Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!faatcrl!jimb
From: jimb@faatcrl.UUCP (Jim Burwell)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.sys.cisco
Subject: Documentation
Message-ID: <67@faatcrl.UUCP>
Date: 17 Aug 90 05:37:39 GMT
Organization: FAA Technical Center, Atlantic City NJ
Lines: 46

I recently went out to ftp.cisco.com and grabbed the "release note" for
version 8.1 of the Terminal Server operating sytem.

I was hopeing they did something to make SLIP more flexible, and to my
delight, they did exacly what I wanted them to do:  They made the internet
address setting for SLIP dynamic.  This eliminated a big problem I had 
with slip and phone line hunt-groups/rotaries (how do you know what line
you are on, etc,etc).   From reading the note I figured it would let you
type in a command to set the internet address for SLIP on that line,
makeing it easy to work with using the tip command designed for dial-up
SLIP use distributed in the Toronto SLIP package.

So I went out and grabbed the binary image of the OS from the ftp site,
reset a few jumpers in our MSM, and had it TFTP booting the new OS in
about an hour and a half.  

Now the fun part.  I figured that the release note didn't have any 
documentation about any of the spiffy new features it described because
it would be easy to figure out using the OS's on-line help.  I was wrong.
After using lots of creative commands in an attempt to set our SLIP 
address dynamically, I gave up and decided to go back out to the ftp
site to get the docs for 8.1.  Was I in for a shock.  

There were no docs available!  Reading the README thingy that comes up
on that site when you try to get a directory a little more closely, I
noticed that it said that docs were available for $50 a copy.  Sigh.
When I first learned of the availability of new revisions of the OS 
on a public FTP site, I thought, "what a cool company!  They don't
charge for OS upgrades!".  I suppose I was being naive, which I'm prone
to do at times.  :-)  TANSTAAFL proves to be true again.

Someone, please prove me wrong.  By the time the people I work with grind
the paperwork through for approving the purchase of the docs, we'll
be at CISCO revision 13.79 or something.  :-)  (the way things work, it
would probably be faster/easier to get 'em to buy another Cisco box.
Hopefully they'd ship the latest OS and docs with it :-).

C'ya,
Jim


-- 
UUCP:  ...!rutgers!faatcrl!jimb              Internet:  jimb@faatcrl.UUCP
		Under brooding skys and watchful eyes
		On convulsive seas of false urgency
		We walk empty corridors in vain - "No Exit", Fate's Warning