[HECnet] Multinet Tunnel Connections to SG1::

[Dave McGuire]

On 06/07/2012 02:26 AM, Mark Benson wrote:
Now, you have due permission to beat me with a dried haddock if I'm
being naive (I'm not a programmer, just a user observing a
conversation that's 50% over my head) but...

Wouldn't a kernel-agnostic DECnet implementation be a better shot? I
mean if you can skim DECnet packets using libpcap (which is kernel
agnostic as far as I can tell, hell it even works on Windows :)) and
use that to handle DECnet for the bridge or SimH what's stopping it
being used for a full DECnet comms package? It might not be very
*fast* and it's sure as hell not secure but it'd work, right?

With the fast pace of kernel change and the dropping of kernel
support (and OSs like Ubuntu update the kernel regularly which will
break things) for DECnet in the 3.x kernel it may be that
kernel-based support is no longer practicable on modern Linux.

Just a thought...

  It's a good idea, but I'm not sure it can be done.   We need to change
the MAC address on the interface...can that be done outside the kernel?
SIMH uses libpcap and implements networking for emulated machines by
kicking the interface into promiscuous mode.   That's a bit dangerous
from a traffic perspective; I'm not certain that'd be a good idea for
anything other than the most casual use on a quiet network.

                        -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA