All too true, except that it isn't stupid, at least not in that particular regard.

As per my previous email, Finger uses HSTNAM to determine network transport, which has a default order, on my systems picking DECnet first.  I'm pretty sure there was a way to force the transport protocol, I just don't remember what the magic syntax is.

A number of system programs use HSTNAM to implement their protocols over multiple transports.  These include the mail system, the FTP client, finger and something else (I think).

---

On 6/17/24 9:22 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:

Ugh. That notions seems risky... How do you know you should be using DECnet and not IP if you say @mim?

After all, @mim is a perfectly valid IP address as well.

---

On 2024-06-18 00:47, Thomas DeBellis wrote:

Updating the Tops-20 Finger client was simple enough, a table entry for DECnet and a small routine to build the JFN string, viz: