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

[Cory Smelosky]

On Tue, 14 May 2013, 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.


With reverse LAT enabled, you can connect to the ports from an attached terminal.   I currently forget how, but it wasn't very hard.

It's how I tested having VMS 1.50 on my VT420.
  
   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
  


--
Cory Smelosky
http://gewt.net/ Personal stuff
http://gimme-sympathy.org Experiments