gayman%artic.DECnet@ARI-HQ1.ARPA ("ARTIC::GAYMAN") (08/05/87)
Recently I posed the following questions to the net regarding
Wollongong's update to WIN/VX called:
WIN/TCP 3.0
Has anyone received the latest update to Wollongong WIN/VX now titled
WIN/TCP version 3.0? I am interested in hearing how reliably it
works. I will post replies to the net.
Were there any problems/surprises during installation?
Are the bug fixes mentioned in the documentation truly that?
Is the performance on the system same, better or worse?
Are you more pleased with the new product than its predecessor?
As I mentioned in my note, the replies are posted below. Many thanks
to you who responded. We feel much more comfortable about applying
the update and will do so very soon.
Elizabeth Gayman (GAYMAN@ARI-HQ1.ARPA)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
... received it about 2 weeks ago. Had no troubles installing it, and
most of the problems we were seeing seem to have been fixed. Our use
is mostly for smtp mail. We were seeing a lot of flakeyness in the
older version -- mailer hangs, timeouts, you-name-it. Seems to be
fine so far. Only thing I find distasteful is that they now have a
'key' that is required at installation time. Usually we refuse to
purchase 'copy protected' software.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
... been using WIN/TCP 3.0 for about 2-3 weeks now and have had no
crashes which can be attributed to the network software, which had
been happening quite frequently in the past. System performance
appears not to have degraded, in fact it seems a little better, but
that could just be psychological. The improvement in the
documentation of the product alone justified our upgrading, but there
are a lot of other things that made the upgrade worthwhile - support
for domain servers, mget mput and mdelete in FTP without EUNICE, and a
lot of fixed bugs. Yes, we're definitely more pleased with the new
product.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
... been running Wollongong's TCP/IP v3.0 for about 3 weeks now. We
haven't had any problems so far, there were no suprises during the
installation, etc. The previous version we were running didn't have
any problems either. I did some before-and-after FTP thruput tests to
see how well v3.0 performed; the results are below.
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The following numbers represent the thruput (in K bytes per second) of
Wollongong's TCP/IP for VMS using FTP to Hydra (a 4 mip Sun 3/280 w/1
Fujitsu Super Eagle disk) and Aries (a ~1 mip Microvax II running
Ultrix v1.2 w/1 (slow) RD53 disk).
The file transfered was 1,025,511 bytes. 'PUT' represents transfers
from VMSA to the target system's /dev/null. 'GET' represents transfers
from the target system to VMSA's NLA0:. The three columns show the
difference between Wollongong v2.3 and v3.0.
PUT GET
System v2.3 v3.0 % Inc v2.3 v3.0% Inc
------ ---- ---- ----- ---- ---- -----
Hydra 24.2 46.6 92.6% 46.1 73.3 59.0%
Aries 22.1 33.0 49.3% 32.0 39.4 23.1%
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Well, things seem to be much better than the old 2.x stuff!!
Name domain system works fine. (we no longer use host tables)
The mailer in the current release does not utilize the mail resource
records stored in the name domain data base. I am told a future
release will.
TWG seems to be interested in providing more support. They are now
part of the Internet, which should further improve service.
They need to add a few miscellaneous programs, such as a WHOIS client.
They need to modify the mail system to support SET FORWARD
mailer!<arpa-stuff>. While this example will not work because of VMS
limitations, there are methods that will work, and they are studying
them. They are concerned about making any changes when VMS 5 will be
coming out so soon.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
... Installed it without major suprises (some of the logicals it
defines have changed but none that it required.) It really is better.
It seems to have fixed several problems... Definitely nicer.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>Has anyone received the latest update to Wollongong WIN/VX now titled
>WIN/TCP version 3.0? I am interested in hearing how reliably it
>works. I will post replies to the net.
Everyone should have received it by now. Wollongong promised to have
all dirtributions out by July 1. I received mine on June 23.
> Were there any problems/surprises during installation?
One. I followed the instruction for re-installation and skipped over
some sections (for new installations). As a result, I brought it up
with insufficient INTSTKPAGES. The system would HALT. Not crash, but
HALT. It took an attemp to move the TCP/IP to a new system (everyone
thought it was a hardware failure) to find the mention that all
installations on systems with Eunice require 4 pages of interrupt
stack.
> Are the bug fixes mentioned in the documentation truly that?
Most appear to be real. I have not check each and every one.
> Is the performance on the system same, better or worse?
Better. It's not lightning fast, but it is better than in old version. I'm
told improvements in the Shared DEUNA driver are a BIG part of the change.
Are you more pleased with the new product than its predecessor?
Much happier. The improvement to the MAILER were esp. welcome. It now supports
Mail Groups having both Internet and DECnet addresses. And the fixup of
the dropped message and MAILER hangup and crash problems do work.
Then we got the PMDF mailer from Ned Freed. WOW! Forget the Wollongong thing.
I strongly recommend that ALL Wollongong users get PMDF ($50) from:
Ned Freed
The PMDF Project
Computing Services
Harvey Mudd College
Claremont, CA. 91711
(714) 621-8006
It interfaces cleanly into both the Wollongong software and VMS Mail. None
of that silly `MAILER!address' that makes things look funny. And the incoming
mail is really from whom it says it is-not MAILER. If you are running
Woloongong V3.0 you will need PMDF V2.4 Beta test. I have been running it
for a week with not problems. It can co-exist with the Wollongong Mailer,
so users don't have to all convert at once.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> WIN/TCP 3.0
>
>Has anyone received the latest update to Wollongong WIN/VX now titled
>WIN/TCP version 3.0? I am interested in hearing how reliably it
>works. I will post replies to the net.
We have received and installed WIN/TCP 3.0 on a VAX-11/785 and an Intergraph
VAX-11/780.
> Were there any problems/surprises during installation?
Well, we've always had problems with WIN/VX and WIN/TCP on our Intergraph VAX,
but things went pretty smoothly on our DEC VAX. Actually, I had to reinstall
the NFS Option, and PMDF stopped working for a while, because TWG removed the
ETC logical name that PMDF seems to depend on.
> Are the bug fixes mentioned in the documentation truly that?
I haven't paid any attention.
> Is the performance on the system same, better or worse?
Again, I haven't noticed. I deal more with our UNIX systems.
> Are you more pleased with the new product than its predecessor?
Yes and no. TWG changed some things, like logical names, and this
caused some problems. They also added a 4.3 BSD compatible networking
library, with the socket interface and all, and that is good.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have just installed WIN/TCP 3.0 on a VAX 8530 using both shared
DEBNT and Proteon 10Mb interfaces. This version is virtually
identical to the 4.3BSD networking I am using on 2 other VAXen. I put
the release up in 2-3 hours. I have installed the previous releases
of 4.3BSD and WIN/VX 2.3 networking software so I was already very
familiar with configuring startup files, etc., etc.
The installation went very smoothly. Everything went as documented
and it was straight forward. The file listing the hosts to receive
RWHO broadcasts is no longer used (as with 4.3BSD). The HOSTS and
NETWORKS files are the same as WIN/VX 2.3. Subnetting is now
implemented in this release (which is why I put it up. I got tired of
trying to get something resembling subnetting to work under 2.3).
Performance has improved on things like finger but I can't give you an
honest opinion about actual network traffic because we have only had
3.0 up for 3 days now.
But the BEST PART is that the rwho broadcasts now list my VMS node
name in lowercase so now my VMS machine doesn't standout like a sore
thumb on my two 4.3BSD VAXen.
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