sunflash-Distributed to mailing list sun/NC/north-carolina sunflash-Send requests, problems to owner-sunflash@suntri.east.sun.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Third Party Product Announcements SunFLASH Vol 58 #1 October 1993 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstracts 58.01.A SecurePrint 1.1 Installations processing classified, proprietary, or sensitive information have struggled with labelling and controlling printed output for as long as there have been printers. SecurePrint 1.1 solves this problem for UNIX environments. 58.01.B Assist - Client/Server System Administration Application Assist is a client/server system administration application with optional API interface. The application is available with both OpenWindows and command line interfaces. 58.01.C Announcing the comp.newprod archives the comp.newprod archives are now on-line and open to the public 58.01.D O'Reilly Internet audiotapes These are the "Geek of the Week" Audiotapes "European Networking" "Networked Information and Online Libraries" "Security and Networks" 58.01.E Puzzle Systems: Integrating Solaris 2 and NetWare SoftNet Utilities and SoftNet Client families are being ported to the Solaris 2.x environment. These products are ideal for those wishing to integrate Solaris-based SPARC platforms into existing PC Novell environments. 58.01.F schematiX11 - schematic capture package for Sun Workstations a Sun based, X11 general purpose hierarchical schematic capture package. schematiX11 is bundled with various options and libraries for different market segments schematiX11-spice, schematiX11-xilinx, schematiX11-asic, schematiX11-C and schematiX11-VHDL. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Details -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: SecurePrint 1.1 From: Rodney Lewis (info%hdsi@uunet.UU.NET) Organization: Hierarchical Development Systems, Inc. (HDSi) Telephone: (215) 363-9825 Fax: (215) 363-2655 Hierarchical Development Systems, Inc. (HDSi) Announces SecurePrint 1.1 Installations processing classified, proprietary, or sensitive information have struggled with labelling and controlling printed output for as long as there have been printers. Various approaches have been used over the years. Up to now the available options have been both labor intensive, inflexible and likely to produce inconsistent or erroneous labelling. SecurePrint 1.1 solves this problem for UNIX environments. Material is automatically labelled as it is printed. Numerous options control the positioning and appearance of text and graphics labelling objects, page numbering, destruction dates, cover/trailer pages and more. Policy databases allow you to define valid labelling/user/printer/host combinations for implementing a wide range of security policies. SecurePrint 1.1 enforces your printing policies consistently and transparently across all applications that produce standard ASCII or PostScript output. Information about each print job is logged to support detailed audits of printing activity. SecurePrint 1.1 is appropriate for both classified and commercial environments. SecurePrint 1.1 can automatically label reports, personnel information, presentation charts with appropriate classification levels or markings such as "Competition Sensitive", "Confidential", "Company Proprietary", etc. SecurePrint can automatically generate letterhead, on demand, as correspondence is printed, thus eliminating the need for pre-printed letterhead. In summary, SecurePrint 1.1 provides the level of control you need to protect your sensitive printed information. SecurePrint 1.1 is currently available for SunOS 4.1.x. Call for planned availability on other platforms. A single workstation license is $495 and includes one year of maintenance and support. Quantity discounts are available. For more information contact Hierarchical Development Systems, Inc., 490 Erb Road, Perkiomenville, PA. 18074, (215)363-9825; Fax: (215)363-2655; Email: info%hdsi@uunet.UU.NET Note: You can receive an overview of SecurePrint and sample output in Postscript format (compressed) by sending a request to the email address above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mkabot@TreeWare.Com Subject: Assist - Client/Server System Administration Application Org: TreeWare Address: Box 336 620 Park Avenue Rochester, NY 14607 Phone: (716) 244-7310 Email: info@treeware.com TreeWare is proud to announce Assist, the first in a series of system administration utilities. Assist is a client/server system administration application with optional API interface. The application is available with both OpenWindows and command line interfaces. Assist will be available in October of 1993 at a base price of $300. The benefit of this new system is the ability to perform operations on multiple servers with a single command. Coupled