SoftNet Utilities is the NetWare SERVER emulation member of the SoftNet product family. What makes this Software emulator interesting is that it uses the IPX transport protocol for UNIX host access and does NOT require the PC NetWare client to also have TCP/IP or install additional products from other companies for this purpose.

PC NetWare Clients

System Requirements

The NetWare Client simply loads IPX and NetX (or ODI Drivers, VLM's, etc.) as they normally would. They can then access PC-based NetWare servers, SoftNet Utilities-based UNIX platforms as well as conduct terminal sessions to the UNIX hosts using the included IPX-based DOS terminal emulator.

Installation Features

Installation is menu-driven and simple. It can be accomplished in 15 minutes provided the installer(s) is familiar with UNIX & NetWare at the administrative level.

Significantly, UNIX kernel reconfiguration and disk partitioning are not required for any of the UNIX platforms supported and nothing but the PVT TSR is required on the PC NetWare client side. If no terminal emulation is to be done, the PVT TSR does not need to be loaded.

The graphical menu system presents six or so "housekeeping" questions (i.e., "What's the network address?", etc). After these have been answered, the SoftNet utilities server application is then started as a UNIX process.

(It's worth restating that SoftNet Utilities does not interfere with the UNIX host's standard TCP/IP activities or in any way dedicate the machine to NetWare-only file serving. In addition, an additional Ethernet port is, likewise, NOT required on the UNIX host).

Administration of the SoftNet Utilities NetWare Emulation Process

After process start on the UNIX host, the SoftNet Utilities-equipped UNIX platform appears and behaves like a NetWare 3.12 server using standard NetWare admin utilities (i.e. syscon, pconsole, fconsole, ect.).

Very Important Note: The UNIX host appears as a NetWare server only to PC NetWare clients/adminstrators and other NetWare servers. The UNIX host continues to be able to perform all its native UNIX-TCP/IP capabilities whether or not the SoftNet Utilities applications is running.

To clarify, SoftNet Utilities is installed and configured on the UNIX side and is then administered from the PC NetWare side.

Special Features

SoftNet Utilities is "multi-processor ready" by design. If multiple processors are resident in the UNIX host, they will automatically be taken advantage of with no action required for this.

Terminal Emulation - Besides providing concurrent NetWare connections, IPX-based terminal emulation is also included in each SoftNet Utilities package.

Bi-Directional Printing - UNIX/Novell printing capabilities are also provided in each package.

---

SoftNet NFS

SoftNet NFS is the second member of the SoftNet product family. Whereas SoftNet Utilities enables a UNIX platform to emulate a NetWare server, SoftNet NFS allows the reverse in that the Novell server can also function as an NFS server.

System Requirements: Target NetWare Server

• The target NetWare server must be running either NetWare 3.1x, or 4.x.
• An easy-to-use menu prompts the Novell server administrator with a few simple questions and NFS serving commences.
• Novell disk partitioning is not required.

Special Features

• The UNIX workstation user need not worry whether the target NetWare server is at the 3.1X or 4.X revision. The SoftNet NFS software on the Novell server will automatically sense the host NetWare server's software version and log in accordingly. This is true even if some NetWare servers being logged onto are at 2.2 and others are at 3.1X.

• SoftNet NFS enables any NFS client to access and mount this host NetWare file server and utilize its disk & print resources.