Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!wls From: wls@uwm.edu (Bill Stapleton) Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer Subject: Re: TALK Daemon questions Message-ID: <6461@uwm.edu> Date: 20 Sep 90 15:18:07 GMT References: <12052@chaph.usc.edu> Sender: news@uwm.edu Reply-To: wls@uwm.edu (Bill Stapleton) Organization: Computing Services, U of Wisc-Milwaukee Lines: 28 > 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. You're right about the problems. You're probably better off just using mail. In article , emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) writes: > 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. > > 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. [By the way, just to state it explicitly, "4.2" and "4.3" talks are not compatible - You need the same version at both ends.] I don't think that's the case in this instance, since he indicates that it works OK sometimes. I think it's probably talk's use of the Unreliable Data Protocol (;-) that's at fault. Over a distance, there's just too many places for packets to get lost, with no checks or guarantees. Canada?? :-) -- Bill Stapleton wls@csd4.csd.uwm.edu uwmcsd4!wls