Can anyone suggest a solution?

[Joerg Lenneis]

Martin Wheatley:

> Thankyou for taking the time to read this ...
> We have large PC userbase and a not-so-large (but equally loud) Unix
> user base. We have a requirement to "PopUp" information windows on ALL
> our user's screens with an absolute minimum of manual intervention (ie
> type the message once and then forget it).

> We can manage the Unix X servers but can't seem to find a UNIX
> application that will get th message(s) to our PC community.

> Is there anything in Samba that would give us what we need?
> or is there another UNIX application that will do what we want.

> Our UNIX systems and Suns - running Solaris 2.6 & 7. The PCs
> all have the MS messenger client installed.

[...]

For Unix->PC you can use smbclient with the -M option that sends a
message to a PC which then displays it in a winpopup dialog. Your only
problem will be that the messages are sent to machine names and not
user names. The easiest way to go about that would probably be to
write a script that loops through the hosts in /etc/hosts, pings them
and if they are alive sends the winpopup message. Or just go ahead and
send the message anyway, the winpop protocol is based on UDP so
messages to PCs that are not turned on will simply be dropped on the
floor. For PC->Unix you might be interested in the announcement I
appended below. I imagine it would not be too difficult to port it to
Solaris. If that does not work you probably want to check out the
"message command (G)" entry in smb.conf.


> I'm pleased to announce availability of LinPopUp version 0.9.1
> 
> LinPopUp is a Xwindow graphical port of Winpopup, running over Samba.
> It permits to communicate with a windows computer that runs Winpopup,
> sending or receiving message. ( It also provides an alternative way
> to communicate between Linux computers that run Samba). 
> Please note that LinPopUp is not only a port, as it includes several
> enhanced features like : doesn't need to run permanently, full message
> base management, can be run minimized, full message editor capabilities,
> clipboard cut&paste, documentation, etc. 
>   
> This version fixes a major bug when running LinPopup with no
> root privileges. It also fixes minor bugs, and several new features
> were added.
> Here is the CHANGES file (2 Kb):
> http://www.chez.com/littleigloo/changes_linpopup.txt
> 
> More info, binairies and sources packages can be obtained at:
> http://www.chez.com/littleigloo
> 
> - ---
> Jean-Marc Jacquet,
> littleigloo at chez.com


-- 

Joerg Lenneis

email: lenneis at statrix2.wu-wien.ac.at