Unix and NT communicating?

[Hal Snyder]

I'm probably misreading something. The question is, can Erlang systems
running on Unix and Win32 communicate? For example, I'm considering
connecting FreeBSD and Windows 95 systems running erlang.

On the main web site, at http://www.erlang.org/download.html it says
of the "Windows user" Erlang kit:

  Note the distribution protocol used in this release is incompatible
  with that used in the Unix release - this will be corrected in the
  next release.

Is the "distribution protocol" the protocol used for inter-host
communication? 

Because at http://www.whatis.com/erlang.htm they say

  Erlang's bytecode is identical on all platforms, and a network of
  Erlang nodes may consist of any mix of NT, UNIX, or other supported
  platforms.

     *                       *                          *

Second question: what's the best way to do device control from Erlang?
Suppose I wanted to talk to some PC telephony devices, e.g. Dialogic
cards? 


Thanks.

Hal