Stupid question about areas... - HECnet

10 Oct 2013

We ran DECnet phase 4 across a cisco mgs router to token ring, the rest of the net was
bridged. Cisco was a new name in 1992 (?). The mgs ran   version 7    iirc
Reading all those DECnet addresses byte reversed on token ring was weird. AA-00- becomes
55-00- on tr.

Van: Paul_Koning at Dell.com
Verzonden: donderdag 10 oktober 2013 19:09
Aan: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Beantwoorden: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Onderwerp: Re: [HECnet] Stupid question about areas...

On Oct 10, 2013, at 12:39 PM, Hans Vlems <hvlems at zonnet.nl> wrote:

...
  Bridges create an extended LAN and DECnet areas may
use the entire LAN, all segments that are not behind a DECnet router. 
 The LAN doesn't have to be just ethernet. As long as bridges are used to connect
ethernet to FDDI, or ATM or token ring then DECnet areas can easily be used across that
network. 
Mostly yes. When mixing LAN types, the differences in max packet size can make trouble.
The simplest answer is to use the Ethernet limit.

Also, token ring is not compatible with real LANs because it doesn't use real
multicast. (Well, it could in theory, but IBM insisted on being incompatible.) There's
a DECnet variant that copes with this, but regular Phase IV will not work over token ring.
Any real LAN, including oddballs like token bus (802.4) will be fine.

paul