[HECnet] Public Services over DECnet

[Mark Matlock]

Mark,
   There is a concept in DECnet like anonymous FTP, if one sets it up. In RSX the DECnet utility NFT (Network File Transfer) was the client side and FAL (File Access Listener) was the server side. The functionality of these were built into DIR and VMS on VAX. If account info was not sent then FAL could be pointed to a directory like [DECNET] where public ally accessed files could be transferred. Both RSX and VMS also incorporated account matching and access control via “PROXY” utilities. In RSX this was a separate utility, in VMS it was done with NCP.

   On HECnet, there is a loose convention that one puts a INFO.TXT in [DECNET] that has info to describe the node.

  As far as multiuser games, the two that I can think of is TREK and multiuser Star Trek game, but I don’t think it was ever expanded to use DECnet. It utilized a memory common which probably could be synchronized between two nodes to provide multi-user, multi-node play. The other was a VMS Xwindows flight simulator. If I remember correctly it could be played in a multi-computer mode.

   In DECnet, batch jobs could be launched on remote nodes which could check the coffee pot etc. Also, Datatrieve had a remote server which was quite useful for remote database access. Also, a utility called PHONE was really neat for multi-user multi-node conversations. I remember back in 1981, before the internet was widely available having a conversation between a company colleague when I was in Iowa and another colleague was in Illinois. The AT&T leased data lines were incredibly expensive but point to point DECnet worked incredibly well on those data lines which were typically 9600 baud (or slower). The great thing was a simple DL serial port was all that you needed to be a simple end-node. Of course if you needed a better interface there were a variety of cards with coprocessors to off load the main CPU.

   Since almost all the networks were private and isolated, there wasn’t much in the way of BBS or Archie type functionality until people started connecting to the internet. VMS may have something similar, but although RSX used ethernet for DECnet, it did not have the ability to connect to the internet until Johnny made it possible a couple years ago.

Best,
Mark

> On Dec 30, 2017, at 1:27 AM, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
> 
> I come from a mostly-UNIX, mostly-TCP/IP background. I don't understand DECnet well yet, but I want to learn more! Much of my interest in joining HECnet and playing around is because I largely skipped over DECnet in its original airing, and now it seems like a weird foreign land that I feel an irrational need to grok in fullness.
> 
> What are/were the conventions for providing public services over DECnet Phase IV networks, to remote users without their own local user accounts? I.e., let's say that I had a node on a large DECnet-only network back in the before time, and I wanted to share a file repository in a manner comparable to anonymous FTP on a TCP/IP network. How would I have done that? Were there conventions for doing that sort of thing back then, or was that a foreign concept on large DECnet networks at the time?
> 
> Were there any examples of BBS-like servers living on DECnet networks? Online multi-player games such as MUDs? Early DECnet-based examples of "log into the coffee pot to see if the brew is fresh"? DECnet-based analogs to Archie for discovering stuff? DECnet-based USENET-like communities?
> 
> I don't know if any of these concepts even made sense in the DECnet world at the time. In addition to only understanding the networks of the 80s from a UNIX-centric, TCP/IP-centric worldview, I'm also having a hard time un-thinking the newer concepts I'm used to after so many years of steeping in a broth of HTTP and social media. I have somewhat conflicting urges to both learn how to think like a 1980s DECnet user, and to retcon modern concepts into an alternate reality where TCP/IP never took off.
> 
> -- 
> Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
> http://www.nf6x.net/
>