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Copying Files Between Your Workstation and Networked Drives with NFS

NFS (Network File System) lets you associate a drive letter on your workstation with a file system on another computer. During an NFS session, you can copy, delete, and edit files across NFS.

Copying Files Between Local and Network Drives

Using NFS, you can copy files between drives just as you would with any other application. For example, in Windows 95, use the Windows Explorer to drag and drop files between drives. In Windows 3.x, use the File Manager.

Specifying an NFS Server

To specify an NFS server:

  1. Start NFS and Print Assistant from the Start menu by choosing Programs and the Cisco Suite 100 program group. (For information on Windows 3.x NFS Assistant and Print Assistant applications, refer to Appendix B, "Using Windows 3.x NFS" on page 361.)

    The main activity window appears:

  2. If the server you wish to add does not appear in the Servers and Printers list, Click Add... to add a server. Your network administrator can provide a list of available servers.

    The Add Server dialog box appears:

  3. Enter the server name and click OK. Specify the full domain for the server; for example, oak.yoyodyne.com.

    Note

    By entering the full domain name of a server, you prevent potential conflicts with other network services such as NetWare. If a NFS server is also a NetWare server, NetWare may intercept the connection before NFS. If this occurs, NetWare dialog boxes appear, such as a NetWare Guest login box, or a message can appear indicating that the host is not found. Consult your network administrator for more information

  4. If you want to add printer support, you can check the appropriate boxes and add print queues as you require. See "Printing on NFS-Networked Printers" on page 110.
  5. Start Network Neighborhood from the Windows 95 desktop and click Entire Network when it appears. The NFS filesystems appear in the network list as the NFS Servers and Printers entry with a workgroup icon.
  6. Double-click the NFS Servers and Printers workgroup icon to view the list of the NFS servers you specified in the NFS and Print Assistant.

  7. Double-click the server you want to access to view all available mount points. Mount points are folders (directories) to which you have access on the remote system. By default, each mount point appears in the list as a folder icon.
  8. Double-click a folder if you wish to browse its contents without making a temporary or permanent connection.
  9. If you want to make a temporary or permanent connection, assign a drive letter to the mount point by right-clicking the mount point folder and choosing the Map Network Drive command. The Map Network Drive dialog box appears.
  10. Either accept the drive letter or enter an alternate. If you want NFS to reconnect this drive for future Windows sessions, click the Reconnect at Logon check box. Click OK. The NFS Network Client Connect dialog box appears:

  11. Enter your remote host user name and password. If your network administrator has told you that you need security authentication from a secondary NFS server, enter that server name in the Authentication Server field.

    If you want NFS and Print Assistant to store your password for the next time you log into this server, check Save Password. If you want to increase NFS performance, check Enable Fast Read.

    You can set additional performance options by clicking the Options button. See "NFS Global Options" on page 68.

  12. To view the filesystem, start the Windows Explorer from the Programs group on the Start menu. Search the list of folders for the NFS folder icon and expand the icon as you would any other folder in Windows Explorer.

    You can also view the filesystem from My Computer by double-clicking the icon for the NFS drive.

  13. To disconnect a connection, use Windows Explorer to find the mount point to which you assigned the driver letter, select the file or directory name, and choose Disconnect Network Drive from the Network menu. An alternative is to choose Disconnect from the right-click menu.

NFS Global Options

If your network administrator has told you to set other options, set them in Connect Options dialog box. Access this dialog box by clicking the Options button from the NFS Network Client Connect dialog box described in the last section in Step 10.

In addition, you can view and change some of the options in the Connection Options dialog box from the NFS Options tab when viewing the properties of one or more files or directories. See "NFS File Properties" on page 73.

The Connection Options dialog box is:

  1. Check the Persist After Network Failure check box to indicate that NFS Assistant should attempt to reconnect to the NFS server every second indefinitely if it loses the connection to the NFS server. If you check both this check box and the Wide Area Network check box, NFS Assistant attempts to reconnect every 30 seconds.

    Clear the Persist After Network Failure check box to indicate that if the connection to the NFS server is lost, the NFS Assistant should time out after 30 seconds.

    In either case, if the connection is lost, it appears in the Current Connections list on the Connections tab until you remove it.

