No, I'm not complaining about intermittent connectivity with PyDECnet; I'm asking if it's possible!
I don't have persistent Internet connectivity or a fixed IP address at my just-barely-rural home. When my home network is connected to the Internet, it's tethered over my cell phone. And even then, my cell service is spotty. I could possibly resume using a separate hotspot at home rather than my regular cell phone, but even when I was doing that, my connectivity wasn't great. Cell service in my neighborhood isn't very good via either AT&T or Verizon, and wired connectivity is not available.
Would any of the DECnet routing mechanisms supported by PyDECnet possibly be suitable for intermittent connection of my home network, with a small number of DECnet nodes, to HECnet? Or am I just going to have to remain a HECnet spectator until I manage to obtain better Internet connectivity?
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
I thought that I had sent a message to the list a few months ago showing the procedure to use the software DDCMP driver in RSTS V10.1. That's a standard feature, but undocumented and probably unsupported. It works well and interoperates with PyDECnet and with the DDCMP implementation in SIMH. Presumably it will talk to the software DDCMP in RSX, though I have not tried that.
Attached are the instructions and the program mentioned.
paul
Hi all,
Just received the e-mail below. I've hunted around all the various
Hobbyist locations and licensing pages and can't find any additional
information.
I've already replied back to ask what the impact of Hobbyist renewal
licensing will be. I have no further information at this stage.
Have others received this as well? Does anyone have any further
knowledge on this?
I can see a few people have forwarded/posted the same message on
comp.os.vms.
Cheers, Wiz!!
From: OpenVMS Customer Lab [mailto:openvmscustomerlab at hpe.com]
Sent: Saturday, 7 March 2020 3:13 PM
Cc: OpenVMS Customer Lab
Subject: OpenVMS Hobbyist Notification
Dear HPE OpenVMS hobbyist,
This is to inform you that HPE is concluding the HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist
license program in alignment with the HPE OpenVMS support roadmap.
If you wish to understand more details, please reach out to us at the
earliest through the usual license renewal webpage.
Thank you.
HPE OpenVMS team
The recent post about multi-threaded NNTP for VMS (whaaay cool) jogged
my memory about something I had been wondering about.? This morning, a
large number of clocks got switched ahead an hour in the United States.?
Tops-20 did it 'relatively flawlessly' as it has done so since the early
1980's.? Back then, a lot of systems didn't.? None of our IBM systems did.
A lot of that has changed nowadays with NTP clients; even if the base
operating system doesn't support time change, an NTP client can address
that.? So all my systems advanced appropriately, as did an old radio
clock.? I'm not sure how *nix does it, but I don't remember Ultrix
having the code on our 8650 (or 8700). Tops-20 will do the change
whether or not a client exists as the code is in the monitor.
At the time (1980's), I don't believe that VMS had internal code to do
the time change and NTP did not exist as such (some network time
services existed, but I don't remember whether there was a generally
available VMS TCP/IP package; we didn't have it).? I would assume that
this is handled now.? I hesitate to ask about RSX and RSTS, but I would
assume that the C compiler for RSX (with Johnny's TCP/IP interface)
could support an NTP port.? Anyway, the question is: how does VMS handle
the time change?
By 'relatively flawlessly', I mean Galaxy.? If you submit jobs with an
/AFTER: switch, but use an elapsed time, you can get the wrong start
time.? For example, in a daily batch job to do incremental saves,
TODAY+2:00:00 means tomorrow morning at 2:00:00 AM, assuming the current
job was started at 2:00:00.? However today, the job? started at 3:00:00
AM.? No big deal.
However, this used to seriously mess up our operations, who started
shift expecting requests for tape mounts. ? I looked at the issue awhile
back in the 80's, but realized that the problem wasn't in Quasar because
it is only dealing with internal date format.? The issue had to be fixed
by putting some logic into the Exec to differentiate between a specified
time and a calculated time.? As it wasn't immediately straightforward, I
never got to it.? Maybe one of these days...
