[HECnet] Console terminal switch and/or reverse terminal server suggestion?

[Dave McGuire]

  I do have a Chase IOLan console server that I could be convinced to turn
loose of.

                                -Dave

On 05/14/2013 11:07 AM, Bob Armstrong wrote:
Guys    



  Here   s the situation     I   ve got several PDP11s and a couple of PDP8s and I
want them all to be able to share a single console terminal.     I could just
use an old fashioned RS232 switch box, but I was looking for something
better.   For one thing, a    smart    switch that would actually buffer output
from the unselected ports would be nice, and it   d be nice to be able to
change the selected port from the terminal keyboard.   What   d be idea is
something like the multi session support that some of the later VTxxx
terminals had, but with multiple physical ports and without any special host
software.   It   d also be nice if I wasn   t limited to just one physical console
but I could use any terminal anywhere on the network too.



  I thought about using a DECserver in    reverse LAT    for this, but AFAIK the
only way to connect to a DECserver in reverse is from a real host system,
like VMS or RSX.   That means my console terminal would have to connect to a
VAX, log in, and from there connect out again to the DECserver and the PDP-11
or 8 console port.   Kinda complicated and ugly.



  I don   t think there   s any way to have one terminal server connect directly
to another terminal server w/o a host system in between, at least not with
LAT.     Telnet would be OK, if anybody can recommend a multi-port telnet
terminal server that works in reverse.   It   d be especially cool if it can
telnet to itself     then I could just connect directly from one port on the
server to another.



  Anyway, I was thinking that I can   t be the only collector with a bunch of
computers and room for only one console, so I thought I   d ask what other
people are using.



Thanks,

Bob





-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA