[comp.protocols.appletalk] Parity in NCSA Telnet 2.3

kessler@schof.colorado.edu (Andrew Kessler) (06/06/90)

I'm having a strange problem with Telnet that under certain circumstances
I am losing any characters with an odd parity. Does anyone know how to set
the parity on Telnet? I've checked the manual, and I can't find any reference
to it. 

This problem exists when I use telnet over an Appletalk network connected to
a GatorBox or directly with an Ethercard. 

What's frustrating connecting with a DecStation using their version of telnet
on Ultrix everything works fine, so it's definately something to do with the
mac implementation. 

Any help would be appreciated. 


Andrew Kessler
kessler@boulder.colorado.edu

amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) (06/06/90)

In article <21924@boulder.Colorado.EDU>, kessler@schof.colorado.edu (Andrew
Kessler) writes:
> I'm having a strange problem with Telnet that under certain circumstances
> I am losing any characters with an odd parity. Does anyone know how to set
> the parity on Telnet? I've checked the manual, and I can't find any reference
> to it. 

Parity is meaningless over a Telnet connection.  There may exist brain-damaged
TCP/IP host implementations that try to do it anyway, but if so, they are
broken.

> What's frustrating connecting with a DecStation using their version of telnet
> on Ultrix everything works fine, so it's definately something to do with the
> mac implementation. 

DEC's telnet may have special code in it which will strip the eighth bit
off of incoming characters.  This would compensate for a brain damaged host,
but would also break under other circumstances (for instance, using an 8-bit
character set such as DMCS or ISO 8859).

--
Amanda Walker, InterCon Systems Corporation
--
"If we don't succeed, then we run the risk of failure."  -- Dan Quayle

DHWalker@uci.edu (David Walker) (06/12/90)

In article <266D0F46.4DEE@intercon.com> amanda@mermaid.intercon.com 
(Amanda Walker) writes:
> Parity is meaningless over a Telnet connection.  There may exist 
brain-damaged
> TCP/IP host implementations that try to do it anyway, but if so, they are
> broken.

Here's an application which I don't really think is brain-damaged (and why 
I would like to see the ability to set the high-order bit to emulate 
parity)...

We have a collection of dialout modems connected to a terminal server.  
People who want to make a call off-campus simply connect to that pool and 
give the AT commands for dialing.  We configure both the modems and 
terminal server ports for "eight bits, no parity" so that any parity 
required by the host at the receiving end of the call can be generated 
directly by the user.  This scheme works great as long as our user is 
connecting from a serial port on another terminal server or computer.  A 
telnet client that could emulate a serial line's parity bit would allow 
this to work for LAN-connected computers, too.

                               David Walker
                               Network Services Manager
                               UC Irvine
                                 DHWalker@uci.edu