Very Computer

Any help on this appreciated:

I have to do a report on setting up a network for a one-site business ( say
30 employees max ).
They have an RS6000 running AIX for some databases, job/stock and costing
control applications, and want a PIII Server for new software ( such as
point of sale, office applications ). The RS6000 replaces an older UNIX
machine ( a DEC ? ). New clients will likely be NT workstations and
electronic point of sale ( these would I think be running of the apps on the
RS6000 ).

If the PIII has Windows NT 4, will the AIX apps work over the NT Network ?
If so, is it via something like X-Windows...er, or something along those
lines ? I can find references to Samba too but am not sure if this is what
is needed.

Is AIX a network operating system in the same way as Netware or NT ?

Sheesh ! As you can see, I am stumbling in the dark here ! :)
Many thanks to any kind souls in advance.

Yes, it is possible. I wouldn't want to put pos on NT though. NT is not very
reliable. Novell possibly or Linux or on another brand of Unix would be better
suited for this, I think. However, the windowsNT clients can use any protocol
that is loaded and used on AIX to communicate, like TCP/IP. Both server and
client must talk the same protocol. The application on the client end will
either be a textual based or visual basic like program, and there are others
that can be used in the NT environment to talk to Unix as well. From what I
have heard (we have a RS/6000) and from past experience, visual basic seems too
slow. Xwindows could work, as it can run on the NT client, and presents a
graphical program to the user from the RS/6000. However, the program itself
must reside on the RS/6000 to run in Xwindows. Xwindows, in my opinion is a
little difficult to setup, and can run slow as well. I don't know much about
Samba so I can't help you there. I prefer the old fashioned TCP/IP application
that runs on my windows98 machine and is text-based only, as it is fast and
bug-free, compared to the gui that others use that runs quite a bit slower for
some things, to connect to our RS. Unfortunately, users prefer a nice looking
windows-type program that runs slower, to a text-based program that runs faster
and helps them get their work done sooner. I have been doing AIX administration
for about 1 year and Informix database administration for about 2 months.

Cathy Geier
Aix/web/db administrator
Northwestern College

to use the NT's as terminals of the AIX,
you might want to look at ViewNow x from
http://www.net.manage.com
or
Exceed English 6.2.0
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00002S6X7/webviator/002-74917...

by the way the network is tcp/ip not NT so you can easily say that the NT's are
on the AIX network.

to make the AIX look like a big NT
http://www.facetcorp.com

--
Bernie Chandler
http://www.nationwide.net/~bernie