Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!mcnc!ecsvax!tpmsph
From: tpmsph@ecsvax.UUCP (Thomas P. Morris)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: DECServer and DECnet incompatibility??
Message-ID: <4364@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 28 Dec 87 16:36:07 GMT
References: <8712250035.AA24175@jade.berkeley.edu>
Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
Lines: 39
Summary: What about mixing Asynch DECnet & regular asynch connections?

In article <8712250035.AA24175@jade.berkeley.edu>, WARNER..NAGY@FNALB.BITNET (Frank.J.Nagy@jade.Berkeley.EDU, writes:
>                                    you might want to look into another
> Digital product, the DECRouter-200 (I think its -200 and not -100), this
> is a box based upon the DECServer-200 (8 lines) which becomes a DECnet
> router box on the Ethernet and provides up to 8 asynchronous DECnet
> connections for PCs, etc.  In other words, this does exactly what you
                                                       ^^^^^^^^^^
> want it too and, since the DECRouter is self-contained, does not impose
 ^^^^^^^^^^^
> additional load on your host VAXes to handle the async DECnet connections.
> 

  It's not entirely clear that the DECrouter-200 does exactly what many sites
want to do: mix, on a dynamic basis, regular asynchronous terminal connections
with dynamic asynchronous DECnet (DDCMP protocol) connections, often from the
same terminal line connected to a PC. DECnet-DOS is great for _some_ uses,
such as wildcarded massive file transfers (where it easily outperforms, in both
transfer speed and VAX CPU efficiency, systems like Kermit, and XMODEM or 
HST/XFR), and even for multiple terminal sessions via SETHOST. 

	But the "responsiveness" of the SETHOST/CTERM terminal emulation in
DECnet-DOS leaves __much__ to be desired. (No flames, please: I fully under-
stand _why_ the lack of responsiveness occurs.) For that reason, among others,
it is very desirable to be able to alternate normal asynchronous connections
and dynamic asynchronous DECnet (DDCMP protocol) connections from a single line
attached to a PC. (Accomplished via PC/MS-DOS BAT files which rename the
autoexec and config files, after which a quick ctrl-alt-del reboot brings up
the PC in the desired configuration.)

	It is not clear, though, from the scant information I've seen in the 
Networks and Communications catalogs, whether a DECrouter-200 _can_ mix 
regular asynch and DDCMP connections! Anyone out there with one of these
beasts who knows?

Tom Morris
UNC School of Public Health
Division of Computing and Information Systems

tom@uncsphvx.bitnet  or tmorris@uncsphvx.bitnet or ...!mcnc!ecsvax!tpmsph