Chapter 10. Accessing Other Systems and Resources on Your Network

If your system is on a network, you can access files, media devices, and printers from other systems on the network. For information, see:

Related Topic: “Accessing Applications On Remote Systems” in Chapter 3

Accessing Another System's Media Devices or Printers

If your system is on a network, you can use the Find Remote Resources tool to access another system's shared resources—directories, media devices, and printers. To do this:

  1. From the Toolchest, choose Desktop > Shared Resources > On a Remote Workstation.

  2. Type in the name of the other system.

    A list of all the system's shared directories, media devices, and printers appears in the display.

    If the resource(s) you want to access do not appear, the owner of the system has probably not marked them as shared. See “Sharing Media Devices and Printers With Other Systems” in Chapter 9 to find out how they can easily remedy this.

  3. Drag the device icon you want onto your desktop for easy access. Dragging it onto your desktop lets you use the device as if it existed on your own system.

Using Host QuickFind to Find Remote Host Icons

Other systems on your network are referred to as “remote hosts.” If your machine is on a network and you have optional NFS software installed (use Software Manager to find out if NFS is installed), you can locate an icon for a remote host. For easy access to the remote host, you can drag the host icon onto your desktop.

  1. If Host QuickFind is not already open on your screen, choose Host QuickFind from the Find toolchest to open it.

  2. To find an icon for a remote host, type in the remote hostname and press Enter. The host's “Find Remote Resources” form appears. This form displays all the shared resources on the remote system.

Using the Access Desktop Tool

You can use the Access Desktop tool for a few different tasks. Choose from:

Accessing Files, Directories or Toolchests as Another User

If you are logged into an account, but want to access a particular file, directory, or Toolchest in the account of another user on the system, you can do so using the Access Desktop tool. For example, if you are logged into the guest account, and you want to edit a file owned by the root account, you can open the Access Desktop tool, “login” as root, then open the directory that contains the file you want to edit.

  1. From the Toolchest, choose Access Files > As Another User.

  2. Type in the login name and password (if applicable) of the user you want to become.

  3. Select Directory to open a directory.

  4. Type in the pathname of the directory you want to view.

  5. Click the Apply button.

    An Icon View of the directory appears.

Accessing Files and Directories On Other Systems

If your machine is on a network, you can access directories on other systems on the network in any of several ways:

Accessing Remote Files Using Automount

If two systems are on a network and optional NFS software is installed on both systems (use Software Manager to find out if NFS is installed), you can access files on the remote system using automount. To do this, follow these 3 steps:

  1. Make sure the directory on the remote system is marked as shared:

    • From the Toolchest, choose Desktop > Shared Resources > On a Remote Workstation.

    • When the Find Remote Resources window appears, type in the name of the workstation you want to access.

    A list of the shared directories appears in the display.


    Note: If the directory is not listed, it is not shared. The owner of the remote directory can use the Share a Directory guide to share the directory. (For information, see “Sharing Directories With Other Systems” in Chapter 9.)


  2. To open an Icon View of the directory, you can do any of the following:

    • Drag the directory icon from the Find Remote Resources window to your desktop and open it.

    • From an Icon View window, choose Actions > Access Files > In Automounted Directory. /hosts/ appears in the path finder.

      Type in the remote system name and the directory path for the directory you want to open, and press Enter.

      For example, if the system where the remote directory resides is called murgatroid, and the directory you want to open is /usr/people/dave, the pathname would look like this:

      /hosts/murgatroid/usr/people/dave 
      

    • From the Toolchest, choose Desktop > Access Files > In Automounted Directory. If you do this, an Icon View window appears with /hosts/ in the path finder.

      Type in the remote system name and the directory path for the directory you want to open. (See above for an example.)

  3. When the Icon View of the directory opens, you can drag a file from one Icon View to another to copy it.

    If you want to copy a file from your local system to the remote directory, the owner of the remote directory must have activated write permission for the directory. They can do this using the Share a Directory guide. (For information, see “Sharing Directories With Other Systems” in Chapter 9.)

Accessing Remote Files and Directories With the Access Desktop Tool

If your system is on a network, and you want to access or copy files and directories to or from another system on the network, you can do so with Access Desktop tool.

To open the Access Desktop tool from the Toolchest, choose Desktop > Access Files > By Remote Login.

  1. Type in the name of the remote workstation.

  2. Type in a user name and password (when applicable).

    You need to type in the account name of a user who has a login account on the remote system. If you do not have an account on the remote system or do not know another account name on the system, enter guest.

  3. Select “Directory” and type in the pathname for the directory you want to open.

  4. Click the Apply button.

    An Icon View of the remote directory appears on your desktop. You can now navigate through other directories on the remote system, as long as the user name you specified has read permission on the directories you want to view.

    You can copy files and directories from your system onto the other system and vice versa by dragging the icons from one directory to the other.

Consider the following if the Icon View does not appear:

  • Does the user account name you specified have read permission on the directory? If not, the owner of the directory must change the permissions so that you can access the directory.

  • Is the workstation name correct?

  • Does the user you specified have an account on the remote system?

  • Did you type in the correct password?

  • Is the directory pathname correct?

Accessing Files Using FTP in an Icon View Window

The ftp program lets you transfer files using the Internet File Transfer Protocol. To use FTP, you must have a login account with a password on the remote workstation. If the account does not have a password, FTP will not work., unless the site allows anonymous login. If a site has anonymous login, anonymous appears in the username field, and your E-mail address appears in the password field.

To use FTP in any Icon View window:

  1. Type the ftp pathname into the path finder, and press Enter.

    For example, if the name of the system you want to access is IRIS9, you would type:

    ftp://IRIS9/ 
    

    You can also open an Icon View with ftp:// already typed into the path finder by selecting “Icon View of an FTP Site” from the Internet toolchest or from the Internet menu in an Icon View.

  2. When the login window appears, type in a username and password, then click the OK button.

    If a site has anonymous login, anonymous appears in the username field and your E-mail address appears in the password field. Click the OK button to log in.

    The files appear in the display. You can drag them to another Icon View to copy them into a new location.


    Note: You cannot copy or move any files into an Icon View of an FTP site.


Accessing Files on the Web Using an Icon View Window

You can access remote files on the Web by typing a Web site address (“URL”) into the path finder in an Icon View window. To type a Web site into the path finder, begin the address with http://.

When you enter a Web site into an Icon View window, a list of all the links on the Web page appear. Each text item and image is converted to a file that you can copy to your system by selecting the icon, pressing the Ctrl key, and dragging the icon into a directory folder.


Note: You cannot copy or move any files into an Icon View of a Web site.



Tip: You can also open a Web site by dragging a WebJumper icon into the Icon View drop pocket.


Accessing Files Using the FTP Command in a Shell

The ftp program lets you transfer files using the Internet File Transfer Protocol. To use ftp, you must have a login account with a password on the remote workstation. If the account does not have a password, FTP will not work.

Using FTP to Log Into Another System

To use the ftp command to transfer files between workstations, you must first log in to the remote machine using FTP. This example shows how to use FTP to connect to the system IRIS9.


Note: If IRIS9 is in a different domain (bldg2, for example), you would use IRIS9.bldg2 in the example below instead of IRIS9.


  1. Open a shell window by choosing “Open Unix Shell” from the Desktop toolchest.

  2. Start the program by typing:

    ftp IRIS9 
    

  3. Press Enter.

    The screen displays something similar to this:

    Connected to IRIS9.
    220 IRIS9 FTP server ready.
    

  4. Type the login name at the prompt that appears; then press Enter. A user named joe would type:

    Name (IRIS9:joe): joe 
    

  5. Type the password at the password prompt; then press Enter.

    331 Password required for joe.
    Password:
    


    Note: If the account does not have a password, you cannot use ftp.


  6. You are logged in when the screen displays:

    230 User joe logged in.

Copying a File to Another System Using the ftp Command

Once you are logged in to the remote workstation, you can transfer files from your system to IRIS9, and vice versa, using the put and get commands. (If you have not logged in to the other workstation yet, see “Using FTP to Log Into Another System ”.)

This example shows how to transfer a file called file1 from your machine to IRIS9. Type the following at the ftp prompt:

ftp> put /usr/people/joe/file1 /usr/tmp 

This copies file1 from /usr/people/joe on your system to /usr/tmp on IRIS9.To copy file2 from IRIS9 to your system, type:

ftp> get /usr/people/fred/file2 /usr/tmp 

This copies file2 from /usr/people/fred on IRIS9 to the /usr/tmp directory on your system.

The ftp program has many options. See the ftp man page for further details.

Accessing Remote Files Using the rcp Command

If two systems are on a network, you can copy files between these systems using the rcp command in a shell window.

Anatomy of the rcp Command

You can use the rcp (remote copy) command to copy information from your system to another system, or vice versa. To do so, you need this information:

  • The name of the system you are copying to or from and, if the system is in a different domain, the domain name.

  • A login name to access the system.

  • The pathname of the file being copied.

  • A pathname indicating where you want the copied file to be placed on your workstation.

The command syntax shows how you specify this information:

rcp [user@]source[.domain]:filename local_filename

(The square brackets indicate that the information contained within them is optional.)

See the rcp man page for more detailed information on the command syntax.

Copying Files From Another System Using the rcp Command

This section shows how to use the rcp command to copy files from another system. See “Anatomy of the rcp Command ” for more details on the command.

This example supposes you want to copy file1 from /usr/people/fred on a system named IRIS9 and place it in the /usr/tmp directory on your system.

  1. Open a shell window by choosing Open Unix Shell from the Desktop toolchest.

  2. If you have a login account on IRIS9, type:

    rcp IRIS9:/usr/people/fred/file1 /usr/tmp 
    

    If you do not have a login account on IRIS9, copy the files as guest by typing:

    rcp guest@IRIS9:/usr/people/fred/file1 /usr/tmp 
    


    Note: If IRIS9 is in a different domain (bldg2, for example), you would use IRIS9.bldg2 in the example below instead of IRIS9.


  3. Press Enter.

Copying Files to Another System Using the rcp Command

This section shows how you use the rcp command to copy files to another system. See “Anatomy of the rcp Command ” for more details on the command.

This example supposes you want to copy file2 from
/usr/people/joe on your system to /usr/tmp on a system called IRIS9.

  1. Open a shell window by choosing Open Unix Shell from the Desktop toolchest.

  2. Type:

    rcp /usr/people/joe/file2 guest@IRIS9:/usr/tmp 
    

Copying a Directory Using the rcp Command

To copy a directory and its contents from one system to another, you use the -r option to rcp. This example shows what you would type to copy the directory /usr/people/joe/reports from your system to /usr/tmp on a system called IRIS9.

  1. Open a shell window by choosing Open Unix Shell from the Desktop toolchest.

  2. Type:

    rcp -r /usr/people/joe/reports guest@IRIS9:/usr/tmp 
    


    Note: The -v option lets you see the names of files as they are copied. Consider the example. If you add the -v option, you see the names of the files in the reports directory as they are copied to IRIS9.


Logging In to Another System

If your workstation is part of a network of workstations, you may be able to log in to another workstation remotely — that is, sit in front of your workstation but access files on another workstation. This means you can also sit in front of another workstation and access your own workstation. The following topics cover different ways of doing this, presented in order of difficulty, with the first option being the most “user-friendly”:

Logging In to Another System Using the rlogin Command

The rlogin command lets you log in to another system. This example shows how to log in remotely to IRIS9 as guest.


Note: If IRIS9 is in a different domain (bldg2, for example), you would use IRIS9.bldg2 in the example below instead of IRIS9.


  1. Open a shell by choosing Open Unix Shell from the Desktop toolchest.

  2. Type: rlogin guest@IRIS9 

To log out of IRIS9 when you are finished, type:

exit 

Then press Enter.

Using rsh to Perform Commands on Another System

rsh connects you to a remote workstation just long enough to run commands that you specify on the same command line as rsh. Once the command is finished, the connection is broken. For example, to find out who is logged in on IRIS9:

  1. Open a shell by choosing Open Unix Shell from the Desktop toolchest.

  2. Type:

    rsh guest@IRIS9 who 
    

This runs the command who on IRIS9 and returns the information to your shell window. If you do not specify a command, rsh behaves just like rlogin; it logs you into the remote workstation.

For further details, see the rsh and rlogin man pages.

Using telnet to Log In to Another System

The telnet program offers you another way of logging in to a remote workstation. To use telnet, type a set of information into a shell window.


Note: If IRIS9 is in a different domain (bldg2, for example), you would use IRIS9.bldg2 in the example below instead of IRIS9.


  1. Open a shell by choosing Open Unix Shell from the Desktop toolchest.

  2. Type the name of the system to which you want to log in. For example, to log in to IRIS9, type:

    telnet IRIS9 

    The screen shows:

    Trying 192.26.180.10...
    Connected to IRIS9.
    Escape character is '^]'.
     
    IRIX System V.3 (IRIS9)
     
    login:
    

  3. Type your login name (or guest, if you do not have an account on that system).

  4. Press Enter.

  5. If the system asks for a password, type it, then press Enter.

  6. Use the remote workstation just as you use a shell window on your own system.

  7. When you are finished and want to end the connection to the remote system, type:

    logout 
    

    Then press Enter.

    The screen displays:

    Connection closed by foreign host.
    

The telnet program has many options. See the telnet man page for further details.