david@dcl-cs.UUCP (David Coffield) (08/15/85)
I recently posted an article asking for help about TCP/IP software for VMS systems - products, opinions etc .... Here is a summary of some of the replies I received .... ================================================================================ I know Execelan do a Unibus board which has TCP/IP on it. Data Guild Ltd. - Guildford (0483 574463) are agents. I don't know any more about it than that. * Excelan do sell such a board. Essentially you need the board, as a FEP to the Ethernet, and you also have to purchase a protocol package for the system you want to run TCP/IP on. ================================================================================ From: nz@uucp.wucs Dave, This year we have been running VMS 3.6 and 3.7 on our 750s. We also bought Eunice from the Wollongong Group, with the TCP/IP add-on. As of this writing, communication between our 4.2bsd Vaxen and the 3.7VMS Vaxen works very well. Rsh, rlogin, rcp, telnet, sendmail..., all work well, with some quirks related to Eunice. This was not always the case. When we first tried to bring up Eunice TCP/IP, it occupied one of our best system programmers/administrators for several weeks. Finally, the Wollongong people told us that we had some kind of error in a configuration file someplace. Another problem is that they do NOT give you the source code for their network programs. As a Unix hack, I find lack of source very frustrating. Overall, Eunice TCP/IP is a good product. I would recommend it for VMS/Unix communication. Configuration is difficult, but once that is done you are ready to start fast data transfer! ================================================================================ From: andy@cheviot.uucp Another source of software is GEC software. Address is 132-135 Long Acre WC2E 9AH Phone 01-240-7171 Their reference is data sheet GPR/1008 Apparently this is the Wollongong package for EUNICE & VMS systems They say it works on top of 3Com, Interlan and DEUNA interfaces. * Yes, but its *very* expensive. 15K for the initial processor (6K Educational institutions). If you can afford it though the general concencus is that it is a good product. GEC market the software for the Wollongong group in the US. I'm told it provides the socket abstraction as per 4.2 BSD. ================================================================================ The Wollongong Group has a port of the 4.2 kernel code to VMS There is a product called "Fusion" that I've heard about recently. Excelan has (or at least had in beta test, last I heard) a board that implements the TCP/IP protocol on an ethernet for VMS (and probably other OS's as well). =============================================================================== From: uucp.mcvax!seismo!ihnp4!mmm!boone We are running here currently a tcp/ip network of about 20 machines. currently there are 2 vms machines (use the woologong group tcp/ip package but no eunice) 1 vax bsd4.2 5 suns 4 symbolics 1 imagen printer 6 dandilion ai workstations (currently use pup but soon tcp/ip) 1 data general 4000 under aos telnet and ftp work well. of courese the r* routines are available for sun to 4.2 transmission. we will soon be adding the sun network file system software for 4.2 from mt. xinu. we also have one additional vms machine connect directly to the 4.2 machine utilizing a 56kb broad band linkage. everything else is on an ethernet. shortly we will be adding another 3m site using another woologong product to connect via decnet. yes tcp/ip gets moved over decnet and back. shortly we will be adding a long haul link from st. paul to austin tex. but the method has not been determined. ================================================================================ From: "Nunn, John C." <nunn@arpa.nbs-vms> David, We've been using TCP/IP under VMS for years. For the first couple, we used the product under the name ACCESS-T, sold by a succession of companies (DTI, COMPION, GOULD and now INTERNET Systems). ACCESS-T was a constant aggravation throughout the time we used. While we were always paying for support, we seldom got any. It was the least friendly of any software which I've worked with. I can only hope the developers of this product are at ground-zero on the first nuclear explosion. We recently changed to Wollongong's version of TCP/IP (V2.2) which runs under VMS 4.1. While I've only had a few weeks, it's superior (I believe) to ACCESS-T. However, in the last couple of weeks, I've discovered some very nasty bugs in the mailer. I've reported them to Wollongong support, but they tell me they haven't been able to reproduce the problems; though they admit they were using VMS 3.7. While the Wollongong product may be superior, it's too early for me evaluate their product support. I've heard of another vendor, but I don't know anything about their product. ================================================================================ From: roy%uiucdcsb.uiuc.arpa@uucp.uiucdcs Your note caught my eye. I am designing a 31 node tcp/ip network for the U of I Engineering College. Each node is a gateway to a building. I am probably going to use Proteon 80 meg boards. The network will run TCP/IP. Each gateway will link the Campus network into building lans. We have several buildings running 4.2 tcp/ip and several others running DECNET. My choice of gateway is somewhat governed by whether I can get tcp/ip software for VMS or whether Ultrix can send tcp/ip and DECNET packets together. I would appreciate sharing any information you have gathered concerning tcp/ip comments on VMS and also the mixed environment. If you have the time, please could you send me any suitable gems. ================================================================================ -- UUCP: ...!seismo!mcvax!ukc!dcl-cs!david DARPA: david%lancs.comp@ucl-cs | Post: University of Lancaster, JANET: david@uk.ac.lancs.comp | Department of Computing, Phone: +44 524 65201 ext 4150 | Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4YR, UK.
root@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein) (08/17/85)
Just a note. I noticed that a lot of people are running the Wollongong package (as are some departments here) for TCP/IP support. A common complaint (here too) is their mailer. Suggestion: Do what we did, scrap their mailer and try the Software Tools stuff. It requires a little more work but you end up with a mailer with sources to add whatever little smarts you need, it is SMTP so it talks to anything else that is SMTP, you just provide a 'channel' for it. Here at BU it also talks to itself over DecNet links in some of the science department's lans. Don't get ruffled, 99.9% of what you needed to buy was their TCP/IP+device support. Throwing out their mailer shouldn't bother you. -Barry Shein, Boston University