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From: smart@ditmela.oz (Robert Smart)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: TCP/IP Socket to X.25 Gateway?
Keywords: X.25, sockets
Message-ID: <5043@ditmela.oz>
Date: 2 May 89 23:11:54 GMT
References: <416@tdmfed.UUCP>
Reply-To: smart@ditmela.oz.au (Robert Smart)
Organization: CSIRO, Division of Information Technology, Australia
Lines: 25

In article <416@tdmfed.UUCP> rbr@tdmfed.UUCP (Rick Rump) writes:
> We have a customer developing a Unix-based application which must communicate
> over X.25 to host applications.  Since there are several different Unix
> machines involved in the solution (not all with compatible X.25 programmatic
> interfaces) I was wondering if anyone knew of a TCP/IP to X.25 Gateway
> product that documented the interface, so that a socket interface on the 
> Unix system could access X.25 packets?  This, it seems to me, would keep the
> customer's development interface standard (TCP/IP sockets) and let an
> external box handle the X.25 interface. (Ethernet TCP/IP to X.25)
>

There is a standard for X.25 over ethernet (well 802.3 really).
There are X.25 switches available: Camtec has a switch, Spider has
an X.25-ethernet converter (sort of like a switch with one port),
there is an Austrian X.25 switch that sells as megapac in Australia.
I have suggested to several people that it would be much more useful
to have an X.25 switch with a TCP/IP interface. Cisco are the only
people to not give the impression that I'm mad, so you might like
to talk to them.

Bob Smart

P.S. Just to prove that the idea has some merit, DEC has come out
with the X25portal-2000 which does the sort of thing you want, but
with DECNET instead of TCP/IP.