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

[Ian McLaughlin]

It doesn't have all of the features you're looking for, but I use Livingston Portmasters (like the 2e). It was originally used as a modem concentrator, but you can telnet into it and attach to any serial port (up to 30). They are usually found quite cheap on eBay.   I used them extensively in the 90s when I owned a dial up ISP and if you need to know anything more about them, let me know.

Ian

Sent from my iPad

On 2013-05-14, at 8:07 AM, "Bob Armstrong" <bob at jfcl.com> 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
  
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