Hi,
Well this is kinda sad but inevitable. I have been considering for some time surrendering my DEC/VMS systems to the community in some form or other for a while as they aren?t being used at all. The announcement from HPE that they are closing the Hobbyist programme and VSI?s reluctance/non-committal attitude to Hobbyists has pushed me towards Feeling like they aren?t worth hanging onto anymore.
I am also at the stage where I may as well move on some other stuff that?s sitting gathering dust too.
Thus I have the following machines that I will surrender to a good home. They are mostly collect-only from UK LN11 Postcode area:
= VAXstation 4000/60
- Free. It was a freebie to me from Matt Burke and has matching keyboard and mouse, so I?m spreading the joy.
- It?s in very clean and well kept condition. Can supply VGA compatible video cable.
- Collect only. Sorry. It?s too fragile for me to pack and hip without taking out shares in a bubblewrap company
= DEC Alpha PWS 600au
- A reasonable monetary offer will take this, as a guide I?d say GBP50 but make offers I?m not going to ask a lot for it if you can collect it.
- There s chance I, might be able to ship this as it?s not too fragile and is PC shaped so I have a box it might fit in.
= HP zx6000 rack mount dual Itantium (2x 12GHz, 24GB RAM)
- Again, reasonable offers around GBP50 will take this
= IBM Intellistation 9111-285 POWER workstation
- I love it but it\s hug and ornery and way too power hungry for my electric bill
- It?s a single core somewhere in the 1.8GHZ ballpark from memory. Last I checked the PSU was fine.
- It comes with a plethora of drive sleds, graphics cards (all IBM GXP cards that work in AIX) and probably some AIX Media.
- Feel free to take it for free. The space is worth more to me than the computer at this stage!
= A couple of Top Gun blue DEC SCSI StorageWorks boxes with sleds and drives and interface cards. One has a 40X Plextor CDROM in one of the big chunky bay adapters.
All contact should be taken off-list unless the questions are relevant to other prospective takers.
Thanks.
?
Mark
I've just received an update from the OpenVMS Customer lab:
Here's the message from the OpenVMS team. The idea was that hobbyists
would visit the site and renew their licenses, and in response, we would
provide the final set of licenses,
explaining the scenario:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
As we approach the end of the HPE OpenVMS V8.4 standard support
period, HPE
plans to conclude the HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program.
The HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist licenses we are issuing in 2020 will be the
last set.
Subsequently, HPE will not issue new HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist licenses.
Attached
is the final set of the HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist licenses. These final
licenses
are valid through December 31st, 2021. We hope that this additional
validity
period will enable users to plan for the future.
Users who wish to avail of HPE OpenVMS long term licenses are
encouraged to
purchase permanent licenses at standard prices. You may contact
[Fellman, Jon]
<jon.fellman at hpe.com> for the same.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Cheers, Wiz!!
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On
Behalf Of David Moylan
Sent: Saturday, 7 March 2020 4:14 PM
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Subject: [HECnet] HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing
Hi all,
Just received the e-mail below. I've hunted around all the various
Hobbyist locations and licensing pages and can't find any additional
information.
I've already replied back to ask what the impact of Hobbyist renewal
licensing will be. I have no further information at this stage.
Have others received this as well? Does anyone have any further
knowledge on this?
I can see a few people have forwarded/posted the same message on
comp.os.vms.
Cheers, Wiz!!
From: OpenVMS Customer Lab [mailto:openvmscustomerlab at hpe.com]
Sent: Saturday, 7 March 2020 3:13 PM
Cc: OpenVMS Customer Lab
Subject: OpenVMS Hobbyist Notification
Dear HPE OpenVMS hobbyist,
This is to inform you that HPE is concluding the HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist
license program in alignment with the HPE OpenVMS support roadmap.
If you wish to understand more details, please reach out to us at the
earliest through the usual license renewal webpage.
Thank you.
HPE OpenVMS team
