[HECnet] Intermittent Connection with PyDECnet?

Re: multiple DECnet nodes on the same physical machine, I've set up things like tun/tap before for that. I don't remember the details, but I still have my scripts from the last time I played with it so that I can learn it all over again. Re: security, I don't expect any sort of modern security within HECnet. I presume that anything I connect to it may get to relive things like the Father Christmas worm at any moment, all of my packets transiting HECnet outside my local network are printed on billboards, and nothing but obscurity stands between my local network and all of the DECnet-aware malicious hackers in the world using my old VMS and RSX nodes as beachheads to break in. I was mostly just wondering if there's anything in place to provide a modicum of protection for the Internet-connected, IP-aware hosts on HECnet (particularly any nodes providing upstream connectivity to others on HECnet) from random bad people port-scanning them and making connections to their open IP ports. Is there even a plaintext login/password challenge at connection time when a downstream node connects to its upstream node over the public Internet? Does that vary depending on whether GRE, Multinet, etc. is used for the link? -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/