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From: dlb5404@tamuts.tamu.edu (Daryl Biberdorf)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.amiga
Subject: Re: VMS TALKING again....
Summary: TCP/IP vs. DECnet
Message-ID: <14461@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 10 Apr 91 14:17:13 GMT
References: <9104100428.AA13489@cwns10.INS.CWRU.Edu>
Sender: usenet@helios.TAMU.EDU
Organization: Texas A&M University
Lines: 30

In article <9104100428.AA13489@cwns10.INS.CWRU.Edu> aq078@cleveland.Freenet.Edu writes:
>I am on MIT's UNIX system
>I wish to "talk" with someone on a remote VMS system.
>
>I've heard that PHONE and TALK are not compatable directly, but can be
>connected via "decnet".  What exactly is decnet, and how can it be
>accessed, from UNIX and VMS?

PHONE and Talk are not compatible, period.

I haven't seen any sort of DECnet product for anything but Ultrix (DEC's
UNIX), but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't exist (not by any means!).
DECnet is DEC's proprietary network protocol.  I've seen it mostly running
on VAX/VMS systems.

Your best bet for getting some kind of interactive talk going between
the VMS and UNIX machine is to get some TCP/IP software for the VMS box.
Multinet seems to work fine.

Out of curiosity, how do you send mail from the VMS machine to the
UNIX machine?  If you're using an address like user@machine.school.edu,
then you probably already have the TCP/IP software on the VMS machine.
Does it have talk?

For more details on DECnet, its availability on UNIX machines, and
TCP/IP for VMS machines, you're probably better off checking one of the
VMS or Ultrix groups.

--Daryl Biberdorf,  dlb5404@tamuts.tamu.edu
  Texas A&M University