[HECnet] Intro and New User Questions

Sun Dec 17 12:39:05 PST 2017

I’m not brave enough to own a VAX-11/730. :-)  I had a chance about 20 years ago and passed on that.

A PDP-11/44 is more than capable of being on HECnet with either RSTS/E, RSX-11M, or RSX-11M+.  Keep in mind that the /44 requires significant electricity, in fact that’s one of the reasons it’s been about 17 years since mine was last powered on.  A /73 is far more practical.  I have a /23+ in a BA23, and a /73 in a BA123.  Both use removable SCSI hard drives (I did that upgrade back when the trays were easy to obtain).  

For a long time I’ve resisted the urge to resort to emulation (except for the PDP-10).  In the last few months I’ve gotten VMS 7.3 running on my VMware server, and a Raspberry Pi 2.  They’re clustered with my Compaq XP1000/667 which runs VMS 8.3.  Based on the results I’ve had with them, I’m convinced that for the VAX, SIMH is the way to go.  Currently my DECnet router is a VAXstation 4000/60 running VAX/VMS 5.5-2, and I’m considering moving it over to SIMH.  I should add that I’ve been using SIMH for PDP-11 emulation for longer than I’ve owned a PDP-11 (over 20 years), and E11 for nearly that long.

I’m back on HECnet for the first time since 2008, but honestly I’m not sure what all is available these days.  I used to have a webpage that would show what systems were currently active, and what they had available to do on them.  Actually the software is still there, now that I’m back on HECnet, but my firewall isn’t allowing access to it from the internet, so I’ve included what is currently showing up.  I can only vouch for the accuracy of the data in Area 60, since the notes on the various systems haven’t been updated in nearly a decade.  Something not mentioned is that I have games on PDXVAX.

Zane

    Node           State      Active  Delay   Circuit      Next node
                              Links

 1.13 (MIM)                                   QNA-1        59.60 (R29GWA)

  E11 Simulation, RSX-11M+ V4.6
  Guest Login
  File area MIM::US:[DECNET] (notes on areas and nodenames)

 1.15 (PONDUS)   reachable       0       4    IP-0-1        1.15 (PONDUS)

  PDP-11/93, RSX-11M-PLUS

 1.21 (JOCKE)    reachable       0       4    IP-0-3        1.21 (JOCKE)

 1.152           reachable                    UNA-0         1.152 ()

 1.559 (IMPVAX)  reachable       0       4    IP-0-9        1.559 (IMPVAX)

 1.602 (HUGIN)   reachable       0       4    IP-0-6        1.602 (HUGIN)

 1.731 (GVAX)    reachable                    IP-0-4        1.731 (GVAX)

 7.61 (BITXOO)   reachable                    UNA-0         7.61 (BITXOO)

 8.400 (GORVAX)  reachable                    UNA-0         8.400 (GORVAX)

14.4 (SKHNGW)    reachable                    UNA-0        14.4 (SKHNGW)

28.41 (RULLFS)   reachable                    UNA-0        28.41 (RULLFS)

30.1 (FRODO)     reachable                    IP-0-10      30.1 (FRODO)

33.14 (FRUGAL)   reachable                    IP-0-8       33.14 (FRUGAL)

39.1 (MASON)     reachable                    IP-0-5       39.1 (MASON)

42.1022 (HUB)    reachable                    UNA-0        42.1022 (HUB)

44.1023 (A44RTR) reachable                    UNA-0        44.1023 (A44RTR)

59.10 (SOL)      reachable                    QNA-1        59.10 (SOL)

  Systems Concepts SC40M, TOPS-20

59.11 (DIMMA)    reachable                    UNA-0        59.11 (DIMMA)

59.58 (STUPI)                                              59.11 (DIMMA)

59.60 (R29GWA)   reachable                    QNA-1        59.60 (R29GWA)

60.652 (MONK)    reachable       1       2    SVA-0        60.652 (MONK)

  XP1000/667, OpenVMS 8.3
  DEC Notes Conference MONK::HOBBYIST_DECNET
  DEC Notes Conference MONK::PDP-10
  DEC Notes Conference MONK::PDP11
  DEC Notes Conference MONK::TEST
  DEC Notes Conference MONK::VMS

60.653 (HAM)     reachable                    SVA-0        60.653 (HAM)

60.661 (LNGTOM)  reachable                    SVA-0        60.661 (LNGTOM)

60.664 (PDXVAX)  reachable                    UNA-0        60.664 (PDXVAX)

  VAXstation 4000/60, VAX/VMS 5.5-2, Area Router
  Guest Login
  DEC Notes Client installed
  Multinet Bridge to area 2

62.637 (CTAKAH)  reachable                    IP-0-7       62.637 (CTAKAH)

  Emulated PDP-11, RSX

> On Dec 17, 2017, at 12:12 PM, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi there, everybody! I'm a vintage computer collector in southern California, USA, and I'm interested in joining HECnet. I thought I'd introduce myself and then ask some questions on the mailing list before I ask to join the network.
> 
> One of my favorite computers in my collection is a VAX-11/730 system with an R80, RL02, TU81 and DECwriter III. It has an ethernet card, and it came with OpenVMS 7.3 on the R80 and VMS 5.3 on an RL02 pack. I don't seem to have a single good TU58 tape, even after repairing the capstan rollers in the drives, but I can boot up the computer via tu58em. I've shared the boot-optimized console tape image I put together, as well as an image I created of the CRDPACK RL02 pack that came with the system:
> 
>    https://github.com/NF6X/VAX-11-730-Console-v57
> 
> It's been a couple years since I fired up that system, but I recently had another burst of interest and began setting up some VAX emulations in simh. I have a simulated VAX-11/785 running in simh on a BeagleBone Green (a little embedded computer board, similar to the Raspberry Pi). I plan to leave it running as a full-time VMS presence at home, so it can be up on HECnet all the time. It would be a natural host for any bridging or routing I need to do, and I plan to use it as my main bridge between my modern computers and anything I have speaking DECnet. I have TCP/IP set up on it so I can FTP files on and off of it from my modern systems. The 11/730 won't be powered up very often, and probably mostly during winter!
> 
> I have plans to restore a heap of parts that I have into a working PDP-11/44 eventually, and I suppose it should be able to run RSX-11 and also visit HECnet?
> 
> I expect that I'll probably get more DECnet-capable hardware in the future. I'd like to get a PDP-11/73 someday, and I'm curious about those little QBUS MicroVAXen. Maybe I should add a VAXstation to the mix, too?
> 
> So now it's time for me to figure out how to join HECnet. I gather that my best options would be to either use the bridge program, or to set up my VAX-11/785 emulation to bridge things somehow.
> 
> If I use the bridge program running on a Linux box, can I configure it to only bridge traffic to/from the rest of HECnet? I don't want the traffic between my local DECnet nodes to leave the house. If the bridge program forwards all DECnet packets that it sees, then maybe I should learn how to set up my emulated VAX-11/785 as a router instead?
> 
> And now for the really tough question: Once I add my systems to HECnet, what can I *do*? I'd like to join HECnet just because it's there, but it would be swell if there's more fun stuff to do.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
> http://www.nf6x.net/
> 