Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!think!barmar From: barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: X Terminals for Sun hosts over dial up phone lines Message-ID: <36578@think.UUCP> Date: 22 Feb 89 01:12:07 GMT References: <2566@antique.UUCP> Sender: news@think.UUCP Reply-To: barmar@kulla.think.com.UUCP (Barry Margolin) Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA Lines: 27 In article bob@tinman.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) writes: >If all you want is an X terminal, you don't really want to bother with >becoming a part of the Internet. SLIP is appropriate for providing IP >connectivity to remote workstations, but that's not really what an X >terminal is. First of all, X requires a reliable byte stream protocol underneath it, so you usually want something like TCP running over SLIP. Some high-speed modems claim to do error correction, but you still have to worry about errors on the cable between the host and the modem or between the modem and the terminal. TCP provides the end-to-end error detection that is necessary for a really reliable connection. Second, you need to multiplex multiple streams over the connection. Each X client has at least one unique stream open to the workstation. TCP provides the multiplexing. Third, X terminals frequently DO want to become part of the network. Unless there's only one client host at the site, the X terminal is likely to want to have windows connected to different hosts (e.g. several xterm windows). IP provides this connectivity. Barry Margolin Thinking Machines Corp. barmar@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar