*BSD News Article 85657


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From: Zan Oliphant <zan@gate.net>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce
Subject: Press Release (FreeBSD Related)
Date: 25 Dec 1996 19:28:57 -0600
Organization: Zan Software
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NEW INTERNET SOFTWARE COMPANY DEBUTS WITH WINDOWS 95 NETWORK CLIENT AND
UNIX SERVER FOR WEBMASTERS

Software Provides a Windows 95 Network Drive that Maps to a Single
Process, Single Client Server Running Under a Standard Unix Shell
Account. 

DELRAY BEACH, FL, December 16, 1996 - Zan Software, a new software firm
specializing in Internet software, today introduced a beta of its first
product called ZanNet. The software provides Windows 95 users with a
network drive to access their web files through a standard Unix shell
account. The product allows server file maintenance through standard
file utilities such as the Windows Explorer rather than using
traditional Unix based tools like the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and
Unix command line.

Breaking away from the classical client/server paradigm, the ZanNet
server is a single process that handles a single Windows client. This
design keeps the server code simple and portable. Because all
configuration of the software is maintained on the client side, server
installation is a snap and requires no help from a Unix system
administrator. Great news for small to medium sized companies
maintaining web files through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) with a
combination of FTP and Unix command line. The initial ZanNet beta
contains server binaries for SunOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and AIX with more on
the way. POSIX compliant source code for the server is also provided
with a single 2000 line C language source file making porting easy for
even the most novice C programmers. 

"Last June, I was looking for a better way to maintain my web files
through a local ISP. I asked the Internet provider if I could access my
files with the Network File System (NFS) standard. Their response was:
NF what?" said Zan Oliphant, founder and president of Zan Software.
"Even if they know how to configure a server for a Windows client,
fearing security problems, Internet Service Providers are hesitant to
allow anything but FTP and shell account access. ZanNet avoids this
security risk by requiring login through a shell account and provides
for more flexibility than FTP and better usability than the Unix command
line."

Seeing a market for a new product, Mr. Oliphant, with help from a crew
of programmers, took on the 6 month development project. 

"Our design philosophy was to keep the server side extremely simple
requiring no intervention on the part of the service provider. That way,
a Windows user could configure the server through a standard Unix Telnet
login without needing administrative privileges," went on Oliphant.
"Keeping the ISP happy was also a priority. We kept the Unix binary
under 50,000 bytes in size for a small memory image and maintained tight
control of the server's CPU cycles."

The client software, consisting of a Windows 95 network provider and
network redirector, communicates with the Unix server through both
WinSock and Microsoft's TCP/IP-32 VxD Interface. A control connection is
established to the server with WinSock through Telnet by the Windows
network provider. After control is established through WinSock, network
file system requests are sent to the server by the ZanNet network
redirector with the TCP/IP-32 VxD Interface. Once ZanNet is setup for
the first time, it can automatically connect a network drive after an
Internet connection is established. Multiple volumes and multi-threaded
I/O are also supported. File progress is available through a user dialog
in addition to I/O speed and other statistics. ZanNet network file
system I/O can be stopped at any time with both a hot-key sequence and
control buttons to free applications from an I/O request on a slow or
dead server. Password security is provided by the Windows 95 password
caching mechanism. For Unix porting and problem debugging, server debug
messages can be enabled through the Telnet connection. 

After weeks of in-house testing, in addition to alpha testing with
selected ISPs, a 30 day trail beta of ZanNet is available to the general
public from: http://www.gate.net/~zan. The product is initially priced
at $95.00 for a single user license. For more information, contact Zan
Oliphant at zan@gate.net.