Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!bzs
From: bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: DEC/IBM networking info request
Message-ID: <20425@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 7 Mar 88 02:25:26 GMT
References: <556@modular.UUCP> <253@wsccs.UUCP>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Boston U. Comp. Sci.
Lines: 70
In-reply-to: terry@wsccs.UUCP's message of 4 Mar 88 05:02:34 GMT



Re: question about IBM/OTHER networking...

We do a lot of what you want in production here at Boston University.
Incrementally and evolutionarily it's not very hard to grow, all at
once I guess it can be some trouble, but here's the basic idea.

In the first place we use TCP/IP for ethernet (and other media, eg.
fiber-optic) networking, this ties together the largest number of
heterogeneous systems the way you want.

For the VMS system you can get the Wollongong or other products.  You
almost certainly want both their Eunice (UNIX emulation) package on at
least one system (to build software I mention later) and their WIN
(TCP/IP) on all systems involved.

For the IBM system you also have a choice of products, for MVS contact
ACC (maybe someone on the list has a phone # handy?), for VM the two
major products are either Wiscnet from IBM (we run it on a DACU/7170,
I guess IBM now has a replacement piece of hardware for that, a DACU
is basically an IBM/channel to Unibus adapter, really has a DD11-K
inside it into which is plugged an Interlan board, it uses an IBM/PC
sitting on top also) or try Fibronics (nee Spartacus) in
Massachussetts. I only have experience with the IBM/Wiscnet product
and it works well enough.

You now want to get a copy of TN3270 which is free in source form
(from where? Hmm, you can FTP it off of BU-IT.BU.EDU,
src/utils/tn3270.v2/*, anonymous login, there are official sources
also, one of the Berkeley machines. This is a version of Telnet which
works from Unix or the VMS/WIN system and emulates various 3278
terminals, it works both with the Wiscnet and ACC products here, I
believe Fibronics/VM has their own way of doing this (emulating 327x's
on the IBM host rather than the local host.)

This would then support things like FTP (file transfer) and e-mail so
that solves itself more or less (there's some amount of work in
getting mail working smoothly but I believe the vendors involved are,
well, involved.)

This also gets you similar access to a lot of other systems which run
TCP/IP (eg. Unix in general, DG/AOS, IBM/PC's [various products, Sun,
FTP Software in Cambridge, MA], so it might be worth the trouble
involved when you look at the big picture.

Wiscnet allows you to telnet to an Ascii host but don't expect
anything like a CRT, it's more like a paper terminal as characters are
only sent from the 3278 when ENTER is hit. It's the nature of the
beast, not a software issue.

I have seen black boxes which aren't terribly expensive which splice
themselves into the 327x coax and present an RS232 line out the side.
A switch on the box allows switching between normal 3278ness and the
black box which then emulates a VT100 quite faithfully. This is sort
of a half assed solution because now you'll have to hook the RS232
line to a terminal server which can go to the other ASCII systems, so
it doesn't really use the abovementioned networking at all (except, of
course, it could go to a TCP terminal server, such as Encore's Annex
box.)

Anyhow, that basically describes our environment here and people seem
happy enough with that aspect (terminal emulation.) Most people use
ASCII terminals and attach via tn3270 or directly through our campus
broadband (U/B) network to a 7171 so the issue of 3278/ASCII emulation
doesn't much come up, thankfully, it really is a problem although I
pointed out some possible solutions short of throwing away your 3278s,
they're really half-way between paper terminals and CRTs and hard to
do much with in an heterogeneous environment.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University