with the optional API interface, development of site specific administration applications becomes simplistic. The Assist application and API allow administration of the following Unix tables: aliases, exports, group, host, netgroup, networks, netmasks, password, and more. Currently supported systems are SunOS 4.x and 5.x with OpenWindows 2.0 and 3.x. Other platforms and windowing systems will be available in the near future. Michael C. Kabot Owner/Sr. Staff Member Assist Product Overview 1.0 Overview This document will describe in some detail the Assist product. It is not intended to answer all questions. Should you have more questions feel free to call us. 1.1 Background With the popularity of networked computers growing, there is a need to lessen (or at least keep same) the amount of work needed to administer these computers. Since each "flavor" of UNIX has it's own rules for setup and configuration there is a need for a common administrative language. This need is the basis for the Assist product. 1.2 What is Assist? Assist is a client/server based application that will perform system administration functions on local and remote machines. Assist gives a common language to administration tasks thereby alleviating the need to remember workstation setup file formats. It also allows for modification of multiple machines with single commands. Interfaces for both OpenWindows and UNIX shell are include. There is an optional API for creating your own applications. 1.3 What Assist is NOT! Assist has nothing to do with Network Management and/or SNMP. It is not an administration "environment" nor does it carry the overwhelming price tag. Assist does not in any way try to replace or duplicate NIS/NIS+. It is simply a tool to ease system administration tasks. 1.4 How can it help me? Simply put, if you are tired of logging into multiple machines to perform one function and/or you wish to forget the cryptic format of configuration files, Assist is for you. 1.5 Platforms Version 1.0 of Assist will run under SunOS 4.x, this includes SunOS 4.0.x and 4.1.x, and SunOS 5.x (Solaris). The Assist GUI will run under OpenWindows 2.x and 3.x. Other platforms and windowing environments are under development for 1994. 1.6 How do I obtain Assist? Call TreeWare today! Assist will be released at the end of October, 1993. 2.0 Details 2.1 Client/Server Architecture Each machine that you want to administer runs an Assist server which processes requests. This allows the client, the Assist application, to run from any machine on the network. The client is the user application that accepts user requests and dispatches them to the appropriate server. The license server provides a means for "floating" software licensing without dictating which machines an Assist server or client run on. The license server may reside on any machine on the network. To facilitate this client/server architecture, Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) have been used as an underlying protocol. 2.2 Licensing When you purchase the Assist product, you are licensed to run a specific number of clients and servers. The license server is "node locked" in that it must always run on a designated machine. Both the client and server look to the license server for validation. This allows you to freely move clients and servers without changing licensing information. This concept is known as "floating" licensing. 2.3 Security Each Assist Server retains a list of validated clients. A validated client is known by its hostid and user-id. Thus, no matter who runs an Assist client, only valid hostid/user-id combinations are allowed to access the servers. The list of validated clients may be changed from any client within the list. This feature also allows assignment of validation on a per-server basis. 2.4 Functionality Table 1 summarizes the function groups that are implemented by the Assist Server and Table 2 summarizes the operations that may be performed within each function group. TABLE 1. Assist Server Function Groups Group Description --------- ---------------------------------- alias /etc/aliases client client information & security export /etc/exports & exportfs group /etc/group & group.adjunct host /etc/hosts ngroup /etc/netgroup nis /var/yp/make nmask /etc/netmasks nwork /etc/networks passwd /etc/passwd, passwd.adjunct, & shadow server information & statistics user user manipulation: passwd entry, home directories, groups.... TABLE 2. Assist Server Function Group Operators Operator Description --------- ---------------------------------- add add an entry to a server(s) delete delete an entry to a server(s) modify modify an entry to a server(s) query query a server(s) for matching entries table-read reads all of a server's entries 3.0 Command Line Interface The Assist Command Line application allows access to the Assist servers from text based terminals and/or command shells. There are three modes of operation: shell, command, and prompt. Each mode takes a command in the form of: function_group operator [function_specific_arguments] 3.1 Shell Mode The shell mode allows Assist commands to be integrated into shell scripts. The basic format for the shell mode is: treestump% assist command where command is in the form previously described. Example: treestump% assist host add 13.252.0.1 newhost none server1 server2 3.2 Command Mode The command mode allows multiple Assist commands to be executed without re-entering the Assist Command Line application. After executing the Assist application from a shell, a `CMD>' prompt will appear. Any valid Assist command may now be entered. Example: treestump% assist CMD> host add 13.252.0.1 newhost none server1 server2 3.3 Prompt Mode The prompt mode continues along the line of the command mode. Once the Assist application has been executed, you receive a `CMD>' prompt. Instead of entering an entire command on the line, you may enter just the function group. After this, all necessary variables will be prompted for. This mode is useful when you do not remember the exact syntax for a function group/operator pair. Example: treestump% assist CMD> host CMD> Operator: add delete modify query tr CMD> Operator> add CMD> IP address>13.252.0.1 CMD> Hostname>newhost CMD> [Aliases]> CMD> [Comment]> CMD> [Options]: [noval],[cont] CMD> [Options]> CMD> Servers>server1 server2 4.0 OpenWindows Interface The OpenWindows interface provides a point and click mechanism to access the function groups on the Assist servers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Announcing the comp.newprod archives Newsgroups: comp.newprod comp.infosystems.gopher From: chip@chinacat.unicom.com (Chip Rosenthal) I'm pleased to announce that the comp.newprod archives are now on-line and open to the public. At this time, the archives consist of a couple hundred new product announcements dating back to March 1993, which is when the current moderator took on responsibility for the newsgroup. The current publication rate is about five hundred new product announcements per year, and it appears to be increasing. This means that the newprod archives could grow to be a great resource: a place you can turn when looking for computer-related product and services. The newprod archives are possible through the courtesy of the folks at the Texas Metronet . They have graciously provided us the necessary disk space and bandwidth to host the archives. I'd like to give them, particularly Bill Middleton, a big thank you for their support. Please note, however, that both the maintenance and the content of the archives are the sole responsibility of the comp.newprod moderator. Bug me and not the Texas Metronet folks with any problems and questions. Access to the archives is provided through the Internet Gopher. If you don't know what Gopher is, steal a copy of Ed Krol's |The Whole Internet| from somebody. If you are a Gopher user, you should be able to access the newprod archives by saying: gopher feenix.metronet.com The archives are organized so that you can peruse the new product announcements: - by posting date - by product vendor - by keyword search The current version of the comp.newprod periodic information posting, which includes the submission guidelines, is also available there. At this time, Gopher is the only method of access provided. Anon ftp access should become available Real Soon Now(tm). We are also considering other methods (email server, WAIS, etc.) for possible future implementation. If you are a Gopher administrator, you can link to the archives by: Name=The comp.newprod Archives (new product announcements) Admin=The comp.newprod Moderator Type=1 Host=feenix.metronet.com Port=70 Path=1/newprod The archives will operate for the next couple of months on a trial basis. We want to make sure enough people find the service useful enough to justify the on-going maintenance, as well as not creating an undue burden on the Metronet systems. If you have comments or questions, please contact me at . If you use the service and find it useful, I'd like to know that too. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: O'Reilly Internet audiotapes From: Brian Erwin "Geek of the Week" Audiotapes We are pleased to announce the inaugural release of our audiotape coverage of Internet Talk Radio's interview series "Geek of the Week". Single tapes are $9.95; two for $17.95, and all three for $24.95 (plus shipping). "European Networking" Carl Malamud Interviews Glenn Kowack and Rob Blokzijl ISBN 1-56592-999-3; 1 hour; $9.95 Glenn Kowack is chief executive of EUnet, the network that's bringing the Internet to the ordinary people of Europe. Glenn talks about EUnet's populist business model and the politics of European networking. The highlight of the interview is Glenn's humorous tale of trying to set up links in Eastern Europe, where the telecommunications infrastructure isn't always what you expect. Rob Blokzijl is the network manager for NIKHEF, the Dutch Insitute of High Energy Physics. NIKHEF has been one of the key sites for networking in Europe, and Rob has been the force behind that presence. In this interview, Rob talks about the nuts and bolts of European network coordination, covering such topics as RIPE, the IP users group for Europe, why Amsterdam seems to be the center of so much European networking, and what it was like to try to put networks together in an era of massive centrally planned information policies and functionally obese networking protocols. "Networked Information and Online Libraries" Carl Malamud Interviews Peter Deutsch and Cliff Lynch ISBN 1-56592-999-5; 1 hour; $9.95 Peter Deutsch, President of Bunyip Information Services, was one of the co-developers of Archie, a service that scans anonymous FTP sites and maintains distributed databases that allow users on the Internet to locate copies of files they are looking for. Since then, he has been instrumental in the IETF working group seeking to deploy a white pages service called whois++. Peter talks about his philosophy for services and compares Archie to X.500. He also talks about what kind of standards we need for networked information retrieval. Cliff Lynch is one of the most thoughtful participants in the race to move libraries and publishers onto electronic publishing platforms. Cliff is currently the Director of Library Automation for the University of California. He discusses online publishing, looking at the issue of SGML as a markup language and examining the question of presentation integrity versus the desire for revisable form documents. He also discusses the Z39.50 protocol, the scaling of very large databases, the democratization of publishing, and the need to develop new standards for Internet publishing. "Security and Networks" Carl Malamud Interviews Jeff Schiller and John Romkey ISBN 1-56592-999-7; 1 hour; $9.95 Jeff Schiller is one of the Internet's leading security experts and the manager of MIT's campus network. Jeff talks about the deployment of PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) and a public key infrastructure and explains his philosophy of "very good security or no security." Jeff also talks about the difficulty of policing the Internet and discusses whether horses or computers are more useful to criminals. John Romkey has been a long-time TCP/IP developer and was recently named to the Internet Architecture Board. In this wide-ranging interview, John talks about the role of security in the Internet and export control policies that leave RSA algorithms patented in the US but available for anonymous FTP in Finland. John also discusses the role of SNMP in ToasterNet, and we learn why his garage is full of burnt Eggos and how he incurred the wrath of the Waffle Union. --------------------------------------------------------------------- These and other O'Reilly products are available in the Americas and Japan through bookstores, or directly from the publisher. Access our gopher catalog through "telnet gopher.ora.com" (log in as "gopher"). To contact us: telephone 707-829-0515 (800-998-9938 in US & Canada); FAX 707-829-0104; email order@ora.com; or write O'Reilly & Associates, 103A Morris St., Sebastopol, CA, 95472, USA. GSA # GS-02F-6095A. The audiotapes are available through our international distributors: * Europe (except German-speaking countries), Middle East, and Africa through International Thomson Publishing, Berkshire House, 168-173 High Holborn, London WC1V 7AA, UK. Telephone 44-71-497-1422; FAX 44-71-497-1426; or email samantha.jones@itpuk.co.uk * German-speaking countries through International Thomson Publishing, Konigswinterer Strabe 418, 53227 Bonn, Germany. Telephone 49-228-445171; FAX 49-228-441342; or email 100272.2422@compuserve.com * Asia through International Thomson Publishing, 221 Henderson Rd., #05-10 Henderson Building, Singapore 0315. Telephone 65-272-6496; FAX 65-272-6498 * Australia and New Zealand through WoodsLane, Unit 8, 101 Darley Street, Mona Vale, NSW 2103, Australia. Telephone 61-2-979-5944; FAX 61-2-997-3348; or email woods@tmx.mhs.oz.au -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Puzzle Systems: Integrating Solaris 2 and NetWare From: jal@puzzle.com James Leslie Org: Puzzle Systems Location: Morgan Hill, California phone: (408) 779-9909 FAX: (408) 779-5058 email: sales@puzzle.com Puzzle Systems Corporation, the market leader in UNIX-based NetWare server and client emulation, has announced that their SoftNet Utilities and SoftNet Client families are being ported to the Solaris 2.x environment. These products are ideal for those