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- TransSys PNI 1.13 release
-
- Software and Documentation is
- Copyright 1993, 1994 by TransSys, Inc. and Louis A. Mamakos
- All rights reserved.
-
- 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 1.13 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.UU.NET: /vendor/TransSys/TransSys-PNI-1.13.tar.gz
- sonata.cc.purdue.edu: /pub/next/submissions/TransSys-PNI-1.13.tar.gz
- ftp.cs.orst.edu: /pub/next/submissions/TransSys-PNI-1.13.tar.gz
-
- the copy on FTP.UU.NET will exist until the next release is available,
- and should be considered to be the definitive version. The software
- 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.
-
- Users of TransSys Dial-Up 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. Do this to get an automatic
- upgrade from Dial-Up IP to PNI:
-
- grep ':' /usr/dialupip/config/keyfile | /usr/ucb/mail -s upgrade info@TransSys.COM
-
-
- 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 1.10 1994/10/03 03:49:31 louie Exp $)
-