From: harvey@indyvax.iupui.edu
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.novell
Subject: Re: NCSA TELNET
Date: 10 Apr 92 12:57:55 -0500

In article <9204091842.AA09003@bluemoon>, prao@BLUEMOON.UCSB.EDU (Parik Rao) writes:
(quoting BSMITH@KENTELIV.BITNET who asked):
>> I talked to the people at Cabletron about adding our VAX to the ethernet
>> cabling we have in place (RG58).  I want to be able to access the VAX from
>> any of our LAN terminals.
>>
>> They told me I can do it with
>>      1) an ethernet card for the VAX
>>      2) their ST-500-03 transciever
>>                and
>>      3) NCSA Telnet software
>>
>> They said that the software is shareware, but didn't mention where/how I can
>> get it.
>>
>> Now, my questions:
>>      1)  Is this a workable solution?
>>      2)  Is anyone using this particular set up?
>>      3)  Any idea what this might cost? (these are lean times for all)
>>      4)  How does this compare functionally to TCP/IP?
>
> The only versions of NCSA Telnet I know are for PC's and Mac's.  Is that what
> you mean by "LAN Terminal"?
>
> NCSA Telnet does talk over TCP/IP, so #4 is fairly moot.  Its freeware (may
> even be public domain, but I don't know offhand).  Many, many, many, many
> sites use NCSA Telnet to communicate between all sorts of machines (i.e.,
> PC's at offices, a few mini's and micro's sprinkled around, and a couple
> of mainframes every now and then).  However, you will need a TCP/IP package
> on the VAX.  I don't know if it comes built in with it, but an easy way
> to find out is see if you can telnet on the VAX.  You can try
> telnet localhost, which should telnet to the vax itself.  If you don't have
> a TCP/IP package on the VAX, you'll have to buy one.  for VAX/VMS v5.4,
> you'll need to get MultiNet I believe.

There are several options for an educational site.  If you are in Digital's
Campus Wide Software License Grant program, you can get UCX (DEC's TCP/IP
stack) for the cost of the distribution media.  CMU has a freeware TCP/IP
for VAXes.  If you have to purchase a commercial package for full price,
TGV MultiNet gives you a lot more functionality than UCX, at a good price
as Parik recommended.

BTW, Bob, the Kent State campus at Ashtabula has some VAXes connected to
the Internet.  You might want to check to see if there is some kind of site
license agreement that you can take advantage of.  Sometimes these can be
worked out so that other campuses are included in them.  For example, here
at IUPUI, as an Indiana University branch campus we can take advantage of
several I.U. site licenses even though we are 50 miles away in Indianapolis.
Your experience may vary.  Not all vendors like to do this.

A more appropriate forum for this topic (TCP/IP on VAXes) is the INFO-VAX
mailing list at SRI.COM on the Internet.  It is sub-distributed on the BITNET
LISTSERV at UGA, and cross-posted to the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.vms.  If you
are running news software, there is a "vmsnet" newsgroup hierarchy that has
several newsgroups for different vendor's TCP/IP products.

An appropriate forum for questions about PC TCP/IP implementations is the
PCIP@UDEL.EDU mailing list on the Internet.  This list is cross-posted to the
Usenet newsgroup comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc.
--
James Harvey
harvey@iupui.edu or harvey@indiana.edu BITNET:harvey@indyvax UUCP:iugate!harvey
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU