🚀 go-pugleaf

I hope somebody out there can help me.

I'm a consultant with two clients who both need to solve the same problem.
Both are planning to release products for MS Windows, and both are doing
client-server applications.  The gotcha is that both would like their
products to be peer to peer.  The following requirements are causing us
to lose some hair, and I'm sure someone out their has solved these
already.

The specific applications in question are completely unrelated, but both
customers have expressed the following requirements:

1. If your machine is a server it will service requests any time the
   machine is powered on.  It's probably enough to do this only when
   Windows is running, but it would be better to do it any time the machine
   is powered on. Protected mode is fine (indeed, is preferred!)

2. Whether or not your machine is a server, your machine may be a client.
   While they may do dedicated server machines they also wish to be able to
   run the service on a regular user's PC in small group environments.

3. While running, both the server and the client will need to use network
   interfaces, but cannot take over the network exclusively (i.e. shouldn't
   interfere with other applications that want to use the network).

The clients understand that the state of networking in the DOS world is
such that incompatibilities between network applications may be inevitable,
but they'ld still like to minimize them.

The requirements translate into the following implementation issues:

1. How to do time-critical multitasking under windows.

2. How can I learn about standard network interface layers under Windows if
   such exist?

I'm not particularly a low-level DOS wizard, and I could use some help.  In
one case, the client would probably be willing to pay for a limited amount
of consulting time to get the solution.  In the other case, a position may
be open to work on the product.  It may be that what they want isn't possible
in the context of DOS today, in which case it would be nice to know and to
come up with alternative implementation strategies.

If you may be able to help, I would appreciate it if you would get in touch
with me by email.  Replying to me here should work (shap@xanadu.com), but
sending mail to halifax!shap@xanadu.com would be preferred.

Thanks alot.


Jonathan Shapiro