[HECnet] Joining hecnet

[Steve Davidson]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE 
[mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of Rob Jarratt
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 17:57
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Cc: 'Stuart Martin'
Subject: RE: [HECnet] Joining hecnet

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE]
On Behalf Of Johnny Billquist
Sent: 19 November 2012 20:00
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Cc: Stuart Martin
Subject: Re: [HECnet] Joining hecnet

On 2012-11-19 19:15, Stuart Martin wrote:

On 19 November 2012 18:07, Jerome Ibanes <jibanes at gmail.com 
<mailto:jibanes at gmail.com>> wrote:

      Hello,

      I have an openvms 7.3-2/vax and 8.4/alpha 
workstations I would 
like
to
      attach to the hecnet network. I have a static IP and 
the bridge
setup,
      although I imagine I would need a hecnet node-name 
and number at
this
      point.


hi folks.

"me too": I've got an alphaserver with OpenVMS 8.4 ready to roll. 
I've got Rob Jarratt's router running on a spare linux box 
(raspberry pi, since you asked) because I don't have a static IP. 
The router code's not configured yet.

I'm a DECnet newbie, so would appreciate some abbreviated hecnet 
directions if any exist (and if not, a pointer to just go 
away and 
read the DECnet manuals is equally welcome).

I'm in the UK. Is hecnet organised by geographic region?

Like already answered, HECnet is not organized that way.
As for connecting, if you have Jarratt's code up and running, you 
might
want
to try and hook up with him?
Other questions to figure out is if you are going in a new area, or
connecting
into an existing one.
This matters both since if you are using an existing area, 
you need to 
use
the
same area as the next person you connect to.
If you go for your own area, you instead need an area 
router on your 
side, and a connection to another area router.

And then we have the question about node names, which is 
more loosely 
regulated. It's pretty much a question of picking names not 
already in
use.

Having a dynamic IP address is a cause for some problems. 
Let's see if 
Jarratt's router will handle it well.

	Johnny

The point about the router I wrote is that if you have a 
dynamic IP address it needs the *peer* to use it. That is 
because it periodically queries DNS (in a non-blocking 
manner) for your IP address. Clearly there will be a period 
after an IP address change when the router will send packets 
to the wrong address, but the poll period can be set to 
whatever period you wish.

The router will interoperate with the bridge, I run it here 
and I don't think anyone on HECnet notices a difference other 
than that it does not implement other protocols, so you can't 
SET HOST to it for example. So there is no specific need to 
peer with me, but I am happy to do so, if you want to peer 
with me give me your DNS name and port number, mine is
jarratt.dyndns.org:4713 (one limitation I ought to fix is the 
need for a separate port for each peer). Note that since I 
connect to the rest of HECnet via Johnny, and he is not using 
the router, I could lose connectivity to HECnet if my IP 
address changes, because I too have a dynamic IP address, but 
luckily my ISP does not make it change often.

The router works as an area router so you might need to have 
your own area.
It can also work as a non-area router, and this configuration 
has not been tested quite as much.

Regards

Rob



Currently,   we have two (2) Multinet Tunnel Routers that can deal with
Dynamic IP Addresses.   One is in the US (SG1::) , and the other is in
the UK (GORVAX::).   If you are running Multinet then the other end just
does the magic.   The polling interval is configurable so downtime can be
minimized.   No special configuration is required on your part.   Contact
me directly if you wish to go this route.

Regards,

-Steve