GD.WHY@FORSYTHE.STANFORD.EDU (Bill Yundt) (07/12/87)
REPLY TO 07/07/87 11:46 FROM KHANNA@AHWAHNEE.STANFORD.EDU "Raman Khanna": fyi Mr. Crispin, Wollongong's CURRENT release ....v 3.0....seems to work quite well, contrary to your pathetically ill informed view. I suggest you look into your facts before ventilating your hot air. People who call you should be encouraged to move to the correct version of the software ....which does appear to have bugs fixed...in addition to supporting domains, etc. The Wollongong Group got a deservedly bad reputation some time back because they didn't put any inside effort in to the product...relying on Dave Kashtan for everything. They appear to have remedied that problem and become independent of Mr. Kashtan's availability....both of which are probably constructive. Bill Yundt, Director, Networking and Communications Systems Stanford University To: TCP-IP@SRI-NIC.ARPA cc: KHANNA@AWANEE
weltyc@NIC.NYSER.NET (Christopher A. Welty) (07/13/87)
> Wollongong's CURRENT release ....v 3.0....seems to work quite well, > contrary to your pathetically ill informed view. I suggest you look > into your facts before ventilating your hot air. Unnecessary, quite unnecessary. One of the problems we've been having is the fact that the TWG software for VMS and UNIX V doesn't support subnetting. Is this fixed with the new release? Is there a new releasee of the System V stuff? We are using version 1.1 (which is what ATT distributes). I don't remember what release we're running for the VMS machines... --- Christopher Welty - Asst. Director, RPI CS Labs weltyc@cs.rpi.edu ...!seismo!rpics!weltyc
LAWS@rsre.mod.UK (John Laws, on UK.MOD.RSRE) (07/14/87)
Bill, I was delighted to hear your good news on Wollongong's TCP/IP implementation. The current version in the UK does have the bad habit of sending single byte TCP packets from Telnet - not being very kind to the current congestion of parts of the Internet. We have found no way to make it send multi-byte. Does the new version solve this? Do Wollongong US see the TCP-IP discussion? If they do, I would appreciate the UK supplier GEC Software getting the new version quickly. I think our current version is 2.3. John
garrett@udel.EDU (Joel Garrett) (07/14/87)
> One of the problems we've been having is the fact that the TWG > software for VMS and UNIX V doesn't support subnetting. Is this fixed > with the new release? According to the docs for the VMS version, yes subnetting is supported now. I wouldn't know about whether they have a new version of their AT&T stuff out, but I'd imagine that they would. On this same line, if any of you who use the sysv wollongong stuff could drop me a line and give me some of your impressions of this product, I would really appreciate it. We have several 3bs that were donated to our department by at&t and they are basically sitting idle now as they can't talk to our other tcp/ip hosts. If I get enough of a response I'll summarize to the net. Thanks, Joel Garrett UofD, CCM arpa: garrett@udel-ccm.arpa
hedrick@TOPAZ.RUTGERS.EDU (Charles Hedrick) (07/14/87)
The Wollongong VMS code we are running now, which is not the 4.3 stuff, supports subnets and setting the broadcast address.
heker@JVNCA.CSC.ORG (Sergio Heker) (07/15/87)
Christopher, We have been using TWG on our VMS VAXs in a subnetted environment without problems major problems for almost two years. In fact, for about 6 months, we used a VAX8600 running VMS4.2 and TWG to drive two ethernets and 4 T1 lines, until we switched to ULTRIX, ( I was not in favor of using a VAX/VMS as an ip gateway but at that time we had no choice ). -- Sergio ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sergio Heker tel: (609) 520-2000 Internet: "heker@jvnca.csc.org" Bitnet: "heker@jvnc" JOHN VON NEUMANN NATIONAL SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER, JVNCnet Network Manager -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
weltyc@NIC.NYSER.NET (Christopher A. Welty) (07/15/87)
Thanks. I have forwarded your message to our VMS system manager, who had claimed that subnetting in VMS was impossible. However I still have the problem of doing subnetting with the TWG software for SYS V on 3B2's....any clues? --- Christopher Welty - Asst. Director, RPI CS Labs weltyc@cs.rpi.edu ...!seismo!rpics!weltyc
heker@JVNCA.CSC.ORG (Sergio Heker) (07/16/87)
Sorry, we don't have any system V. -- Sergio ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sergio Heker tel: (609) 520-2000 Internet: "heker@jvnca.csc.org" Bitnet: "heker@jvnc" JOHN VON NEUMANN NATIONAL SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER, JVNCnet Network Manager -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
unit@hpindda.HP.COM (Tom Engleman) (08/04/87)
/ hpindda:comp.protocols.tcp-ip / JERRY@STAR.STANFORD.EDU / 2:29 pm Jul 15, 1987 /
This is Dave Crocker, not Jerry Scott. I recently joined The
Wollongong Group as Vice President, Software Engineering. We will
soon be a host on MilNet, so I have not established an interim
mailbox elsewhere. Please direct any short-term mail to me via
Jerry at this address.
The recent flurry of messages about Wollongong requires a formal
response. As you are aware, The Wollongong Group has been
selling TCP/IP-based products for some years. While we have been
successful in doing so, we have been less successful in maintaining
an unblemished reputation within the Internet community. Recently,
we began taking actions to improve user perceptions. From a technical
standpoint, the most significant of these actions involves upgrades
to our VAX/VMS product called WIN/TCP, especially converting to the
use of 4.3BSD as a code base for the TCP/IP implementation. By doing
so, many long-standing problems were solved and performance has been
substantially improved.
On reviewing the messages that were sent to this distribution list,
it appears that the basis for two of the three explicitly critical
notes was a) system administration errors, and b) the use of very
old software.
At the present time, the new release (3.0) does not have any major
TCP/IP bugs known to us, nor does it crash the operating system. The
immediately previous version (2.3) has not had any bugs that crash
VAXes for a time longer that any Wollongong personnel can remember.
It is our policy to work closely with all users of our products to
satisfy their needs. Mark Crispin's July 6 email message, while it
contained no specific details, has been partially addressed in a
public reply citing cockpit error, rather than faulty software. The
message was sent by a system administrator whose contact with Mark
triggered Mark's note. The system administrator cockpit error we
identified does not involve any software bugs, but it does result in
setting the hosts's own name to a constant ("Unknown"). To eliminate
this confusion, we are changing the software to simply use the text
version of the IP address, whenever a similar administrator error is
made.
As part of a test against one of the systems running Mark's TCP, we
did encounter a client SMTP bug. WIN/TCP 3.1, which will be
released shortly, fixes it. It was only discovered because of high
delay in the Arpanet, thereby causing an extraordinary timeout.
In addition to providing technically competent software, Wollongong must
provide support for our products. This is critical. Although admittedly
flawed in the past, this, too, is being significantly improved, as the
recent TCP/IP activity cited above demonstrates. "Support" is a
separate product and has to be purchased. There have been some customers
who purchased the TCP product but did not, for whatever reason, purchase
support. They then passed on the product to the real end-users and
claimed, falsely, that we would not provide support. The cited case of
our software crashing a VAX cluster appears to be an example of this.
Although we subsequently established direct contact with a portion of
the actual end-users affected in this way, we were unfortunately unable
to find the remainder.
The suggestion about our connecting the the Internet is extremely well-
taken. Part of the reason I was asked to join Wollongong was to bring
some Internet experience in-house. The wheels were already in motion,
I discovered, to get a connection when I came on-board. We were
supposed to be on MilNet about 4 months ago, and are in the final
stages of debugging the telecom link.
Lastly, with regard to our AT&T version of TCP/IP...it should be noted
that we developed this product at the specification of AT&T and we are
not free to add features on our own (AT&T markets the product; we
do not). Hence, please ask them to suggest to us any changes that you
deem appropriate.
Dave
----------titley@btnix.axion.bt.co.uk (Nigel Titley) (08/11/87)
The latest release of Woolongong TCP/IP may well be bug free but at 5000 pounds per VaxStation (the price we were quoted by GEC who distribute it over here in the UK), it's not likely that we're going for it in a hurry. For comparison the VaxStation sells for about 4000 pounds. -- Email: NTitley@axion.bt.co.uk Snail: British Telecom Research labs, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK "I do not care what happens now: I have seen dragons on the wings of morning"