Win95 profiles on server (was Re: Automated installs (very long)) (BUG#618)

[Marco A. Zamora]

> Yes, what's needed is a win32 executable that you can launch from
> RunServices, which doesn't show any icons on the system tray etc etc, just
> sits there and waits for connections, which it pops up with a user-defined
> window title bar and message.  And unlike, WinPopup, can't be easily killed
> by the user.  One could try take it as far as supporting user-defined
> buttons, with the response somehow fed back to the sending host (xmessage,
> Windows style)  Now that would be REALLY nice to have. ;-)  hint hint hint
> hint. 

Well, you're lucky ;-), I've been working on this for the past few weeks on my
spare time (which isn't much :-). Now that you mention it, a return message
à la xmessage would be a nice addition.

This program was born basically with three objectives:
	1) an unkillable Winpopup which would respond according to the kind of
message (ignore printer messages, pop up as a system-modal dialog box with
sysadmin messages, show a dockable ticker bar on the screen for data feeds,
show several windows for unacknowledged messages --the old Post-It interface--,
etc.) 
	2) the need to have workgroup-broadcast messages cross routers (a
companion daemon running on Samba and NT which would re-broadcast NetBIOS
mailslot broadcasts on behalf of remote clients, incorporating a spanning-tree
algorithm and flood checks to avoid broadcast storms and circles) 
	3) and to substitute expen$ive financial data services with a
home-grown solution that would broadcast data from our existing raw data feeds
(which would display on the dockable ticker bar or on a window with a data
grid). 

> Hey, if someone is going to write this (or knows where to find such a
> thing), I think a similar program allowing you to shutdown and reboot
> Win95 from the network could be good also ;-)

I'm thinking of adding this functionality with a little security: asking the
domain controller whether the remote rebooter is a member of an admins group
*and* is logged onto a PDC or BDC. If he/she passes the test, the PC will
reboot, halt or log-off.

Wish me luck :). Right now I've got basic Winpopup and system tray
functionality (the user somehow needs a UI to send messages, it would be
accessible from the systray), I'm documenting myself to see how I can run the
thing as a service, how I'm going to implement the data channels (in-band
commands?  separate mailslots?), and how the heck I can modify Samba to work as
the re-broadcast server (can't be a separate program because Samba takes hold
of the netbios-xx sockets, and that's where the clients will be sending the
requests, thanks to MS's single port SMB implementation). 

Cheers...			Marco Zamora