Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!uwvax!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!alberta!ncc!lyndon
From: lyndon@ncc.UUCP (Lyndon Nerenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: TCP/IP Versus WANG, ARCNET/NOVELL Netware, & Honeywell
Summary: The scoop on Wang
Message-ID: <10047@ncc.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jan 88 00:03:50 GMT
References: <8801242026.AA29303@trout.nosc.mil>
Organization: Nexus Computing Inc.
Lines: 55

In article <8801242026.AA29303@trout.nosc.mil>, carrs@TROUT.NOSC.MIL (Stephen M. Carr) writes:
>  [...]
> 5.  Unfortunately, we are confronted with several problems.
>     a.  The command has a WANG VS-300 which I don't know how we
> are going to connect via TCP/IP.  Is there anybody out there that
> can tell me if there is a TCP/IP solution out there or in the
> wings for a WANG VS-300?  The vendor is promising the moon, but
> WANG sales representatives promised me this same moon about 12
> months ago.  They are going to brief us on Tuesday, 26 January
> 1988 with their latest promises.  I would sure appreciate some
> straight skinny from any other users out there that have any
> experiences with getting a WANG VS-300 singing on the internet!
> I would like to go to this meeting armed with comments from this
> forum if at all possible.

After having dealt with Wang regarding communications software
on a number of occasions, all I can suggest is that you believe
absolutely NOTHING they say...

I highly doubt Wang will come out with Ethernet at any time. They
have been promising this to us for over two years...

As a result of the above, we decided to purchase their 2780RJE
software to (at least) allow file transfer. As it turns out, their
"IBM Standard 2780 RJE software won't talk to our Convergent
Technologies 2780 RJE package", according to the Wang salesman.
I know the CT software works, but I have been unable to get the
VS65 to talk to it, so I guess (for once) the Wang salesman was
not lying! Of course, I'd really like to know why they didn't tell
us this prior to our purchasing the software (this configuration
was in the spec) ...

I have also been unable to get their X.25 software working in the
same environment. If we could get this to function at least the Wang
users would be able to call out to another host, although this
doesn't even begin to approach the flexibility of having TCP/IP.

We *did* find a solution though. We are scrapping the VS65, and replacing
the workstations with PC/XT's (clones actually) running the Wang WP
under MS-DOS. The clones have a replacement keyboard identical to
the Wang keyboard. The VS65 will be replaced by a Sun 3/280. The
clones will be running PC/NFS, allowing them to share file system
space on the Sun. They can also telnet to any host on the Ethernet
and can ftp files around as well.

The *best* part of all this is the Sun + the PC's + the NFS cards
and all the glue costs 30% less than the VS65 alone...

I know this won't directly solve your problem, but I hope it gives
you (and others) a bit of insight into alternatives to the very
restricted Wang operating environment.

[ Wow, I feel better now :-) ]

--lyndon