This is more of an operating system question than it is a purely Sesame question. The problem is the MSWord is not client / server, it runs entirely on one machine. It can get its files from a file server using shared hard drives or by using a netpath (or NFS), but the program itself has to run on the client machines's CPU. That means that the word file has to be transfered to that machine some way or another. So you could open up your server - share its hard drives with your client computers. Unfortunately, that is not really advisible for security reasons.

The only way to make it work that is reasonable secure is to run MSWord on the server, instead of on the client. This can be done if you can find a way to invoke it from the client computer, export its display to the client computer, and cause its printed output to be generated on the client computer's printer. MS does not really setup their OSs to work this way. It would probably take some fairly kludgy utilities to accomplish all of that, and probably wouldn't be very secure.

Unix (Linux) does allow applications to be invoked across the net. It allows the export of displays across the net, and it allows printing through the net. Unfortunately, MSWord doesn't run very well on Linux and you would probably need to have Linux on both the clients and the server.

Not with Sesame 1.x.x alone. The only "file" transfer we do is for images in reports. But you can probably use the @Shell command (or @ASynchShell) to use the FTP command to transfer the file. You will need to setup a FTP server on the computer that is "hosting" the MSWord documents and move the documents to a secured directory that that FTP server can access. You can then script the FTP clients on your client machines to automatically log in and download the appropriate files.

You may also consider using one of the several NFS servers that are available for Windows. I'm not sure if they are any good. I use NFS on Linux and it has its advantages, but is not the most secure option.

Sesame 2.0 has file transfer commands built in, including one based on the FTP protocol. So you may want to keep doing as you are doing and upgrade when the time comes.

Bob_Hansen wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2006 at 6:08pm:


The problem with that is security. He would have to share the hard drive on the server through the network, and in his case that network is at least partially the internet. Windows is not much for security and there is no realistic way to secure a shared server using MS file sharing software through the internet. Additionally he would have to open that server's ports through his firewall, for some very "broad" access. The port sniffers would get him in a matter of days.

Using a secure ftp server, he would have to open two ports through his firewall (for FTP to get through, one command port, on data port), but because there is security on the FTP server and the FTP server can limit access to specific files and directories, and can curtail password guessing schemes, he would be more secure than with any of MS's built ins.

He will need to find a secure FTP server though. The one that comes with MS server software isn't very tight. But even it is much more secure  than MS file sharing.

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Actually, I assumed that because he mentioned in a different thread that he is using 2M DSL. I suppose he might be using VPN or event a dedicated network, in which case - yes, just use a file copy.