klemets@sics.se (11/13/90)
Archive-name: nos-mailbox/10-Nov-90 Original-posting-by: klemets@sics.se Archive-site: sics.se [192.16.123.90] Reposted-by: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti) I have added a serial line listener to NOS which provides mailbox access over a COM port, just like an ordinary telephone BBS. The commands to activate and deactivate the listener on async interface ax0 are start mbox ax0 stop mbox ax0 respectively. I hope this feature will be useful for instance when somebody who does not have SLIP software wants to get it. They can then connect to NOS using a telephone modem and download an uuencoded software distribution. It will also provide safe sysop access for unmanned routers. Connect a TNC and a telephone modem to the hilltop router, and all maintenance can be handled safeley over the phone. Currently only COM port -> BBS access is provided. Is there any interest in having a gateway in the other direction? (A phone patch facility.) To implementcode this code I had to enhance the NOS socket library a little bit. The AF_LOCAL sockets would only work in one direction, ie. one would need two AF_LOCAL sockets for bidirectional communication, breaking the transparency in comparision with other socket types. I implemented the socketpair(AF_LOCAL,...) function which yields two mutually connected local sockets. The socket(AF_LOCAL,...) call returns a local socket that is connected to itself, thus making the scheme nicely backwards compatible with the original behaviour. This stuff is all in the mailbox.arc file at sics.se. Anders