NFS-Client Settings under MS Windows NT4/2000/XP

To make the NFS-Client settings, you can double-click on the NFS Client Settings icon in the NFS Client Programs' folder:

This presents you with a dialog of six tab windows that allow you to view and modify the NFS-Client settings: NFS Servers, Permissions, Network, Name Converting, Advanced, and About. They are described below.

When you click on the Default button in the dialog box, all parameters will be initialized to their default values.

The Save as button allows you to save the current settings from the box to a file with the standard Save As window. The Open button allows you to choose the settings file and load it in the box with the standard Open window.

By clicking Apply, the current settings in the dialog box will take effect immediately.

You can cancel any changes you have made to the dialog box and close it by pressing Cancel.

The NFS Servers Tab

This tab allows you to choose a mode for requesting NFS servers. You can also manage an NFS Server List for specific hosts.

Use Broadcast Requests

If this check box is enabled, then, to locate all available remote NFS servers in LAN, broadcast messages will be sent (in LAN only).

Use NFS Server List

If this check box is enabled, then remote NFS servers specified in the list will only be requested (no matter in LAN or WAN).

If both the check boxes are disabled, then, when you want to mount an exported file system, the prompt dialog will appear for you to enter the IP address or host name to check accessibility of the NFS server (that will become the first item in the list).

If both the check boxes are enabled, then broadcast requests are first sent, followed by the NFS Server List requests (resulting in My Network Places items).

Show only IP addresses of NFS servers

If this check box is disabled, then IP addresses of NFS servers are displayed with corresponding host names. This feature helps prevent you from timeouts because of possible DNS accessibility problems.

Use WebNFS

The Use WebNFS check box enabled allows NFS-Client to use the WEBNFS protocol for mounting a remote NFS. In the Web NFS alias entry field, you specify a name for a shared directory mounted with the WEBNFS protocol. Using the WEBNFS protocol, you can mount a shared directory directly (i.e., not using protocols PORTMAP and MOUNT).

The Use UDP and Use TCP check boxes in the Transport group box let you enable the transport protocols NFS-Client will use. Auto Select will try to use TCP first, and then UDP (if an NFS server fails to support TCP).

The Use NFS2 and Use NFS3 check boxes in the NFS Protocol group box let you enable the NFS protocols NFS-Client will use. Auto Select will try to use NFS3 first, and then NFS2 (if an NFS server fails to support NFS3).

To remove an NFS server from the list, highlight it and press the Remove button.

You can use the Edit button to insert a new NFS server into the empty list. Or you can select an NFS server on the list and then change its parameters displayed.

Editing Remote NFS Server Parameters

Pressing Edit displays the Details group box.

You can press Add to add the NFS server (with parameters specified) to the current list.

Pressing Set sets up new values of parameters specified for the current NFS server.

Pressing Cancel closes the Details group box with no changes.

You can enter an IP address or a host name for the NFS server you want to request into the Server Name edit field.

Use SSH-2

If this check box is disabled, then you will perform NFS operations through direct insecure connection to the NFS server you select when mounting shared NFS resources.

If this check box is enabled, then you will be prompted to choose one of secure connection channels (using the SSH2 protocol) previously established between your PC and a remote SSH server. In this mode, NFS server must be in the NFS Server list and be accessible from the SSH server.

Use PortMapper

If this check box is enabled, then the NFS server specified will define ports for you to use.

If this check box is disabled, then you are prompted to define the following data that the NFS server specified will use:

• Port numbers (for protocols Mount, NFS, NLM),
  
  
• Transport type (use TCP, use UDP),
  
  
• NFS protocol version (Ver.2, Ver.3).

Every NFS server in the list is shown with those values that you assigned to it.

The Permissions Tab

The Unix Authentication Box

Query the (PC)NFS authentication server

If this check box is enabled, then User Name and Password entered when logging in will be used to authenticate the user (and to obtain the UserID and GroupID values).

If this check box is disabled, then this allows you to directly specify the default UserID and GroupID values that will be used for mounting to UNIX systems (without using PCNFSd). If the user exists in several groups, they can be specified in the Other Group ID field with the space or comma characters as separators.

Define UID/GID more accurately before connection

If this check box enabled, then you will be prompted to specify new UserID, GroupID, and Other Group ID values that will be used for mounting to UNIX systems (without using PCNFSd).

When the authentication server entered in the Server field successfully authenticates you, then it will allow you to access exported resources, and your UserID and GroupID values (obtained by PCNFSd) will be used for mounting.

If authentication failed (the server does not respond, permission is denied, etc), then the default UserID and GroupID values displayed will be used for accessing your network resources.

You must use the proper UserID and GroupID values for mounting an exported resource, or you will be prompted to specify them if access denied.

The Unix access permissions for new object Box

The Unix access permissions for new object box contains a set of check boxes that allow you to specify access permissions for different users and new files and/or new directories NFS-Client will create on a remote NFS system.

UID/GID Used for Mounting

You can find out UID/GID used for mounting. To do so, select a file or a directory on the mounted drive and right-click on it. In the pop-up menu, choose Properties, and then click the XWPNFS Attributes tab. For example,

In the Unix Attributes group box, you can see the owner (UID and GID) and permissions of the file. In the User group box, you can see the UID and GID used for mounting the file.