wishing to integrate Solaris-based SPARC platforms into existing PC Novell environments. Without disturbing native capabilities, SoftNet Utilities will allow SPARC platforms running under Solaris 2.x to also emulate NetWare 2.2 or 3.11 file and print servers to PC NetWare workstations just as it now does under Solaris 1.x. Bi-directional UNIX/Novell printing will also provided as well as terminal emulation. All of these capabilities are provided using only the IPX protocol. (Only IPX required on the PC NetWare workstation!) SoftNet Client will allow Solaris 2.x SPARC platforms to access and mount PC-based Novell 2.2 and 3.11 servers as a Novell client. Full NetWare server file access as well as Novell printing resources will be available to the UNIX workstation. (NFS support is NOT required on the target Novell servers.) Commercial availability for both product lines is scheduled for late November/early December 1993. Pricing will be similar to the existing Solaris 1.x versions. Contact Puzzle Systems for details. As with all SoftNet products, UNIX kernel reconfiguration, additional hardware or disk partitioning are NOT required. In addition, nothing additional is required on the Novell PC side. The Solaris 1.x version WILL continue to be offered alongside the Solaris 2.x versions. SoftNet, SoftNet Utilities, and SoftNet Client are trademarks of Puzzle Systems Corporation. The other trade names mentioned are trademarks/registered trademarks of their respective companies. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: schematiX11 - schematic capture package for Sun Workstations From: gsmith@softsmiths.oz.au@softsmiths.oz.au (Geoffrey J Smith) Org: SoftSmiths Pty. Ltd. Email: info@softsmiths.oz.au Phone: +61 7 847 2990 Fax: +61 7 847 2707 Address: 54 Wylma St Holland Pk 4121 Australia schematiX11-spice X11 Schematic Editor with Spice Interface SoftSmiths is pleased to announce the availability of its X11 schematic editor tool, schematiX11. schematiX11 - a general purpose X11 based schematic editor; - symbol placement and wiring - deletion, moving and copying of wires and symbols - region moving, copying and deletion; - user definable properties on each symbol/instance - user extensible netlisting capability; - provides scaled postscript generation in either portrait or landscape modes and in A4 or US letter sizes. - snap-to-port capability - manhattan and non-manhattan wiring; - a script-driven graphical symbol editor; - multipage (flat) capability - provides push-pop hierarchical ical features including automatic symbol generation from scripts in top-down mode and symbol generation from implementation in bottom up mode; *********************************************************************** * schematiX11 is bundled with various options, libraries and * * capabilities to target different market segments. * * * *********************************************************************** schematiX11-spice: - allows the schematic capture of spice elements, transistors, passive elements, subckts and macros; - has a user extensible netlisting capability, so users can add their own elements or subckts to the symbol library and provide spice circuit netlists for same; - controls spice file creation (includes models and commands) and submitting to PSPICE, HSPICE and /or Berkeley Spice - waveform viewing with the X11 based viewsof package (option W) - automatic data extraction and checking with the querysof tool - allows for results to be extracted and reported and waveforms to be checked with assertions (option C) For your interest, coming soon are schematiX11-xilinx: allows the schematic capture of Xilinx elements; generates netlists in Xilinx's XNF format for use with Xilinx XACT software; schematiX11-asic: schematic capture and simulation for ASICs schematiX11-C: schematic capture and simulation using the C language schematiX11-vhdl: schematic capture and design entry as a front-end to VHDL simulation schematiX11 runs on Sun Workstations and/or attached X terminals. For more information please contact info@softsmiths.oz.au ********************************************************************** For information about SunFlash send mail to info-sunflash@Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@Sun.COM. Archives are on draco.nova.edu, ftp.uu.net, sunsite.unc.edu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. Please contact your local Sales Representative for details of pricing and product availability in your region. Descriptions of, or references to products or publications within SunFlash does not imply an endorsement of that product or publication by Sun Microsystems. Send brief articles (e.g. third party announcements) and include contact information (non-800#, fax #, email, etc) to: John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@Sun.COM. +1 305 351 4909