Interfacing with Microsoft Windows Systems

The following topics describe the process of adding PC/NT systems into a work group.

Hardware Connections

Adding a personal computer (PC) to a workgroup is much more a logical operation than a physical one. The only requirement from a hardware perspective is to give the personal computer physical access to the other computers in the workgroup. This connection is usually (but not always) a network connection. It could, however, be a modem (dial-in) connection: a telephone-based UUCP connection, or a Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) connection for example.

The requirements of this connection depend on how you plan to interact with the PC. For example, occasionally transferring small ASCII files or exchanging text-based e-mail between the users of the PC and the users of your HP-UX computers isn’t likely to be a problem for a serial line because comparatively little data are being transferred between computers. However, if you plan to constantly share X Window screens between the HP-UX systems and the PC, you had better have a high-speed connection, such as a network connection between the two types of computers, or the performance of your applications will be unacceptably slow (if they work at all).

When connecting the PC to your other computers, you should consider:

The amount of data to be exchanged between the PC and the other computers in your workgroup
How often you plan to access the data on the PC (occasionally? frequently? constantly?)
The type of data you want to exchange (ASCII text? graphics? sound? video?)
How will you exchange the data (file transfer? shared windowing environment? electronic mail?)

Sharing Directories between HP-UX and MS Windows

You can use the HP CIFS product (or third-party products) to share data between HP-UX systems and Windows systems.

HP CIFS

HP CIFS provides HP-UX with a distributed file system based upon Microsoft’s CIFS (Common Internet File System) protocol, also known as the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol. The SMB protocol is the native file-sharing protocol in Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems and is the standard way that millions of PC users share files across corporate intranets.

HP CIFS implements both the server and client components of the CIFS protocol on HP-UX. This means that HP-UX file systems can be mounted onto Window systems and Window file systems can be mounted onto HP-UX systems.

The HP CIFS Server is based upon Samba and provides file as well as print services to CIFS clients including Windows NT, XP, 2000 and other HP-UX machines running the HP CIFS Client software.

The HP CIFS Client enables HP-UX users to mount as UNIX file systems PC shares from CIFS files servers including Window servers and HP-UX machines running the HP CIFS Server software. The HP CIFS client also offers an optional Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) that implements the Windows NTLM authentication protocols. When installed and configured within HP-UX’s PAM facility, this allows HP-UX users to be authenticated against a Windows authentication server.

For detailed information on how to install, configure and use the HP CIFS server and client software, see the HP CIFS Server Administrator's Guide and the HP CIFS Client Administrator's Guide, both available at http://docs.hp.com.

Configuring HP-UX Systems for Terminal Emulation

The primary reason for having a computer in a workgroup (regardless of what type of computer it is) is so that its users can access the resources of other computers in the workgroup.

A common way to access the resources of another computer is to log into the remote computer using a terminal emulation program such as Telnet.

Telnet

The telnet utility is a standard part of the HP-UX operating system, and a Telnet client is included in versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating systems. It is used to log in to a remote system from a personal computer (PC) or an HP-UX system.

The remote system can be a UNIX-based system (such as an HP-UX system), or a PC running Telnet server software. Initially, Windows includes a Telnet client program, which can be used to log in to remote computers, but does not include a Telnet server application, which would allow other computers to “Telnet in” to a Windows operating system. On HP-UX systems, the Telnet server software is known as the telnetd daemon.

Using Telnet to Log in to a PC from an HP-UX System

To use Telnet to log in to a personal computer from your HP-UX system, you will need to:

Make sure that the PC is running, and reachable via your network.
1. Turn on the PC and boot up the Windows NT operating system.
2. Make sure that your PC has networking services configured, and has a network address (IP Address).
Make sure that the PC is running Telnet server software.
1. Install a version of Telnet server software.
  NOTE: Microsoft’s Windows operating systems do not initially include Telnet server software. Commercial and shareware versions of Telnet server software are available from a variety of sources.
2. Configure, and start the Telnet server software according to the instructions that come with it.

On your HP-UX system, start the telnet utility and open a connection to the PC you are trying to access. For example:

$ /usr/bin/telnet
telnet>open vectrapc1.net2.corporate
Trying...
Connected to vectrapc1.net2.corporate.
Escape character is `^]'.
Local flow control off

(A pleasant telnet server/OS identification message)

login:

TIP: You can shorten the connection process by using telnet in noninteractive mode. To do this, specify the name of the PC that you are trying to connect to as an argument on the command line when you start up telnet. For example:

$ /usr/bin/telnet vectrapc1.net2.corporate

Log in using the same user name and password as you would if you were sitting at the PC’s keyboard. How you specify the NT domain information will vary depending on the Telnet server software that you are using. Follow the instructions that come with your Telnet server software or the prompts that the server software gives you during the login process.

Using Telnet to Log in to an HP-UX System from a PC

Make sure that the PC is running, and reachable via your network.
1. Turn on the PC and boot up the Windows NT operating system.
2. Make sure that your PC has networking services configured, and has a network address (IP address).
Make sure that the telnetd daemon is running on your HP-UX system.
The telnetd daemon is not usually run directly. Copies of telnetd are started by the inetd daemon when requests arrive over the network for Telnet services. Therefore:
1. Verify that an entry for telnetd exists in the configuration file /etc/inetd.conf; the entry should look like this:
  telnet stream tcp nowait root /usr/lbin/telnetd telnetd
2. Verify that the file /etc/services has an entry that looks like this:
  telnet 23/tcp # Virtual Terminal Protocol
3. Verify that the inetd daemon is running. On a networked system running at or above run level 2, inetd is automatically started by the script /sbin/rc.2.d/S500inetd during the boot-up sequence. You can verify that it is running by issuing the following command:
  # /usr/bin/ps -ef|grep inetd
On your PC, start the Telnet client software.
If you are using the Telnet client that comes with the Windows operating system, you can start the client by:
1. Clicking on the Start bar in the lower-left corner of your PC’s screen
2. Clicking Programs in the resulting pop-up menu
3. Clicking Accessories in the resulting pop-up menu
4. Clicking on Telnet in the final pop-up menu
Use the Telnet client to connect to your HP-UX system.
If you are using the Telnet client software that comes with the Windows operating system, you can connect to your HP-UX system by:
1. Clicking on the Connect menu item in the upper-left corner of your telnet window.
2. Clicking on the Remote System ... menu item from the connect menu.
3. Entering the name of your HP-UX system in the Host Name field of the resulting dialog box (leave the Port field set to telnet).
4. Clicking on the Connect button in the lower-left corner of the dialog box.

Other Terminal Emulators

Telnet is only one of many terminal emulators — sometimes known as virtual terminals — that can be used to log in to remote systems, but in the UNIX world it is a common one.

Another that is often supported by software packages on the PC for interacting with UNIX systems is rlogin. The rlogin daemon on HP-UX systems is rlogind. The setup and use of rlogin between HP-UX systems and PCs is quite similar to that for Telnet, especially on the HP-UX end. rlogin (client or server) software is not part of Windows operating systems as originally shipped; however, commercial and shareware versions of rlogin can be found for your Windows NT-based PCs.




	IMPORTANT: The telnet and rlogin terminal emulators do not provide secure communications. For more secure communications, you can use a secure shell (ssh) client to access HP-UX. For details on using a secure shell, see ssh(1).