friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Steve Friedl) (08/07/90)
Hi folks,
I am wallowing once again on this IBM 3270 interface. My
customer has a 3B2 and wants to talk to the VisaNet Automated
Clearing House, and the PC we have to interface with has a 3270
coax card in it (IRMA, I think). It is my understanding that
this coax expects to talk to a host computer.
On the 3B2 side, we can get the ISC (Intelligent Serial
Controller) card with many various software options, but I
believe that ultimately the 3B2 looks like a 3278 (?) cluster
controller. The ASCII terminals on the 3B2 will appear as 3270
terminals, and the synchronous side of things also expects to
talk to a host. The sync interface is with a DB25 running what I
believe is RS-232.
Black Box does not know the 3B2 at all, but they are
guessing that since both the IRMA card and the ISC card are
expecting to talk to a host and not a peripheral device, they can
do nothing more than stare at each other waiting for commands.
They tell me that they know of no black boxes that will connect
coax and RS-232.
Is this understanding correct? My customer has hardware
sitting idle until I can figure this out, and I am having the
growing feeling that I am S.O.L.
Thanks to
Andy Behrens @ Burlington Coat
Todd Koeckeritz @ Euler Solutions
Ken Lerman @ Stepstone
Phil Hughes @ SSC
for responding to my previous post on this. I think there
was another response, but I think it got routed to /dev/null
by mistake :-(
I hate bisync.
Steve
--
Stephen J. Friedl, KA8CMY / Software Consultant / Tustin, CA / 3B2-kind-of-guy
+1 714 544 6561 / friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US / {uunet,attmail}!mtndew!friedl
If the ADA bill is so important, why does Congress exempt itself?kevin@cfctech.cfc.com (Kevin Darcy) (08/08/90)
In article <488@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US> friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Steve Friedl) writes: >Hi folks, > > I am wallowing once again on this IBM 3270 interface. My >customer has a 3B2 and wants to talk to the VisaNet Automated >Clearing House, and the PC we have to interface with has a 3270 >coax card in it (IRMA, I think). It is my understanding that >this coax expects to talk to a host computer. More or less. From what I know of IRMA, it makes the PC look like a 3278/79 IBM tube which wants to connect to a 3174 or 3274 cluster controller via coax. The controller's role in this connection being (as always) to pass data back and forth between tube(s) and the host. > On the 3B2 side, we can get the ISC (Intelligent Serial >Controller) card with many various software options, but I >believe that ultimately the 3B2 looks like a 3278 (?) cluster >controller. The ASCII terminals on the 3B2 will appear as 3270 >terminals, and the synchronous side of things also expects to >talk to a host. The sync interface is with a DB25 running what I >believe is RS-232. Ultimately the 3B2 can look like a variety of things with the various pkgs from AT&T, but I think the one that you are referring to is the "SNA/3270" package. That allows the 3B2 to look like a 3274 controller. But, as you describe, ONLY TO THE HOST. The "tube" side is implemented purely in software, using a separate 3278/79 emulator that runs on the 3B2, communicates with the SNA "controller emulator" via IPC, and makes the 3B2's async terminals look like synchronous IBM tubes to the host. To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to use the IRMA board to any kind of advantage in this setup. Both pieces of hardware connect only to "higher level" nodes in the IBM SNA hierarchy. They don't connect with each other in any obvious way. If you had a LAN running, maybe that would give you another connectivity path to the 3B2 that you could use as an alternative to IRMA. (I just had a word with our LAN admin, and he thinks that some products from AT&T could maybe make that possible in the near future). Otherwise, the only way I see you achieving good 3278 -> 3174/3274 -> (host) connectivity is by scrapping the idea of using the 3B2 in the setup. BUY the 3174 or 3274 node - it may be comparable in price to do that rather than buy ALL of the AT&T hardware and software anyway. Either that, or maybe some wizard in comp.protocols.ibm(?) has some way (RJE?) whereby a coax tube can connect to a modem via some box, and on up to VisaNet. Expect to buy some more serious hardware than just an ISC card, though. Actually, AT&T used to make the 6544 - a 3274-compatible - but I heard that they sold that business to Telex... > Is this understanding correct? My customer has hardware >sitting idle until I can figure this out, and I am having the >growing feeling that I am S.O.L. We live and breathe AT&T host connectivity products here at CFC, and we've managed to get our 3B2's to talk reasonably well to our host. Some of the newer versions promise the ability to talk true peer-to-peer as well. But it definitely makes no pretences of being able to talk "downwards" to lower-level SNA nodes. I had a request for a side-application similar to what you describe, and after racking my brain for a solution, I too came to the conclusion that we were SOL. And since the demand for this kind of thing is relatively small, don't expect AT&T to be rushing along with solutions, either. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ kevin@cfctech.cfc.com | Kevin Darcy, Unix Systems Administrator ...sharkey!cfctech!kevin | Technical Services (CFC) Voice: (313) 948-4863 | Chrysler Corporation Fax: (313) 948-4975 | 27777 Franklin, Southfield, MI 48034 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------