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From: emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer
Subject: Re: TALK Daemon questions
Message-ID: <EMV.90Sep19221142@picasso.math.lsa.umich.edu>
Date: 20 Sep 90 03:11:42 GMT
References: <12052@chaph.usc.edu>
Sender: usenet@math.lsa.umich.edu
Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor MI.
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In-Reply-To: szeto@aludra.usc.edu's message of 19 Sep 90 22:51:55 GMT

In article <12052@chaph.usc.edu> szeto@aludra.usc.edu (Johnny Szeto) writes:

   I have an interesting conversation with one of my friends in Canada.
   BTW, we were conversing over the 'talk' command on unix.  But somehow
   I think there are some problems associated with the process.

Sounds like you need to get and install the "4.3" version of talk, also
known as "ntalkd", on one or both of the systems.  It is available from
uunet.uu.net in the /bsd-sources directory.

   My questions are:
   why do these kinds of things happen?

Byte ordering problems are the culprit here.  The protocol for in.talkd
on 4.2-based systems is architecture dependent and cannot be relied to
work between machines of different vendors.

--Ed

Edward Vielmetti, U of Michigan math dept <emv@math.lsa.umich.edu>
moderator, comp.archives