Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!lib!thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu From: jmaynard@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu (Jay Maynard) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.ibm Subject: Re: Pnews comp.protocols.ibm Message-ID: <4877@lib.tmc.edu> Date: 25 Mar 91 05:18:00 GMT References: <9103250340.AA23380@lilac.berkeley.edu> Sender: usenet@lib.tmc.edu Organization: University of Texas Medical School at Houston Lines: 32 Nntp-Posting-Host: thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu In article <9103250340.AA23380@lilac.berkeley.edu> BITNIC IBM-NETS List writes: >Is anyone else out there using Interlink's TCP/IP, is there a list for >this implementation? Technically we've found it blows IBM's MVS/XA >implementation out of the water. We're using it, but it could be better. 1) When they say to stick their 37x2 Ethernet box on a channel by itself, BELIEVE THEM. It soaks up 45% of the channel, no matter what the traffic going through it. 2) The documentation is unclear at best, and opaque at worst. I still have problems with the DNR configuration, and can't seem to do an FTP GET to save my life. 3) The mailer doesn't do MX records. This is nearly a fatal flaw, especially when the DNR problems mean that perfectly good addresses with A records fail at times as well - thus, a manual TSO DNRGET is required to determine the cause of bounced mail. 4) The API is baroque. They modeled it after the VTAM interface...itself not exactly a model of simplicity. The thought of writing an NNTP reader client for it gives me cold chills. 5) The only mail user agent for it appears to be UCLAMAIL. Besides needing an experienced systems programmer to customize and install, this introduces the inefficiency of a TSO address space just for users whose only use of the MVS system is mail - hardly the way to go. I'd like to use something like MEMO, from Verimation, but that requires applications programming - see 4). Yes, when it works, it's nice and fast. It's just a pain to deal with. -- Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC, PP-ASEL | Never ascribe to malice that which can jmaynard@thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu | adequately be explained by stupidity. "You can even run GNUemacs under X-windows without paging if you allow about 32MB per user." -- Bill Davidsen "Oink!" -- me