[HECnet] Introducing myself... and my little network

[Jordi Guillaumes i Pons]

Hello list,

I've just joined HECnet under the area 7, and I wanted to introduce myself and my little puppies :)

My first computer (apart from the 8-bit home stuff) was a VAX-8250 running VAX/VMS 4.7. It was back in 1987, and it was a departamental machine which was going to replace a PDP11/60, which, regretabily, I didn't pay a lot of attention to. I was involved professionally with DEC machines until 1992. My "last" machine was a VAXServer 4000 mod. 200, which eventually ended living at my home :). I did plenty of stuff at that time, from system managing to application design (and programming). I had the pleasure to work with the DEC development environment, which I still miss these days: VAXSet, CDD, the consistent VAX Calling standard... I've not seen something so well integrated since those days.

Just to complete the picture, when I left the DEC environment, and after a short time working with DOS (fortunately it was a SHORT time) I ended working in the mainframe world, beginning in the applications programming area (PLI, IMS/DB-DC, DB2...) and ending in the systems programming area (mostly in the IMS environment). Right now I'm a "software architect", whatever that means.

As I said before, when my company got rid of that 4000/200 I toke care of it, as well as a uVAX 3300... those two machines now live happyly at my home, forming a DSSI cluster which I power up from time to time (too much noisy and hot for a home environment). I've tried to keep them in working state (had to replace a fan in the 3300 and some minor stuff), and they indeed work.

I got some vaxStations from eBay, and some other classical stuff (2 old sun stations). I had diverse luck with those machines. I've got a perfectly functioning VS 4000 mod. 60, and a broken VS 4000 mod 90 (that's unfortunate). The '90 has its NIC physically broken. It boots but I can't network it, so its utility is limited (I don't own the graphics display, and I've just got a VT320 which I have to switch between all my boxen...). There is also a broken VS 3100; that machine has a cache problem and does boot VMS; however it boots NetBSD (weird!). I don't use it a lot, to say something :)

After I learnt the existence of HECnet researching some PDP11 stuff, I asked Johnny to join. He has been -of course- very helpful, as well as other members of the net, to whom I want to say thanks for the support.

Right now, area 7 is formed by these nodes:

7.6                   MBSERV                       Linux Machine, host of my simulated boxen
7.60               BITXOV                       SIMH 3900 running openVMS 7.3
7.70               BITXOT                       SIMH PDP11 running RSTS/E 10.1
7.71               BITXOR                       SIMH PDP11 running RSXM+ 4.6
7.64               BITXO1                       4000/200   running openVMS 7.3
7.65               BITXO2                       3300 running openVMS 7.3
7.68               BITXO5                       4000/60 running openVMS 7.3

I've got also some emulated PDP10 which I've not networked (yet). I'm having trouble plugging into DECNET a TOPS20/Panda machine... If someone could point me to any docs I would appreciate it a lot. I'm trying too to DECNETize a TOPS10 running on a KLH10 simulated machine; this one kinda works... I get the adjacency up messages but I can't talk to the machine (neither FROM the machine). The only docs I've found are for the 7.03 version of the monitor, but I've got 7.04. Again, any pointers to docs will be appreciated.

I'm still working on the setup. I intend to have the virtual machines up most of the time. The physical ones are down most of the time, with the exception of the 4000/60 (right now, it is up). I plan to add a SIMH 780 running VMS 4.7 soon. By the way, if someone could point me to pre-5.0 software kits I'd be very happy. I've got some stuff in the usual sites, but I'd like to find BASIC, FMS, TDMS and BLISS for pre-5.0 VMS (I've got the full CD consolidated distribution, circa 1992, and the hobbyist kit so I've got covered the "modern" stuff :)). Same thing for RSX software: I'd like to get a working COBOL (C81) for RSX11MPlus, as well as DECNET for RSX11M (NOT plus). I really love to tinker with these classical OSes :)

Well,tha'ts all for now. I've been reading the last message interchanges in the list, and I think you could get a real boost to solve your networking/interface sharing issues if you used VDE for the SIMH machines. It's really easy to set up and you can do things like hooking to your home DECnet network when you are on the road, using NATed networks in which you can't control the port redirctions. Right now I'm doing just that, extending my laptop "ethernet" to home using a ssh tunneled vde plug thru a tethered iphone (whoa!). I've got the recipes to make it work more or less automatically on ubuntu machines. If someone is interested just ask.

Have a nice day, and enjoy!