[HECnet] Re: Announcing TCP/IP for RSX-11M-PLUS

I'm happy to announce a new release of TCP/IP for RSX-11M-PLUS. Since I'm broadening the scope of the announcement slightly, a more complete list of features is included, and not just what changed since last. For anyone who is currently running TCP/IP for RSX, I strongly encourage you to update to this latest version. Several improvements have gone in in the last couple of weeks. Most important change is that there now is telnet support, both client and server side. The TCP/IP for RSX that I've written is sometimes referred to as BQTCP/IP, just to make clear that it is a different product than Process Software's TCPWARE, or JSA's TCP/IP. BQTCP/IP is a rather feature rich TCP/IP implementation, which also comes with libraries for various high level languages. The API is not compatible, even at the source level, with Unix, but on the other hand, if people write some code, they will see that it is a very easy API to work with. The reasons for the incompatibilities are several, including both resource concerns and differences between how RSX works and Unix like operating systems. BQTCP/IP has tried to comply with all relevant RFCs, but I'm sure there are corners where it does not do things right. It also does not demand much resources. It do require RSX-11M-PLUS with split I/D space, and it has only been tested properly on RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6. It should work on any version 4 release of RSX-11M-PLUS, but there might be a couple of tweaks or fixes needed. BQTCP/IP is distributed in binary form, so very little compilation is required to get it up and running. However, pretty much all utilities do come with sources. The actual TCP/IP stack sources are not included. I do not have a good setup for distributing them in a sane way, and it has had a low priority on my list of things to do. But I do not mind distributing the sources as a general principle. All that said, BQTCP/IP current supports the following protocols: o Ethernet and loopback interfaces. o ARP. BQTCP/IP can use Ethernet in co-existance with DECnet, or standalone using the provided Unibus ethernet device driver. o IP. The largest IP packets supported are approximately 8KB. o ICMP. o UDP. The largest UDP packets supported are approximately 8KB. o TCP. The window is approximately 8KB in size, and TCP do manage out of order packets in an efficient way. BQTCP/IP supports the following applications: o DHCP. DHCP can be used to configure interface addresses, network masks, default gateways, DNS servers and NTP servers dynamically. o NTP. NTP can be used to set the local time. o TELNET. The TELNET server hooks in to the standard TT: terminal driver, and the number of terminals to create is configurable. The TELNET client can be used to connect to other systems. o FTP. The FTP server can serve all kind of files to other RSX systems, and can serve text and binary files to any system. The FTP client can retrieve RSX format files from RSX servers, and text, binary and block format files from any system. o TFTP. The TFTP server and client can be used for simpler file transfer operations. o RWHOD. RWHOD is a program that reports current users and uptime from RSX, for other systems to collect. o IRC. IRC is a program to communicate with other users around the world. o IRCBOT. IRCBOT is a small example robot program connecting to IRC and performing a service for IRC users. o PCL. PCL is a protocol for printing, used by HP (and other) printers over a network. The PCL implementation in BQTCP/IP appears as a print symbiont, which you can create a printer queue for. o WWW. WWW (or World Wide Web) is a service that can present hypertext information to clients. The WWW server in BQTCP/IP also supports CGI, which makes it possible to create dynamic content. o DNS. BQTCP/IP have DNS implemented as an ACP, that anyone can query to get translations between IP addresses and domain names. It also supports different users using different name servers, or private translations. o SINK. A standard TCP service. o ECHO. A standard TCP service. o DAYTIME. A standard TCP service. o QUOTD. A standard TCP service. o IDENTD. A standard TCP service. BQTCP/IP also have automatic IP spoof detection and prevention. Additional tools are IFCONFIG, PING, TRACEROUTE, NETSTAT as well as two new pages for RMD. High level language libraries exists for BASIC+2, PDP-11 C and FORTRAN-77. I'm sure I have forgotten a thing or three, but that's a fairly comprehensive list. The documentation is a weak point, but there is hopefully enough documentation to get people running, and I am happy to answer any questions, or give support if needed. BQTCP/IP is already running on the internet, and have been for a while. People who are curious to check it out can ether look at http://madame.update.uu.se/, or telnet to telnet://madame.update.uu.se and login as user GUEST with password GUEST, or use ftp against ftp://madame.update.uu.se. Anonymous ftp account exist. As usual, the distribution is available from: ftp://madame.update.uu.se/bqtcp.dsk ftp://madame.update.uu.se/bqtcp.tap ftp://ftp.update.uu.se/pub/pdp11/rsx/tcpip/tcpip.dsk The .tap file is an RSX virtual tape. It is only possible to download and use if you are using FTP from anther RSX system and fetch the file. The .dsk files are virtual RL02 images that are useful both from within RSX as well as through emulators. The documentation is also available through ftp on Madame, or also at http://madame.update.uu.se/tcpipdoc Johnny