I had a shower thought that I'd like to run down in order to better understand how DECnet routing works. Ok, I wasn't actually in the shower.
Let's say that my local DECnet is successfully hooked in to HECnet. For the sake of discussion, imagine I'm using PyDECnet to connect to my upstream node, and I don't have my own area number. That means that my PyDECnet node would be a level 1 router, right?
Now, imagine that I inadvertently bring up a system on my local ethernet with an uncoordinated DECnet node ID. Perhaps I booted some random RL02 pack in my VAX without remembering to unplug the ethernet cable, or booted a random disk image in SIMH with it connected to the TAP device. Just to make things exciting, let's say that the system comes up with a node ID that properly exists elsewhere in HECnet.
If the node ID happens to be in the same area that I'm properly in, does the adjacency detection find it and break things? What if it comes up with a node ID in a different area? Just how much trouble would this cause?
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
Does anybody know if there's a PDP-11 MACRO-11 cross assembler for VMS?
I don't want to set up a whole PDP-11 simulation just to assemble one file J
Bob
Greetings all! I have been a lurker in this group for years but have never
started a HECNet implementation of my own. My experience with DEC machines
is only through Simh and I would like to expand my horizons with probably
the MicroVAX 3900 simulator. There are a few of challenges with this. 1. My
knowledge of DCL is quite rudimentary. 2. My networking experience is
strictly TCP/IP. 3. I have seen how much enjoyment you all have with this
but I am still not sure what to do with HECNet. Nevertheless, I would love
to get involved but I will probably need some hand holding and it would be
understandable that no one has time to help me. So I was wondering if there
was any beginners guide to DECNet I could read or if anyone would be
interested in helping a total beginner. I have 3 computers all running
Linux: an older desktop, a laptop which I usually use on wifi so that
probably isn't a good choice and a Raspberry Pi 4. Again any help and/or
advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Ray
> DECnet over "dialup"
If the PyDecnet thing is the TCP listener and ignores the
source IP address and then just verifies it's a DECnet
packet with the right area/node id (somekind of new filter
function), I think we have enough security to get started.
> Ham radio...
You can put a DECnet packet in a KISS frame and you have
a PTP link with callsign identifications if you want. A
"grapes wd4dsy modem" would make 56Kbit or 112Kbit on
432 or 1296.
-P
NIA20 will be included along with an IP capable IMP interface.
On Feb 26, 2020 11:33 AM, Robert Armstrong <bob at jfcl.com> wrote:
>Rich Cornwell's simh KL10 is in the final stages of prep. You should see something
>in the next few weeks.
Really? I had no idea... Sounds like I am totally wrong about simh never emulating a KL.
Will it also emulate a DTE so you can marry it to one or more PDP-11 simhs? I know there was some talk of doing that for the PDP-15/76.
Bob
What are the alternatives for bridging DECnet systems across the Internet
that don't require any special hardware and can be self hosted on
OpenVMS/VAX?
I'm aware of Paul's Python router, but I didn't think it ran on a VAX. Am
I wrong about that? Is there a Python for OpenVMS/VAX? I believe there's a
port for AXP but I didn't know about one for VAX.
And I saw Rob mentioned his user mode DECnet router. Same questions -
what environment does that require? And I saw mention it being both
Multinet and simh DDCMp compatible - will it talk to a simh KS10/TOPS10/DMR
?
Bob
Hi all
I've moved my SIMH VAXen to a new host with a new version of SIMH (the
current 3.11 that I found - is there a newer version?)
Main host runs Devuan Linux (yes, I'm a systemd hater). VirtualBox VM
hosts the SIMH instance, also running Devuan Linux.
My area router, FRUGAL, boots fine and gets adjacency with my
Multinet-over-IP connections, that is, LEGATO, MIM, and 31.3:: as well as
other DECNet hosts (MISER, CHEAP)
However, the connection from FRUGAL "flaps" (going up and down) quite a
bit with local DECNet hosts as well as the ip-connection to 31.3::
I've tried eliminating the connection to 31.3:: as the culprit by turning
off the circuit, and the connection between FRUGAL:: and MISER:: (both
local nodes) continues to go up and down every few minutes.
I'd welcome some pointers, things to check, etc. Is there such a thing as
an adjacency timer perhaps I could crank up a bit?
Thanks
Fred
I just updated the current nodenames on a CISCO router after quite a
while using this. Posting this here in case this is useful for others
with CISCOs, possibly saving some awking and sedding.
This includes today's addition of A2RTR.
Best,
Supratim
--
Supratim Sanyal, W1XMT
39.19151 N, 77.23432 W
QCOCAL::SANYAL via HECnet
I have switched from using LEGATO as the area 2 router to using Paul's
pyDECnet router instead. I'm very impressed - it doesn't run under VMS, but
other than that pyDECnet does pretty much everything you could want to do
with DECnet or HECnet all in a single package. It only took me a couple of
hours to get it all set up, and it can manage all the Multinet links and the
one "Bilquist Bridge" link that were formerly attached to LEGATO.
The new router for area 2 is (what else?) A2RTR, 2.1023. Johnny, please
add this node name to your database.
LEGATO is still there, but it's been demoted to an L1 router and it
doesn't do anything now except route between HECnet and the real, physical,
machines in my house.
For the people who were/are connected to LEGATO there should be no real
difference except that you'll now see A2RTR on the other end of the link
instead. Everything else should work as before. Let me know if you find
some problem.
And a special thanks to Paul and Supratim for answering my silly questions
and helping me set it up.
Bob
