Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!uwvax!dogie!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!uoregon!dboyes
From: dboyes@uoregon.UUCP (David Boyes)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: BITNET
Message-ID: <1639@uoregon.UUCP>
Date: 4 Mar 88 09:10:14 GMT
References: <7136@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu< <1619@tulum.UUCP> <1615@uoregon.UUCP> <1624@uoregon.UUCP> <17222@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Reply-To: dboyes@drizzle.UUCP (David Boyes)
Organization: University of Oregon, Computer Science, Eugene OR
Lines: 28

In article <17222@watmath.waterloo.edu> egisin@watmath.waterloo.edu (Eric Gisin) writes:
>IBM does market a TCP/IP product. I don't know if it has a decent mailer.
>The problem would be in getting BITNET to change.

Not likely. First of all, the IBM VM/TCP costs BIG $$$. RSCS (v1 or
v2) is relatively dirt cheap -- less than a tenth of the cost last
time I checked.

Second, VM/TCP requires specialized hardware (a 7170 -- essentially a
370 channel to Ethernet box) that most sites using a lot of IBM
hardware just don't have. Most sites have a 37xx communications
controller with a spare bisync port on it -- RSCS likes that just
fine. 

I think it's more cost than lack of desire to get better networking
stuff running; you can pay $1500 a year to license RSCS or $70,000+ to
get a 7170 and VM/TCP and the necessary maintenance, etc. You can bet
on what most sites choose.

Anybody out there running this thing and want to tell about it? I've
heard the SMTP server has a few 'features' that cause some interesting
effects. 

-- 
David Boyes         | ARPA: 556%OREGON1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Systems Division    | BITNET: 556@OREGON1
UO Computing Center | UUCP: dboyes@uoregon.UUCP
'How long d'ya think it'll be before just us oldtimers remember WISCVM?'