  2. Check the Wide Area Network check box to compensate for delays when connecting across long-distance telephone lines or by satellite. Clear this check box to indicate your site is local and does not require compensation for network delays.

    Note

    You can check or clear the Wide Area Network check box only when you first create a connection; it is not available in Modify Connection Options dialog box. If you need help in determining whether your system is on a wide-area network, contact your network administrator.

  3. Check the Convert Text Files to Stream-LF check box to view OpenVMS or UNIX text files with the proper format. If you only examine text files on DOS systems, clear this check box.

    Note

    This option affects how long it takes to access a directory. If you check this option, accessing a directory takes longer because NFS converts each text file to Stream-LF format. We recommend you use this option selectively.

  4. Check the Enable Data Caching check box to increase NFS performance when building applications between mounted filesystems. This increases NFS performance for programming applications accessing NFS mounted files.
  5. Check the Enable Network Locking check box to ensure that others cannot access files while you are using them. This option is significant if you are working in a shared- files environment. Clear this check box if you are the only one accessing files on the file systems to which you are connected.
  6. Check the Enable Fast Write check box to specify that the NFS server should increase NFS performance when saving data to disk. This feature works by the NFS Assistant not waiting for verification from the NFS server that a write is successful; data is written, but the NFS Assistant does not wait to be sure. If a problem occurs on the NFS server, the next read or write request detects the problem and data is resent, or should the NFS server fail, queued until the server is back online. Clear the Enable Fast Write check box to disable this feature.
  7. Check the Read Only Filesystem check box if you only want read access for this NFS connection. Clear this check box if you want write or delete access for this NFS connection. If you clear this check box, the NFS directory must be configured for write or delete access for you to take advantage of it.
  8. The Maximum Packet Size field lets you specify the number of characters (bytes) to be stored in a packet before it is sent to the NFS server. We recommend a packet size of 8192 bytes. If you have performance degradation over NFS, use 1024 bytes. Contact your network administrator for more information.
  9. To specify a different port on the NFS server for NFS communications, enter the new port in the NFS Server Port field. Contact your network administrator before changing the port. This option is not available in the Modify Connection Options dialog box.

NFS Command-Line Access

The Windows 95 NFS and Print Assistant supports command- line access with the NET USE command from an MS-DOS Prompt. NET USE lets you quickly establish a connection by specifying your connection information in a single command string. For example, you can connect an NFS-networked filesystem to a drive letter with a command like:

net use m: \\oak;holmes;password\users

where: oak is a workstation running an NFS server, holmes is your user name on oak, password is your password on oak, and users is a directory on oak to which you have access.

Note

NFS command-line access only works on systems where user names, file names, and passwords are not case-sensitive. Windows 95 changes all NET USE commands to uppercase before sending them to the NFS server. In addition, any host you access with NET USE must be listed in a host table or else you must enter its IP address. You can create a host table entry with the Configuration Utility.

If the NFS server is also a NetWare server, NetWare may intercept the connection before NFS. If this occurs, NetWare dialog boxes appear, such as a NetWare Guest login box, or a message can appear indicating that the host is not found. You can prevent this occurrence by specifying the full domain name of the server; for example, oak.yoyodyne.com. Consult your network administrator for more information.

The format for NET USE for NFS is:

net use drive_letter: \\host;username;password;options\path

where:

Disconnect a connection with:

net use drive_letter: /d

NFS File Properties

You can view NFS file properties in the same way as you would with any other file in Windows 95:

  1. Select a file or folder name in a folder that you previously connected to a remote NFS server.
  2. Click the right mouse button and choose Properties from the menu. The Properties dialog box appears. Click the NFS Details tab to view NFS-related information about the file:

    This dialog box lists the location of the file or directory on the remote host, whether its a file or directory, the group ID (GID) identification number on the remote host, your owner ID (UID) identification number on the remote host, and who may access the file or directory.

    If you view properties for more than one file or directory, only the location and File Protection attributes are available.

  3. Click the NFS Options tab to set performance options. The NFS Options tab appears:

    Grayed out options can only be set when you first start the connection to the remote host. Refer to "NFS Global Options" on page 68 for an explanation of the options.



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