[HECnet] Hello from New Zealand

[Johnny Billquist]

Hi.

On 2020-08-02 01:34, David Moylan wrote:
> Hi John,
> 
> 
> you have addresses allocated in Bob's area 2.XXX which means you can 
> only have a connection across to Bob. if you want to run multiple 
> connections to multiple other area routers, you would need to be running 
> your own area.

Technically, that is not correct. All he needs to have is an area router.

However, that do have the risk that if Bob and John lost connection to 
each other (but both still online), then area 2 would become split. A 
known thing that can happen in DECnet, and which is not so good. (Until 
such a split is healed, parts of that area might be unreachable, even 
though you might think it should all work.)
Obviously not something Bob would like to happen, and for that reason 
it's not really something acceptable.

But from a basic technical point of view, you can have any number of 
area routers in an area, and they can all connect to different parts of 
the rest of the DECnet network.

> if you are in a situation where the machine running your multinet 
> connection may be up/down and this affects your connectivity then my 
> recommendation would be to setup a machine running pyDECnet.

PyDECnet is a great tool here, yes.

> if you have bigger plans to run as a hub for NZ and may have other 
> people interested in hooking up to you then I would speak to Johnny and 
> see if he is able to allocate you an area. you could then establish 
> multiple GRE tunnels via your Cisco router, or setup a dedicated 
> pyDECnet machine which then gives you the flexibility to run both GRE 
> and Multinet both upstream and downstream.

We can certainly allocate an area for NZ.

   Johnny

> 
> 
> cheers, Wiz!!
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE <owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE> on behalf 
> of Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>
> *Sent:* Sunday, 2 August 2020 8:10:41 AM
> *To:* hecnet at Update.UU.SE
> *Subject:* Re: [HECnet] Hello from New Zealand
> On 8/1/20 5:53 PM, John Yaldwyn wrote:
>> On the subject of Cisco (and hijacking my own thread) ...
>> 
>> While I joined the HECnet with a connection via Bob Armstrong using the MultiNet software, I'm on the lookout for another connection using Cisco for some more machines.
>> 
>> I'm particularly interested in Cisco networking and I'd like to explore a DECnet over GRE connection implementation.
>> 
>> This would also have the advantage of keeping routing through the always-on Cisco box and avoid MultiNet which would not be an option for my PDP-11/24 restoration project.
>> 
>> Looking at Paul's wonder map for hardware Ciscos my options might be a connection perhaps via Dave or Ian McLaughlin?
> 
>     I hit "send" before my brain was fully engaged.  We can set it up
> manually if you're hot to do it before Brian can get to it; let me know.
> 
>     It's nice to hear of another 11/24.  Those are really nice machines;
> I have one that was at LSSM for awhile and now it's here in my lab.  I
> have the CIS option in it, and I have an FPF-11 that I will add the next
> time I have the machine open.
> 
>               -Dave
> 
> -- 
> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> New Kensington, PA

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol