HECnet

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15586 discussions

by Michael Brown

I installed DECnet+ when I was setting up because it claimed being able to do DECnet over TCP. By poking around with net$configure I found I could get my machines to talk DECnet over TCP and I can do all the net related commands. So I figured it must be very close to being able to connect to HECnet. I wondered if it is possible to connect to HECnet using DECnet+, and how that might be done ?

4 months, 1 week

Re: DECnet+ Connection

by Terri Kennedy

[Re-sending as there's an unfortunate interaction between mailing lists and my multiple email addresses, so this didn't make it to the list.] On 2025-07-17 00:00, Terri Kennedy wrote: > On 2025-07-16 18:42, Johnny Billquist wrote: >> Paul, any reason why you think DEC would have done the same thing >> Multinet did, which is DDCMP inside TCP with 4 byte headers, two being >> length, and two just ignored? >> As we've discussed plenty of times in the past, the Multinet solution >> is really a bad back and abuse. And I've never heard anyone reporting >> to have connected a Phase V node's DECnet-over-IP to a Multinet Phase >> IV node DECnet-over-IP. >> >> It's not about the compatibility between the implementations of DECnet >> in the phases, but about how you encapsulate the whole thing if you >> want to use TCP as the carrier... > > I've been aware of the MultiNet implementation since it was known as > Phase-IP during its field test. I can't speak to the specific reasons > for the design decisions TGV made back then. I'd assume that they did > it that way so that DECnet itself could handle both routing (packet > comes in via TCP/IP, goes back out over a synchronous link) and do all > of the validation / retry / whatever stuff in DECnet. Remember, this > was before Phase V reared its ugly head. We had (at least) CMU/Tek, > MultiNet, TCPware and Wollongong all competing with each other (and > with UCX once it reared its ugly head). > > Having said that, MultiNet is an odd mishmash of a thin layer of VMS > veneer on top of other code that looks vaguely TOPS-ish - the "?Not > confirmed" stuff, the fact that ^Z doesn't exit in a lot of places, and > so on. It had the UCXDRIVER and UCX emulation library so that things > that depended on DEC C library networking routines would still work*, > like X11 transport over IP. > > PMDF also has the same sort of weirdnesses, even though it originated > elsewhere. Both PMDF and MultiNet are developed/supported by Process > Software. > > This also led to what essentially amounted to forks of BIND, SSH, > etc. > as none of the MultiNet changes were accepted upstream. MultiNet was > still running BIND 4.9.7 long after the rest of the world moved on, > for example. > > When Process took over MultiNet from TGV, apparently large portions > of the code are the equivalent of the famous Dennis Ritchie "You are > not expected to understand this". > > I was tasked with building an IP cluster of Itaniums for a client > and asked Process how to set it up from scratch, and they said "We > have no idea, everybody we know of was replacing UCX", so I had to > figure it out for myself as I didn't want to install UCX just to re- > place it with MultiNet immediately after doing CLUSTER_CONFIG. That > project was eventually abandoned as the RX2620s were some of the most > unreliable, power-hungry pieces of <bleep> I'd ever run into. Major > components failed and needed to be replaced during development. That > project is now running on a single rx2800. > > * For quite some time MultiNet provided its own C header files > which would be #include-ed in user source to directly call the rel- > evant MultiNet library functions directly. At some point, they got > rid of those and now use the normal C library functions. This has > broken quite a bit of SIG tape software and I'm slowly slogging > through it (starting with my own packages) to get stuff working with > the DEC C library routines.

4 months, 2 weeks

Re: MuklRe: DECnet+ Connection

by Keith Halewood

FYI, I'm beta-testing Multinet 6.0 for VAX, Alpha, IA64 and x86, which still has the DECnet over TCP feature. If Process Software continues to offer a hobbyist licence, that'll be another way of connecting into DECnet for x86 VMS. Looking good so far. The terrors of SSHD are for this coming weekend. K -----Original Message----- From: Johnny Billquist [mailto:bqt@softjar.se] Sent: 16 July 2025 08:55 To: hecnet(a)lists.dfupdate.se Subject: [HECnet] Re: DECnet+ Connection You just need to peer with someone else with DECnet+, which aren't that many... Johnny On 2025-07-16 08:11, Michael Brown wrote: > I installed DECnet+ when I was setting up because it claimed being > able to do DECnet over TCP. > > By poking around with net$configure I found I could get my machines > to talk DECnet over TCP and I can do all the net related commands. So > I figured it must be very close to being able to connect to HECnet. > > I wondered if it is possible to connect to HECnet using DECnet+, and > how that might be done ? > > > _______________________________________________ > HECnet mailing list -- hecnet(a)lists.dfupdate.se To unsubscribe send an > email to hecnet-leave(a)lists.dfupdate.se -- 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 _______________________________________________ HECnet mailing list -- hecnet(a)lists.dfupdate.se To unsubscribe send an email to hecnet-leave(a)lists.dfupdate.se

4 months, 2 weeks

Area 60 connectivity issues

by Zane Healy

Last week I discovered that the power supply for PDXVAX had died (VAXstation 4000 m60). I swapped that system out with my spare, and then set about a project I’d been planning for years, so the hardware is now virtual, and won’t need to be shutdown when the weather is too hot. When I booted it temporarily on the other VAXstation I discovered that it looks like I probably need to update my Multinet links. All three connections appear to be down. I know I was connecting to A2RTR, MIM, and one other. DECNET-CONFIG>show Circuit Name IP Destination Cost Hello Timer ------------ --------------- ---- ----------- TCP-0-0 108.65.195.50 6 300 TCP-0-1 130.238.19.212 12 300 TCP-0-2 192.108.202.50 10 300 Any help getting back online would be appreciated. Hopefully this is just a case of IP addresses having changed over the last 4 years. -Regards, Zane

4 months, 2 weeks

Advance outage notice

by Wilm Boerhout

Hello friends, I will be moving house on June 20th. Therefore, I will be shutting down my HECnet-related infrastructure a few days before that date; I plan to connect them again a few days (or maybe a week) later. Also, my public IP address will change. “odsw48.mywire.org” will point to the new address, and for my incoming circuits that use the raw IPV4 address, you will have to take that into account. You know who you are 😊 It concerns the following nodes: 29.200 PIVAX0 29.201 PIVAX1 29.202 PIVAX2 29.203 PIVAX3 29.204 PIVAX4 29.205 PIRSTS 29.206 ONAPI4 29.207 VMS046 29.208 PIRTVX 29.209 PIVAXN 29.210 VSIAXP (*) 29.211 PCSAPI (*) 29.212 VAXM8 (*) 29.214 PIZRZV (*) 29.215 PIRSX9 29.221 SERIAL (*) currently not in use Thanks for your understanding, Wilm # supratim(a)riseup.net <mailto:supratim@riseup.net> # tomas(a)prybil.se <mailto:tomas@prybil.se> # bob(a)jfcl.com <mailto:bob@jfcl.com> # Keith.Halewood(a)pitbulluk.org <mailto:Keith.Halewood@pitbulluk.org> # johd(a)zeelandnet.nl <mailto:johd@zeelandnet.nl> # mark.curtis(a)aardvarks-and-platypus.com <mailto:mark.curtis@aardvarks-and-platypus.com> # bqt(a)softjar.se <mailto:bqt@softjar.se> # mark(a)theberrymans.com <mailto:mark@theberrymans.com> # mark(a)matlockfamily.com <mailto:mark@matlockfamily.com>

5 months

Alternative location for Mim?

by Johnny Billquist

Ok. I can't seem to raise Peter, and this have been going on and been an issue long enough. Do anyone have some alternative location I could run Mim and Anke? Basically - it needs a a static, public IP address, no port blockings whatsoever, and some reasonable bandwidth. In addition, the machine needs to run Linux (a VM would do), its own ethernet interface, and me having access to the machine as root. Some valid reverse DNS for that address would be good as well, but I will probably move Mim to my own domain, so that the name can stay the same in the future if the machine moves around anymore. If anyone have such resources available, and willing to provide for the running of Mim (PDP-11 with RSX) and Anke (PyDECnet), then I'd be happy to move things over, and get things back to running properly. 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

5 months, 1 week

Norman Lastovica - Understanding DECnet - Youtube Video

by Kyle Duren

VSI Channel on Youtube posted a presentation recording from Norman Lastovica (SCI) at the VMS Bootcamp on May 14, 2025. Video Link: https://youtu.be/_NFnhKV4VTw Slides Link: https://fossilfree.app.box.com/s/shz7426kjwojjtcqu4eyzt04z58512mr

5 months, 1 week

Re: DECserver 300 TCP/IP

by Madeline Autumn-Rose

I've been digging through a lot of documentation and forum posts that seem to indicate the DECserver 300 can do TCP/IP (including some Ask The Wizard posts. Anyone got pointers to which distribution set to track down this version? This post (https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/decserver-300-management-manual.6…) seems to indicate an older software dist provides that but I don't know which version supports that. -- Madeline Autumn-Rose http://gewt.net Personal stuff http://gimme-sympathy.org Projects

6 months

Re: DECserver 300 TCP/IP

by Terri Kennedy

[I realized I sent this from a different email address than my list email, so it probably got rejected or held.] I had planned on holding this off longer, until it was fully complete, but https://www.glaver.org/DECserver is a treasure trove of information and firmware for almost all of the DECserver models. The firmware is split into DNAS (V3.3 being the newest version except for the DS700 which has V3.6) and Pre-DNAS directory trees. In particular, I think the firmware being requested can be found in: https://www.glaver.org/DECserver/Pre-DNAS%20DECserver%20Models%20and%20Firm… Comments on the future direction of this collection is welcome. -- Terri

6 months

Re: [PiDP-11] What's the simplest way to play zork on the base install

by Johnny Billquist

For everyone - it's just that some places have been blocked by a router near Mim and Hecnet-1-1023. I'm trying to reach Peter to get it solved, but at the moment I can't offer much help. If people are on HECnet, they can usually reach Mim that way, and use RPM that way as well. Johnny On 2025-05-22 05:16, Jacob Ritorto wrote: > It's down for me from Western Pennsylvania Comcast, too. > Also my RSX-11M-PLUS machine's HECnet connection to Johnny's site is down. > > On Wed, 21 May 2025 at 22:38, Ggrinton <ggrinton(a)gmail.com > <mailto:ggrinton@gmail.com>> wrote: > > Johnny, I'm still getting timeouts on mim.stupi.net <http:// > mim.stupi.net> > Is there any update or am I doing something wrong? Thanks. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "[PiDP-11]" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, > send an email to pidp-11+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com > <mailto:pidp-11+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>. > To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ > pidp-11/f882bdf4-53b4-4441-a6e1-ee7d1f77b6c2n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pidp-11/f882bdf4-53b4-4441-a6e1- > ee7d1f77b6c2n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "[PiDP-11]" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an email to pidp-11+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com > <mailto:pidp-11+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>. > To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pidp-11/ > CAHYQbfBYN5wd7vhGt%2BT67jh_yQX1SMWoheW--HTTiqroSvio9A%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pidp-11/ > CAHYQbfBYN5wd7vhGt%2BT67jh_yQX1SMWoheW--HTTiqroSvio9A%40mail.gmail.com? > utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. -- 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

6 months, 1 week

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