12.14 Interoperability with MS Windows
Once you have dial-in set up, others may call in to you using minicom (or the like) from Unix-like systems. From MS Windows one may call you using "HyperTerminal (or just "Terminal" in Windows 3.1 or DOS).
If in Windows one wants to use dial-up with a network protocol over the phone line it's called "Dial-up Networking". But it probably will not be able to communicate with Linux. For setting up such dial-in in Windows one clicks on "server" while dial-out is the "client. Such dial-in is often called "remote control" meaning that the caller can use your PC, run programs on it, and thus control it remotely.
While it's easy to call in to a text-based Linux system from MS Windows, it's not so easy the other way around (partly because Windows is not text-based and would need to put the caller into DOS where files wouldn't be protected like they are in Linux.
However Windows "Dial-up Networking" can establish a dial-in provided the caller uses certain network protocols over the phone line: MS's or Novel's (two protocols not liked by Linux). So if someone with Windows enables their Dial-up networking server in Windows 98, you can't just dial in directly to it from Linux. This type of dial-in doesn't permit the caller to run most of the programs on the host like Linux does. It's called "remote access" and one may transfer files, use the hosts printer, access databases, etc. Is there some way to interface to Dial-up Networking from Linux??
It is possible for two people to crudely chat and send files using Minicom on the Linux end and HyperTerminal on the Windows end. It's all done manually by two live persons, one on each end of the phone connection. See Simple Manual Dial-In.
At the opposite extreme, one would like to run a dial-in so that the person calling would get a GUI interface. For that a network protocol is normally used. It's possible using PC Anywhere for Windows or VNC for both Linux and Windows. But PC Anywhere doesn't seem to talk to Linux ?? Other Window programs for "remote control" include Laplink, Co-Session, and Microcom. Do any such programs support Linux besides VNC ??
Next Previous Contents
* License
