should
install this software as soon as possible, or at least update your
existing installation with the new license key string to keep your
software from expiring. Do the following:
# mv /etc/pni/keyfile /etc/pni/keyfile.SAVE
# /etc/pni/pnid -R 'jA@KiYiHhm6EgoKDruI'
Users of TransSys DialUp-IP who have purchased a license for the CSLIP
version (prior to August 1, 1994) will have a free (or nominal cost if
media is required) upgrade to TransSys PNI.
MORE INFORMATION
----------------
Please read the doc/pni.ps.Z file which contains the documentation for
TransSys PNI. You should uncompress it and either print the file
(about 90 pages) or view it using the NeXTSTEP Preview application.
There are also a set of ASCII files (in doc/info-files.tar.Z) which
can be extracted and read using the GNU emacs "info" hypertext package
or by just paging through it with a text editor.
Alternatively, if you have Internet connectivity and a WorldWideWeb
browser application, you can examine the URL
http://WWW.TransSys.COM/TransSys/pni-info.html
to examine the manual (and other information) without having to fetch
the entire package. This WWW service is experimental, and may change
without notice.
Additional information on TCL and TCL extensions are available in the
files doc/Tcl.ps.Z and doc/TclX.ps.Z.
Comments, suggestions and feature requests can be sent via email to
pni@TransSys.COM. Users of the PNI package that would like to be
notified of new release and other occasional information should also
drop a message to pni@TransSys.COM to get added to a distribution list
for announcements.
Louis Mamakos
TransSys, Inc.
($Id: README,v 1.9 1994/08/14 01:39:52 louie Exp $)