> On Mar 20, 2026, at 2:13 PM, Paul Koning via groups.io <paulkoning=comcast.net(a)groups.io> wrote:
>
>
>
>> On Mar 20, 2026, at 2:00 PM, John H. Reinhardt <johnhreinhardt(a)thereinhardts.org> wrote:
>>
>> I'm guessing this perhaps was one of the sources.
>>
>> https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/MUD1
>>
>>> MUD1 (referred to as MUD1, to distinguish from its successor, MUD2) is the oldest virtual world in existence. It was created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw at Essex University on a DEC PDP-10 in the UK, using the MACRO-10 assembly language. He named the game Multi-User Dungeon, in tribute to the Dungeon variant of Zork, which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed playing.[1][2] Zork in turn was inspired by an older text-adventure game known as Colossal Cave Adventure or ADVENT.[3]
>>
>> John H. Reinhardt
>
> That source is certainly very wrong about history.
>
> paul
I can't help them with their errors, but it's amusing to notice that, while PLATO is not listed as an article, several other articles mention it, including the one on Dnd -- https://mud.fandom.com/wiki/Dnd -- which credits authors Whisenhunt and Wood.
A lot more PLATO history can be found in The Friendly Orange Glow by Brian Dear.
paul
(Apologies for the cross-posting.)
I very good friend of mine has been doing some digital archaeology.
https://infosec.exchange/@lorry/116257448642523972
I think a lot of folks here would like what he’s done.
-jon.
--
Jon Morgan
"Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon."
If you want to communicate from PyDECnet to a Phase III node, a new bugfix release V1.1.1 (on akdesign.dyndns.org:8080 <http://akdesign.dyndns.org:8080/>) may be helpful. It fixes an NSP bug that was setting a Phase IV only flag, and some Phase III nodes (DECnet/RT for example) then toss the offending message.
paul
Greetings!
Mentioning pyDECnet might be a red herring, but that's what I'm using to connect to HECnet so I'm mentioning it. I'm trying to connect to Mark Matlock's RSX11M.COM (Static IP:216.177.191.101) and we are getting some weird errors.
My pyDECnet circuit line looks like this - modeled after Supratim's circuit config that he sent me last year.:
circuit DDCMP-30-1 DDCMP tcp:60001:rsx11m.com:7728 --t3=15 --cost=9
On Mark's side he has an RSX11M host as the area router and the connection for me is set up thusly:
MNC SET CIR IP-0-5 MODE DDCMP
MNC SET CIR IP-0-5 TCP HOST 0.0.0.0:0 PORT 7728
NCP SET CIR IP-0-5 STA ON
The connection isn't working. Mark is seeing errors like this:
02:53:40 MLTNET - IP-0-5 Incoming packet size error (1541) from
76.213.76.105:51354. Abort.
02:53:42 MLTNET - IP-0-5 Incoming packet size error (1541) from
76.213.76.105:34404. Abort.
02:53:44 MLTNET - IP-0-5 Incoming packet size error (1541) from
76.213.76.105:34412. Abort.
The A17RTR node has what look to be the normal settings. the Segment buffer size is normal for DDCMP.
NCP>tell a17rtr show exe char
Node Volatile Characteristics as of 2-MAR-2026 09:35:20
Executor node = 17.1023 (A17RTR)
Identification = THEMIS2 - A17RTR - DECnet/Python Area-17 Router at Saginaw, TX (DFW)
Management version = V4.0.0
Software identification = DECnet/Python V1.1.0
Incoming timer = 30
Outgoing timer = 30
NSP version = V4.0.0
Maximum links = 4095
Delay factor = 32
Delay weight = 3
Inactivity timer = 300
Retransmit factor = 5
Routing version = V2.0.0
Type = area
Maximum area = 63
Area maximum cost = 128
Area maximum hops = 16
Segment buffer size = 576
Does anyone know what causes the packet size to be bigger than normal? The ethernet interface on the pyDECnet host is set to 1500MTU as is my firewall/router.
Where else can I look? I don't see anything in the pyDECnet documentation that talks about DDCMP packet size. Where else can I look?
Regards,
John H. Reinhardt
On 2026-03-02 18:42, John H. Reinhardt wrote:
> On 3/2/2026 10:44 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>> Hm. The command "MNC SET CIR IP-0-5 MODE DDCMP" should have given a
>> warning that this has been deprecated. In essence, it does nothing.
>>
>> All links are just multinet links, which is DDCMP, with a small header
>> to just get whole packets when using TCP.
>>
>> Johnny
>>
>
> That explains the "MLTNET" in Marks error log. So, if I set up the
> phDECnet circuit as a Multinet one is should work?
Sortof yes, but no.
The errors are because RSX is receiving packets without that multinet
header.
What I meant with the above was this:
.mnc set cir ip-0-3 mode ddcmp
MODE have been deprecated.
Please update any configuration scripts.
.
You should have gotten those errors in RSX when doing the command. But
yes, also, the fact that you set your PyDECnet side to talk DDCMP caused
the errors when receiving packets.
>> On 02/03/2026 17.38, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>>> I don't think I've ever tried that DDCMP mode. I don't even remember
>>> what it does...
>>>
>>> Why are you wanting to use it?
>>>
>>> Johnny
>>>
>
> Because that's what I was told needed to be done to connect to other
> HECnet nodes? Mark has several set up that way and so does Supratim.
Whoever said that is confused and wrong. Sorry. You need to set up
Multinet links.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt(a)softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