Browsing Network for NFS Servers

My Network Places/Entire Network/XwpNTrdr/Remote NFS Servers is used to browse your network for NFS file servers and to check for the available resources on these servers. Every time you access an NFS server, either to browse its exported resources or to mount a shared network folder, the server requires you to authenticate yourself so that it can verify your identity.

In an NFS network, once the user is authenticated, that user's access to network file resources is further defined by the permissions granted for certain files and folders. When browsing you will be able to see all the exported folders, however, viewing the contents of the folders as well as opening and editing files will depend on whether you have the correct permissions. (See section Mounting an NFS File System under MS Windows NT4/2000/XP below.)

Using the NET USE Utility

To mount an exported file system, you can also use the NET USE utility of MS Windows (from the Start/Run dialog or from the command line in the MSDOS-shell). If you use the PCNFSd server for authentication, then you can specify a user name and a password as arguments. For example, the following command

NET USE Q: \\192.168.0.38\testnfs nnm111 /USER:nnm

will mount drive Q on shared directory testnfs of node 192.168.0.38 for user nnm with password nnm111. If you use directly UID/GID for authentication, then you can specify UID instead of user name and GID instead of password as arguments. For example, the following command

NET USE Q: \\192.168.0.38\testnfs 100 /USER:117

will do the same but for UID=117 with GID=100.

The following command line is an example of mounting a network node with the WEBNFS protocol:

NET USE Q: \\192.168.0.41\WebNFS

Some software tools are able to directly open files from the WebNFS-mounted directory. For example:

NotePad -> Open -> \\192.168.0.41\readme.txt

The Network Tab

The Network Settings Box

The Network Settings group box allows you to specify:

• Broadcast Timeout - when watching network for hosts supporting the NFS and MOUNT protocols, specifies the number of seconds that NFS-Client will wait before re-transmitting a request.
  
  
• Retry Count - when sending requests to a server, is a number of times not replying during the timeout specified before a timeout error occurs due to no response from the server.
  
  
• Timeout Period - when sending requests of the MOUNT and NFS protocols, is the absolute time in seconds that NFS-Client will wait for the server's response before returning a timeout error.
  
  
• Network Buffer Size - the size of network packets. You can choose the size from 1K, 2K, 4K 8K.

These parameters may need to be fine tuned to ensure that your NFS-Client is not sending requests faster than the server is able to reply resulting in further unnecessary network traffic.

The Network Caching Box

The Network Caching group box allows you to specify the following 'Life Time' values for time-driven renovating of file/directory attributes stored in the NFS-Client's internal cache:

• Folder Attributes Life Time
• File Attributes Life Time
• Read Cache Life Time

NFS-Client will preserve the original attributes for existing folders and files and will create new folders and files with the default attribute values. These are the standard UNIX file attributes.

The Name Converting Tab

Unix-to-Windows File Name Converting

The Unix => Win95 File Name Convert Mode group box allows you to specify file name conversion rules from the UNIX format to the MS Windows format.

Use suffix for equal file names

If you enable this check box, then the UNIX file names that only differ by cases will be concatenated with a two-character suffix. The second character will be changed by incrementing its code by 1. You can specify an initial value for the suffix in the Suffix for equal file names field.

Show files with '.' at 1st position of name

If you disable this check box, then you can see all file names but those beginning with a period. For the file names beginning with a period, it is desirable to substitute the first period character in the file name with another character. You can specify the character in the Use this symbol instead of '.' at 1st position of name field.

Windows-to-Unix File Name Converting

The New Win95 Name => Unix Name Convert Mode group box allows you to specify file name conversion rules from the MS Windows format to the UNIX format.

New names for files and directories created or renamed under MS Windows on NFS servers will be converted to upper/lower case or unchanged depending on the mode you choose: Convert to upper case, Convert to lower case, or Preserve the case of name symbols.

The Advanced Tab

In this tab, you can choose the mode NFS-Client will treat UNIX links.

Do not show links

In this mode, NFS-Client will not support and display links.

Show all links as ReadOnly files

NFS-Client will display every link as a regular file with the Read-Only attribute.

Show links according to final objects (file or directory)

For every link, NFS-Client will search for its real object. If the end object exists and is accessible, NFS-Client will display the link as the object found with its attributes. If the end object does not exist or it is not accessible, NFS-Client will not display that link.

Show links with 'Hidden' attribute

With this check box enabled, NFS-Client will also display links with the 'Hidden' attribute as regular files but with another color. Otherwise, such links will not be displayed.

Use Network Lock Manager

This check box enabled allows you to control multiple access to shared files and records on NFS servers with the Network Lock Manager protocol (versions 3 and 4, using Non-monitored Lock requests). Otherwise, Network Lock Manager will not be used.

Inode number limit

This edit field lets you specify the maximal number of directories and files in an exported directory (in the range of 4000 : 128000) that will be displayed. The default value is 65000.

Enable mounting of subdirectories

With this check box selected, you can mount a subdirectory of a shared directory (if the remote NFS-Server allows that).

The About Tab

This tab contains reference information about the NFS-Client release, protocols and versions supported.

At present, NFS-Client supports the following protocols:

• NFS protocol, versions 2 and 3
• MOUNT protocol, version 1 and 3
• PORTMAP protocol, version 2
• NLM protocol, versions 3 and 4
• TCP/IP (as well as UDP) protocol at the transport level.