Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!oberon!cit-vax!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!C.CS.CMU.EDU!Vince.Fuller From: Vince.Fuller@C.CS.CMU.EDU Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: [Dale.Moore@PS1.CS.CMU.EDU: ] Message-ID: <12352990858.5.VAF@C.CS.CMU.EDU> Date: Mon, 23-Nov-87 17:05:27 EST Article-I.D.: C.12352990858.5.VAF Posted: Mon Nov 23 17:05:27 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 27-Nov-87 22:50:49 EST Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 120 Some people might be interested in the latest status of our VMS TCP/IP package. Vince Fuller, CMU-CSD --------------- Return-Path: Received: from PS1.CS.CMU.EDU by C.CS.CMU.EDU with TCP; Mon 23 Nov 87 16:59:10-EST Date: 23 Nov 1987 17:00:19 EST From: Dale.Moore@PS1.CS.CMU.EDU To: cmu-tek-tcp@C.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: I thought that some of you might appreciate hearing what is going on here at CMU-TEK IP/TCP world headquarters. I figured I'd take some time and write you all a note. A Christmas Card sort'of. The current release of the software is V6.2. If you don't have it, you probably want to get it. V6.2 has some unique problems of its own, but it is in a bit better health than the old V6.0. To get the V6.2 of the software, please send snail mail to CMU-TEK IP/TCP Requests 4910 Forbes Av. Computation Center Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh PA 15213 USA Last week, we had over 450 sites liscensed for this software. We do not keep track of how many machines at each site. Many of the requests we receive come from Europe, New Zeland and Australia. Perhaps someday, we'll have to see if we can get some travel out of this. We personally get many requests for help. Some of it quite difficult and some easy. Since this is not a real product, almost everyone is absolutely delighted with any help we can find the time to give them. The best collection of information and help is a mailing list we've set up called "CMU-TEK-TCP-Requests@C.CS.CMU.EDU". Actually that's the address you use to get added/removed from the list. The actual mailing is something else, but too many folks send mail to the mailing list, when they really want added to it. Since we can't spend to much time hand holding with the users, the other folks who are on the mailing list can often add their own insight to your views and problems. Some folks expect us at CMU to do extensive answer/question sessions. We get phone calls that go like "We got our first VAX last week and we couldn't get your stuff to work and my boss told me to call you." and "Ok, push down the Control button. Got it pushed down? Now type C." Some consultants earn over $300 per day. Good ones are probably worth it. If you need more than just a little help, I recommend that you purchase a supported IP/TCP, or get some professional help. Currently, there are three of us at the CMU-TEK IP/TCP world headquarters. Two of us are working on the software. Actually, we are only working on it part time. I know of no plans of increasing the amount of technical support that CMU is giving this software. We have other responsibilities and commitments that we must take care of here. We have a clerical and administrative staff of one, really one half. He has other responsibilities also. We will probably this to one full time position, to better respond to the increasing load. Vince Fuller, one of the two member technical staff, will soon be leaving CMU for the better weather of California. Vince has done a wonderful job with all the work to the ACP and lately NAMSRV. Whether Vince will find time, at his new position, to continue to do development and maintenance remains to be seen. We will miss him and wish him the best at his new job. We hope to get the V6.3 release into beta test sometime in the next few months. If you have - excellent communication and technical skills, - are on the Arpa/Internet, - have a liscense for Bliss-32, - have a variety of Vax hardware, - are already running V6.2 of the software, and - are running VMS V4.6. we might appreciate it if you'd be a beta test site. If you only have 5 of the 6 above we still might appreciate it. Please don't volunteer because you want the latest greatest version with the whizziest functions. Do it because you want to help us get something out that has many fewer problems that the last release. This time we hope to do a more extensive beta - testing in order to avoid some of the problems that we had on the last release. Some of the things that we are working to put into the V6.3 beta release are - a telnet server that is part of the ACP. This will reduce traffic and improve performance. - many fixes to Namsrv. - FTP's ability to handle arbitrary RMS file formats. To my knowledge, no other IP/TCP product for VMS does this! - User manuals for the various user utilities. - More documentation on how to configure your machine. We have done this software for our own use. It is not our intention of supporting it as a commercial product. Many have asked us about implementing other network mediums besides the DEC ethernet interface, such as Serial Line and X.25. Our access to such testing is limited. We hope, that by distributing the sources, if others need such functionality that they'll add it. And if they add it, they'll return the improvements. If they return the improvements to us, we'll try to give the improvements to the rest of you. I'd like to thank the very few of you who have had the time to return your bug fixes and improvements. We all appreciate it. The software is popular. It is becoming more popular. We are working on improving it, but we are limited in the amount of time that we can spend on it. Some external funding that we were hoping for did not work out. I think that even though this may not be the best supported IP/TCP for VMS, it certainly is the best per dollar. Dale Moore Research Systems Programmer Computer Science Department Carnegie Mellon University -------