Oh, no doubt it would be nice to have a distributed name service, but DECnet phase IV simply don't have it. And adding it means going into the DECnet code, which I suspect, most people don't have. So it basically can't be done. Note that the API (atleast in RSX, but I'm pretty sure it's true for other systems as well) actuall use node names, and not node numbers. So it's not like you could add another layer at the application program, that would make a query, and then use that information for the calls that build the connection block. The name translation to a node number all happens internally in the DECnet code. Johnny Sampsa Laine wrote: The only (and this is a very minor) benefit that I can see in a distributed naming system is that this way each owner of say an area could update the name database for his network and have it automagically propagate, rather than a centralised system we have right now which requires your time to keep up to date. But it's not really that big a benefit to warrant the effort - just automate the periodic copying of the database from MIM would be my suggestion as well... Sampsa On 3 Dec 2009, at 20:07, Johnny Billquist wrote: Sridhar Ayengar wrote: Johnny Billquist wrote: Node list don't even get transmitted within the same area. Node names are local to each machine, and it is perfectly valid to have different names for the same node number on different machines (although perhaps confusing). How hard would it be to write software as equivalent to DNS? Not necessarily for general-purpose use, but just for HECnet? For what? Just copying the nodename database between machines? The software can already do that, so it would just be a question of automating it a bit. If you'd like to get a name lookup done from some central place at each nodename lookup would be almost impossible. You'd need the source code for DECnet, and the ability to recompile it for that to be possible. Not likely, I'm afraid. Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol