13.

  

Overview

JINI IS ADVERTISED AS "network plug and work," which carries the idea of zero administration, where you buy a device, switch it on, and voila ”it is there and available. Well, this may happen in the future, but right now there are a number of back-room games that you have to succeed at. Once you have won at these, network plug and work does indeed work, but if you lose at any stage, then it can be all uphill !

The difficulty is getting the right files in the right places with the right permissions. About 50 percent of the messages in the Jini mailing list are about these configuration problems. They shouldn't occur, and that is why this is "The Chapter That Shouldn't Exist." This chapter looks at some of the problems that can arise in a Jini system. Most of them are configuration problems of some kind.

This is the second chapter in the book, so right now you shouldn't have managed to fail at anything! In the following chapters, the sections contains instructions on what to do to get the example programs working, and include step-by-step instructions, so skip on to the next chapters, but come back here when things go wrong. Your luck may vary: I got a reasonable way into my first attempts without problems, and some people are even luckier. Some aren't....