WRQ Inc.’s Reflection NFS version 8.0, available now, has been updated to run on Microsoft Windows 2000 and will enable customers to access file and print services on remote Unix, Linux and OpenVMS systems using TCP/IP utilizing an interface that looks and feels like a PC desktop.
“We’ve been around for 20 years and we’ve been developing what’s called terminal emulation, so we know how to connect PCs with big boxes,” said Sue Lindsey, Reflection product manager with Seattle-based WRQ Inc. “We also connect to Unix systems and Compaq OpenVMS. We know about connectivity, we’ve been doing it for years. We also know about PCs because we were born around the time that the PC was born.”
“We have expertise in this,” she added. “We’ve been recognized by industry leaders, both HP and Sun Microsystems for our ability to bring this technology to their customers and we also know the importance of bringing that to our customers.”
Sun Microsystems Inc.’s director of Solaris marketing, Jeffrey Bernard said, “WRQ has the product mix, reputation, and ability to provide worldwide support that makes them an outstanding company to which we can refer our loyal Solstice Network Client customers for on-going solutions. It was extremely important to Sun to choose an experienced connectivity company to deliver the quality products that Solstice customers have come to expect from Sun.”
According to WRQ, users can connect to remote drives and customize file and network confirmation settings using familiar Windows desktop untilities. “It allows them (customers) to treat their Unix drives and mounts just like they treat their PCs,” said Lindsey.
Some of the key advantages to the newest version include a configurable NFS engine, NFS version 3 compliance, an array of troubleshooting tools and complete integration with Windows 2000 desktop.
According to Lindsey, tools like NFS Utility will allow users to look at all the Windows and Unix permissions on files, directories, and mounted drives, and will allow the user to see information about User ID, and Group IDs (similar to what Active Directory is doing on Windows 2000). And the NFS Statistics tool will give numerical information that will allow users to monitor and diagnose problems with network traffic.
“The key advantage is that it works on Windows 2000,” said Lindsey. “They’ve (IT managers) been doing Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 and now they can add Windows 2000 and utilize the features of Windows 2000 but also treat it exactly like they’ve treated other things. Basically it’s invisible and seamless.”
Calgary, Alta.-based OAS Oilfield Accounting Service Ltd.’s technical staff manager, Tim Kanuka, is very pleased with his decision to purchase Reflection Suite for X, which includes NFS Connection.
“Part of it is that I’ve been using an NFS client for a long time. I was using the Solstice NFS client for quite a few years,” he said. “If you’re in the world of Unix and you want to integrate PCs, it seemed very logical to me and to us, that you want to use the standard protocols and the standard protocol is NFS.
“What this is doing, is it gives you totally transparent access to your Unix box. In fact, the hard work is setting up your Unix box to get all the printing to work correctly,” he added. “It’s like infrastructure: I need this, I need it easily, and it just works. It’s one of those things that if you don’t have it you’re upset…If you don’t have it you suffer.”
WRQ’s recent agreement with Hewlett-Packard to increase the reach of its WRQ Reflection Suite for X and Reflection NFS Connection software, will provide integration between Windows-based PCs and HP Unix host systems.
WRQ’s products will continue to support other Microsoft platforms including Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, Windows 95 and Windows Terminal Server Edition systems. WRQ Reflection NFS Connection is shipped with Reflection Suite for X and Reflection Suite for the Multi-host enterprise.
For more information and pricing, visit WRQ at
www.wrq.com
or call (206) 217-7100.