I come from a mostly-UNIX, mostly-TCP/IP background. I don't understand DECnet well yet, but I want to learn more! Much of my interest in joining HECnet and playing around is because I largely skipped over DECnet in its original airing, and now it seems like a weird foreign land that I feel an irrational need to grok in fullness.
What are/were the conventions for providing public services over DECnet Phase IV networks, to remote users without their own local user accounts? I.e., let's say that I had a node on a large DECnet-only network back in the before time, and I wanted to share a file repository in a manner comparable to anonymous FTP on a TCP/IP network. How would I have done that? Were there conventions for doing that sort of thing back then, or was that a foreign concept on large DECnet networks at the time?
Were there any examples of BBS-like servers living on DECnet networks? Online multi-player games such as MUDs? Early DECnet-based examples of "log into the coffee pot to see if the brew is fresh"? DECnet-based analogs to Archie for discovering stuff? DECnet-based USENET-like communities?
I don't know if any of these concepts even made sense in the DECnet world at the time. In addition to only understanding the networks of the 80s from a UNIX-centric, TCP/IP-centric worldview, I'm also having a hard time un-thinking the newer concepts I'm used to after so many years of steeping in a broth of HTTP and social media. I have somewhat conflicting urges to both learn how to think like a 1980s DECnet user, and to retcon modern concepts into an alternate reality where TCP/IP never took off.
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
For those interested in running the updated DECnet kernel module
under Ubuntu rather than Slackware, I gave it a go by updating my
machine running 16.04 following the steps at:
>From https://www.maketecheasier.com/build-custom-kernel-ubuntu/
And it was quite easy indeed. [But have plenty of free disk
space, say >20 GB. If the make fails, and you have to start over,
it does a 'clean' first. So even when doing make...]
Of course, after the step to have the kernel source ready,
for example in 'kernelbuild', cd to 'kernelbuild/net' and unzip
the dflkm.zip file, which may be found at RULLFS::
One of my nodes fell off Hecnet (actually a while ago).
I finally got around to reboot it in order to get it back.
The problem? Too much uptime.
Monitor Atle - DEC-10 at work
System uptime 10483:52:41
Current date/time Thursday 8-Feb-2018 8:00:14
Thats what you get for running stable hardware. On the other hand,
this is/was a known problem:
MCO: 12935 Name: WXD Date: 22-May-86:14:12:35
[Symptom]
DECnet stops working correctly. The -10 sees all the nodes
on the ethernet, but isn't seen by any of the nodes.
[Diagnosis]
The -10 has stopped sending ethernet hello messages. This
is caused by the -10 getting an overflow when calculating the DECnet
time (milliseconds of uptime), which is then used to determine when
to send the next message. The algorithm is:
MOVE T1,SYSUPT
IMULI T1,1000.
IDIVI T1,JIFSEC
This overflows at 159 hours, 4 minutes, 22 seconds, and 19. ticks (60hz).
[Cure]
Change IMULI -> MULI, and IDIVI -> DIVI
This algorithm won't overflow until 9544 hours of uptime (395+ days).
--Johnny (the other one)
/\_/\
( *.* )
> ^ <
On a virtual machine with lubuntu 12.04, kernel 3.2.0, I have
DECnet for Linux V.2.5.68s working, with dnprogs version 2.65.
It is node RULLFL.
The daemons and utilities use decnet.conf with node information,
so something useful would be to create it from mim::nodenames.dat.
On a VAX, TYPEing it works well, but on the Linux machine, dntype
hangs after giving parts of the file; dndir mim:: works well.
Does anyone have dntype mim::nodenames.dat working properly (with
perhaps different versions of the above)?
Thanks!
Johnny,
Using your [IPF77]TEST2.FTN, I made a very simple network printing routine that I can begin to modify for a Brother Laser printer which
will have its own escapes codes for portrait, landscape etc. and pull file names from the command line. I show it below in case any one wants to do something similar. I used your MKE and MAKEFILE,; to handle getting the libraries and switches correct.
PROGRAM NETPRT
INCLUDE 'INET'
CHARACTER*40 HOST, URL, FIL
CHARACTER*1 TXT(132)
CHARACTER*6 EP
INTEGER*2 LPO, I, L, K, PORT
HOST='192.168.0.27'
PORT=9100
LPO = TCP(1,0)
IF (HOST2I(EP,6,HOST,40,PORT) .NE. 0) THEN
TYPE *,'Failed to convert hostname.'
CALL EXIT(1)
END IF
IF (CONNEC(1,EP,6,PUTXT,60) .NE. 0) THEN
TYPE *,'Connect error: ',NETERR
CALL EXIT(1)
END IF
CALL GEP(1,EP,6)
IF (IP2HOS(EP,6,RNADR+RPORT,HOST,40) .NE. 0) THEN
TYPE *,'IP2HOST error: ',NETERR
CALL EXIT(1)
END IF
TYPE *,'Got connection - ',HOST
WRITE(5,30)
30 FORMAT('$FILE:')
READ (5,20) FIL
20 FORMAT(A40)
L = INDEX(FIL,' ')-1
OPEN (UNIT=2, FILE=FIL(1:L), STATUS='OLD', FORM='FORMATTED',
+ CARRIAGECONTROL='LIST', READONLY)
40 READ (2,45,END=100) K, (TXT(I),I=1,K)
45 FORMAT(Q,132A1)
D WRITE (5,50) (TXT(I),I=1,K)
WRITE (1,50) (TXT(I),I=1,K)
50 FORMAT(1X,132A1)
GOTO 40
100 CONTINUE
CALL PCRLF(1)
CALL PUSH(1)
CALL SCLOSE(1)
CLOSE (UNIT=2)
TYPE *,'Net Print Done.'
END
Thanks and Best regards,
Mark
Time for a new release announcement of TCP/IP for RSX-11M-PLUS.
This release contains a lot of fixes and improvements in many areas.
There are a couple of very serious bugs in TCP that is fixed in this
release which is why I really encourage people to upgrade. (They do not
happen often, but if they happen, they have a high chance of crashing
the system.)
Highlights:
- Stability and reliability improvements in TCP.
- Improved DHCP
- Improved TELNETD
- Improved FTP(D)
- Improved HTTPD
- Improved MAIL(D)
- Improved Multinet
Detailed information on things that have been done since the last release:
Installation process:
- The IPGEN script now optionally cleans up the disk after installation.
TCP:
- Bugfix in TCP slow start window computation in combination with TCP
RTT calculation. If the RTT was above mininum, the slow start window
never grew.
- Changed TCP Fin-Wait-2 state to not reset timer if unexpected packets
are received.
- Stop slow timer at TCP close, so that it can be re-primed with an
appropriate timeout.
- Added proper handling of SYN packets at the closing stages of a
socket. They should always cause RST packets.
- Improved handling of the slow timer at the closing stages of sockets.
Sending packets at those stages should not stop the timer.
- Add handling of two TCP SYN packets comes in from same address/port to
same address/port but with different sequence numbers. Second req. will
be reset immediately.
- Improve handling of failed daemon activations from TCP.
- Bugfix. If several creates were done for the same TCP connection, the
stack got corrupted.
- Bugfix in IO.CON. It could create a new connection for an already
existing one.
- Bugfix. If a read from TCP give error result, we should not unblock
user ASTs.
- Corrected AST block setup in TCP.
- Add PU.NBL option for non-blocking writes to TCP.
- Bugfix in TCP. IO.SXS, IO.SRS and IO.SSS was not working.
IFCONFIG:
- Disallow changing interface parameters on a running interface.
DHCP:
- Corrected bug in DHCP, where lease time was computed as a signed number.
TELNETD:
- Improve TELNETD connection tracking and disconnection handling.
- Bugfix in TELNETD. If socket create failed, TELNETD could go catatonic.
- Improved telnetd accept handling.
FTP(D):
- Bugfix for FTP, which caused RSX and block mode transfers to sometimes
fail.
- Improved RSX mode FTP transfer mode under some circumstances.
- Enable ftp to put block files.
HTTP:
- Bugfix in HTTPD. WWW.B2S failed to include BQTLIB.B2S, and therefore
missed function prototypes causing function to be called the wrong way
in the main function.
- Improve error handling for HTTPD when running CGI scripts.
- Improved handling of CGI interface in WWW.
MAILD:
- Improved mail headers for MAIL11 received mails.
- Improve MAILD handling of text/plan with format=flow
- Add user-agent header to composed mails.
- Add MIME headers to mail sent over smtp.
- Improved logging in MAILD.
- Added handling of mail address loops in MAILD.
- Added mail forwarding for MAILD.
- Improved error handling in MAILD mail delivery.
- Improve MAILD client RMS handling.
- Bugfix in MAILD. For MAIL11, VMS systems can send empty lines that
MAILD interpreted as end of mail. Fixed now.
- Fix mail processing. SMTP did not reject invalid local addresses. SMTP
now rejects destinations on other hosts, as we do not allow relaying.
- Corrected mail printouts which skipped empty lines.
- Added FILE command to mail client.
Multinet:
- Improve Multinet handling of failing lines.
RMD:
- Added more information on the RMD network page.
As usual, the distribution is available from:
ftp://mim.update.uu.se/bqtcp.dsk
ftp://mim.update.uu.se/bqtcp.tap
ftp://ftp.update.uu.se/pub/pdp11/rsx/tcpip/tcpip.dsk
The documentation is also available through ftp on Mim, or also at
http://mim.update.uu.se/tcpipdoc
The firewall for Mim have now been removed, so no need for the alternate
ports, but Mim is still listening to the alternate ports as well.
ftp: 10021
telnet: 10023
As a final word about this release. As always things progress with time,
but I think it's safe to say by now that BQTCP is now a very stable
TCP/IP with almost all features one can expect. There might always be
some more work on the lower level protocols, but at this point, expect
that most work and updates will be more and more on various daemons and
clients.
If there is anything in particular anyone is looking for, let me know.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
I?m looking for Peter Coghlan, to ask him about some patches he did a while back. I see he has nodes on HECNET. Does anyone have his current email info?
--
Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR
Control-G Consultants
lee.gleason at comcast.net
Tony Blews <tonyblews at gmail.com> writes:
>On 9 January 2018 at 17:59, Brian Schenkenberger, VAXman- <system at tmesis.com
>> wrote:
>
>>
>> I have lots and lots of ideas. However, I'm sure you'd like to know how to
>> start the queue manager over learning about my ideas.
>>
>
>That very much depends on the ideas.
Not an idea, just a theory...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6zWjUhfj-M
>> I'd suggest that you first create the queue manager before you try to start
>> it.
>>
>> $ START/QUEUE/MANAGER/NEW_VERSION
>> $ START/QUEUE/MANAGER
>>
>> You will then need to INITIALIZE/QUEUE to create your queues.
>>
>
>Got it now.
>
>
>> FYI, "$ HELP" might answer your questions.
>>
>
>Too much wading to do there. Back in the old days I'd just shout across the
>room and someone would remember and shout back. Apart from the time the
>reply was "go away, I'm trying to work out where these two machine can
>from, who runs them and why they are hidden behind the printer".
$ HELP QUEUES
--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG
I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.
Tony Blews <tonyblews at gmail.com> writes:
>Thanks for that...
>
>Create, start, reboot.
>
>I'm an idiot.
>
>I'll save this for next time (now if only I can get incoming mail
>working... time to hit the mail hub configs)
DO NOT INSTITUTIONALIZE the /NEW_VERSION!!! I've seen people put that into
their system startups and then wonder where QUEUES and JOBS disappeared to.
You really don't need a reboot but if you want to check your system startup
then, by all means, do so.
--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG
I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.
Tony Blews <tonyblews at gmail.com> writes:
>Hi
>
>I may have asked this before, but its bugging me again and I can't remember
>the answer, or find a simple explanation online anywhere...
>
>Having just installed TARDIS again with OpenVMS7.3 everything seems to work
>fine apart from mail over TCPIP. This throws up:
>
>%JBC-E-JOBQUEDIS, system job queue manager is not running
>$ start/queue/manager
>Message from user JOB_CONTROL on TARDIS
>-RMS-E-FNF, file not found
>%JBC-E-QMANNOTSTARTED, queue manager could not be started
>$
>
>Any ideas (and I promise I'll save the answer this time)?
I have lots and lots of ideas. However, I'm sure you'd like to know how to
start the queue manager over learning about my ideas.
I'd suggest that you first create the queue manager before you try to start
it.
$ START/QUEUE/MANAGER/NEW_VERSION
$ START/QUEUE/MANAGER
You will then need to INITIALIZE/QUEUE to create your queues.
FYI, "$ HELP" might answer your questions.
--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG
I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.
