BW-Connect NFS v3.2 to offer Internet publishing services to DOS and Windows users

Business Wire, Nov 7, 1994

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 1994--At Comdex Fall/'94 next week, Beame & Whiteside Software will be demonstrating new personal Internet publishing features that will be incorporated into the new release of the company's popular TCP/IP and NFS solution for DOS and Windows.

Version 3.2 of BW-Connect TCP/IP and BW-Connect NFS for DOS & Windows will include a new World Wide Web server, extended e-mail services, and other services that will make it easy for PC users to provide information to anyone on the Internet. Other enhancements have been added as well to make connectivity to Internet News and information retrieval services virtually seamless for Windows users. The software will be ready for market in December.

Foremost among the new features included in BW-Connect NFS for DOS & Windows v3.2 is the addition of a World Wide Web server to support Mosaic clients. World Wide Web (WWW) services allow the user to make information available in a standardized format, without having to use FTP or TELNET commands. BW-Connect's World Wide Web server uses HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) to deliver data formatted with HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Using the Universal Resource Locator (URL) naming convention, it is possible to transparently support different transfer technologies, such as FTP or Gopher, in a consistent manner through the World Wide Web.

A Gopher server and Gopher client have been added as another information retrieval option. The Gopher server allows users to provide data to any Gopher client on the Internet. The BW-Connect Gopher client can reach across the Internet and return text files, binary files, and menus of information from Gopher servers. Clicking on specific menu items can either return information or connect the client to other threaded menus scattered around the Internet.

A TFTP server has also been added to support requests for file transfers using the Trivial File Transfer Protocol. TFTP can be used as an alternative to FTP to save time and network bandwidth when transferring smaller files or bits of data. It's particularly useful in supporting configuration of diskless workstations.

With added support for the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP), users can now post and read information on any of the thousands of special-interest Network News groups across the Internet. This Windows application, which has impressed many BW-Connect beta testers with its elegant and intuitive interface, is capable of following news threads throughout the Internet and allows users to exchange information with users around the world. And since the application is multi-threaded, users can open multiple News groups simultaneously.

BW-Connect NFS now includes a MIME-capable mail agent so users can now compose multipart/multimedia e-mail messages that can be transmitted across the Internet. The MIME standard defines any type of binary data in a standardized way so binary files, Postscript files, images, and even audio and video can be sent safely across the Internet without losing valuable data or formatting information. Using the MIME e-mail agent in BW-Connect, Windows users can send binary file attachments, like word processing files and spreadsheets, to other users around the Internet. They can also compose multipart messages, such as Postscript files with embedded images, or even video images with accompanying audio, and send them across the network. Multimedia messages can be packaged as either SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) messages for the Internet, or as MAPI messages.

With new MAPI support added to BW-Connect v3.2, users can send messages across the Internet using SMTP or to a local Microsoft Mail post box using MAPI.

To support the both e-mail and Network News reader systems, Beame & Whiteside has added a 100,000-word spell checker. The spell checker is very easy to use and makes it simple to compose messages without fear of typographical errors.

BW-Connect NFS for DOS & Windows now includes a BOOTP server to support secure network access. When used with the TFTP server, BOOTP allows diskless workstations and other computers to be configured using configuration parameters stored on a BOOTP server. When used with a BOOT PROM chip, the workstation can be initialized and booted from a central server, rather than relying on scripts stored on local workstation drives. This not only extends network security and reduces the potential for infection from a computer virus, but it centralizes administration since the network manager only has to configure a single network BOOT server.

A new DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) client has also been added to extend remote IP configuration. DHCP client support, which is currently offered in Windows NT and is expected to be included in Windows 95, provides remote network configuration and access in a manner similar to BOOTP by issuing IP addresses to users that can time out after a specified period. DHCP can be very useful for linking traveling users without leaving the network vulnerable to a security breach. By installing BW-Connect NFS v3.2, administrators will be able to deploy DHCP support throughout their networks, whether they choose to upgrade to Windows 95 or not.