Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!labrea!decwrl!hplabs!well!rshuford From: rshuford@well.UUCP (Richard S. Shuford) Newsgroups: comp.os.vms,comp.org.decus Subject: Re: VMS Users Network Message-ID: <3887@well.UUCP> Date: Fri, 4-Sep-87 13:59:56 EDT Article-I.D.: well.3887 Posted: Fri Sep 4 13:59:56 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 5-Sep-87 21:36:16 EDT References: <3856@well.UUCP> Reply-To: rshuford@well.UUCP (Richard S. Shuford) Lines: 121 Keywords: VMS, PMDF, Usenet, news, mail, DECUS, network, VUnet Summary: VUnet Questions and Answers Xref: mnetor comp.os.vms:2441 comp.org.decus:216 The following pertains to my earlier posting ("VMS Users Network"-- 3856@well.uucp in "comp.os.vms" and "comp.org.decus"). This described an effort by a working group in the DECUS VAX Special Interest Group to form a UUCP/Usenet-like store-and-forward network for computer systems running DEC's VMS operating system. The initial plan to establish a set of sites communicating over dial-up telephone links using a VMS-based program called PMDF. Several readers mailed me questions and comments. This is to clarify some points that they raised. I was hoping that my posting would invoke commentary by people who really are experts on these subjects, but until they speak here are my provisional answers to several questions regarding "VUnet". /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ ANSWERS TO VUNET QUESTIONS Q. Doesn't the capability proposed for VUnet exist already in DECnet and VAXnotes? A. DECnet does have fully functional electronic mail, but using it to establish informal store-and-forward links is difficult. And not all VAX/VMS sites have DECnet. VAXnotes is a nice conferencing system, but it is not, to my knowl- edge, compatible with the transmissions of the larger networking world. And again, neither do all VMS sites have VAXnotes nor is its purchase easily justified in many situations. Q. Why invent "yet another protocol"? There are too many already. A. PMDF is not a new protocol. Many sites in the CS-Net have been using it, or MMDF, for years. Q. Why have a completely independent networking system for VMS sites? A. It is not intended that VUnet should be independent. The desire to connect with the existing system of global networks has been the driving force during the entire project. Q. Why not just use a uucp program running under VMS? A. No low-cost implementations of uucp now exist that can be run under VMS. (There do exist some commercial VMS enhancement products with uucp, notably DEC/Shell and The Wollangong Group's Eunice, but these are relatively costly.) The working-group members want to keep the price of participation low. Of the two attempts to reverse-engineer uucp with public-domain software (uuslave and dcp), it is not known that either yet runs under VMS with full functionality. If anyone succeeds in making one of them run well, the working group would want to hear about it immediately, but even so, a PMDF-based network could just add the "uuicio" protocol as another "channel". Q. Likewise, why not just run the Usenet news software that already exists? A. I don't know if the newly available DECUS Library program VAX-214 NEWS is an exception, but as far as I'm aware, the working-group members have not yet found any version of a Unix news program that will execute under VMS without their either modifying source code extensively or somehow stretching the terms of a Unix license. (It's the VMS sites that don't have access to Unix that most need VUnet.) Anyone volunteering to help write or obtain a news program would be gladly thanked by the working group. Q. Shouldn't the new network be compatible with the TCP/IP protocols? A. If you have a TCP/IP communication link, PMDF can use it as one of its "channels". Q. If there is no uucp capability, how can a VUnet site become connected with the dial-up UUCP network? A. I'm told that all Unix sites running 4.3 BSD also possess the MMDF program. PMDF was designed to talk to MMDF. Versions of PMDF also exist for systems other than DEC VAXes; for in- stance, a version called HPMDF runs on Hewlett-Packard 3000 machines. Q. How does VUnet relate to a DECUS Library program called VAXnet? A. No connection. VAXnet is a program that lets you dial out from your VAX through a modem. It's like a fancy version of "SET HOST/DTE". Q. What is DECUS? A. Digital Equipment Computer Users Society United States Chapter 219 Boston Post Road, BP02 Marlboro, MA 01752-1850 617/480-3418 Q. Why hasn't this been done already? A. I wish I knew. /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ The chief organizer of the VMS Users Network is Jamie Hanrahan Simpact Associates 9210 Sky Park Court San Diego, CA 92123 619/565-1865 {sdcsvax,akgua,hplabs,hp-sdd,nosc}!crash!pnet01!jeh jeh@pnet01.cts.com pnet01!jeh@crash.cts.com /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ .....Richard S. Shuford Siecor Corporation 489 Siecor Park, M/S-RD Hickory, NC 28603-0489 BIX: richard UUCP: {hplabs,ptsfa}!well!rshuford