[HECnet] VMS/RSX Guest accounts

On Apr 22, 2020, at 23:43, Thomas DeBellis <tommytimesharing at gmail.com> wrote: ?Oh, I'm in Looooong Island, South Shore. I actually have relatives not far from you in PA, but I hadn't gotten around to noodging you yet for the distinct lack of 20's in your collection. I mean, you have a 4341 yet no 20? Tisk, tisk... Well, I'm pulling your leg a bit; a 20 is a seriously heavy lift. A KL has three purposes in life: 1) Generate Heat, 2) Suck Power, 3) Run winning code. A 2020 uses far less power, but doesn't have extended addressing, so it is stuck at Tops-20 4.1, which leaves out a lot of DECnet (and ARPAnet) stuff. Apparently, you can squeeze 5.0 in; MRC did this, but that was MRC. Tops-20 is at version 7.0 now. And both of them are seriously cranky beasts that needed care and feeding from trained service personnel; wire wrap and all that (yech). Remember, it's not a mainframe unless you can't fit it in your house and have to take out a second mortgage to pay for the electricity and tons (60 for a 20) of air conditioning. So Paul Allen had a KL based 20, which is now in the the Living Computer museum. But that cost was apparently less than a rounding error compared to what he was worth. A mere monetary blip, as it were. > On 4/22/20 11:28 PM, Dave McGuire wrote: > > Hey, I'm 5hrs from DC, where are you based Tom? > > -Dave > >> On 4/22/20 11:25 PM, Thomas DeBellis wrote: >> For VMS, for the moment I've gone with one of Bob's machines as that is >> on the 'local' DECnet area. Perhaps I'll get better performance >> although Supratim is closer, milage-wise. D.C. is about a 5 hour drive >> from here, while Bob's neck of the woods is a serious hike (Atlantic to >> Pacific). >> >> On 4/22/20 11:14 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote: >>> Well, the more the better, so get that VMS account. If you want to, I >>> can create an account for you on MIM as well. (But it will be >>> tomorrow, I need to go to bed...) >>> >>> Johnny >>> >>> On 2020-04-23 05:12, Thomas DeBellis wrote: >>>> Yes, but the MIM guest account is shared; I'm going to need to store >>>> a few files (captures, control files, Etc.) >>>> >>>> Wow, you've kept a real VAX running from 1993? Good for you! I'll >>>> contact you off-list. >>>> >>>> On 4/22/20 11:07 PM, Supratim Sanyal wrote: >>>>> Thomas - MIM already has a guest account ... I have had fun sending >>>>> Johnny smtp emails to that account. >>>>> >>>>> I can give you an account on MARIAH (a real VAX) if you wish, shoot >>>>> me a note offline if you decide to follow up ... >>>>> >>>>> Regards >>>>> >>>>> Supratim >>>>> >>>>> On 4/22/20 10:49 PM, Thomas DeBellis wrote: >>>>>> I've had my fill of FAL and DAP for the moment and have turned to >>>>>> some other things as sort of a 'break'. The Tops-10 NFT client >>>>>> breaks on certain file names that the 20 sends it, so there is >>>>>> going to be some debugging to track that down. Fortunately, a very >>>>>> patient person gave me PPN on one of their 10's. >>>>>> >>>>>> Right now, I'm working on bringing the Tops-20 mail system a bit >>>>>> more up to date with respect to DECnet communications. These were >>>>>> largely put aside when full Internet connectivity happened. Still, >>>>>> the PANDA distribution has some bit rot because I know that certain >>>>>> Columbia changes for DECnet (to support CCnet) are not there. I >>>>>> can't imagine that we didn't send them to MRC; that would have been >>>>>> unthinkable. >>>>>> >>>>>> Fortunately, I was able to remember enough to put some of them back >>>>>> so that I got SMTP over DECnet working well, again. It had been >>>>>> suffering from about two minute timing delays and now it's >>>>>> instantaneous between 20's, like I remember. Oddly enough, I >>>>>> don't remember what else ran SMTP over DECnet; I'm certain that RSX >>>>>> and VMS could have done it. I think some VMS site might have. >>>>>> >>>>>> However, most non-SMTP DECnet hosts on CCnet were running Mail-11, >>>>>> which the 20 also groks. In fact, it can convert Mail-11 addresses >>>>>> to SMTP and route over other transports such as PUP, Chaos and >>>>>> TCP/IP as well as DECnet. We did a lot of mail routing for CCnet >>>>>> to the Internet on CU20B, back in the day. >>>>>> >>>>>> Unfortunately, there is some bit rot in some of the Tops-20 Mail-11 >>>>>> code, so I've got some tinkering to do. Does anyone have a VMS or >>>>>> RSX system that they'd care to give me a guest account on? It >>>>>> doesn't need any special capabilities; I'm just going to be sending >>>>>> mail and looking a few raw headers over. >>>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Supratim Sanyal, W1XMT >>>>> 39.19151 N, 77.23432 W >>>>> QCOCAL::SANYAL via HECnet >>> >