[HECnet] Intermittent Connection with PyDECnet?

[Mark J. Blair]

This sounds promising! I am interested in at least running some experiments to find out how well it all works, and to learn enough to configure my future little patch of DECnet. I'd like to have fun participating, but not if it causes problems for my upstream node or HECnet in general. I know that my connectivity situation is unusual.

I am in southern California as my callsign suggests, just outside Riverside.

Is there any possibility of connecting through something like an SSH tunnel, and relying on that for a higher level of security and authentication for the link than the DECnet protocols natively provide?

If I'd like to eventually connect several nodes on my local network into HECnet, would I need to consume a whole area number? Or is there a means for further routing within an existing HECnet area? I still have much to learn about DECnet. Looking through the HECnet node list, it looks like I could stake a claim on a batch of dog-related host names without treading in somebody else's naming conventions.

I agree that dynamic DNS is probably not quick enough for my dysfunctional use case. Sometimes my connection flaps up and down rapidly. I'm not sure if I could even accept an incoming connection, or if my cell provider is doing NAT and/or firewalling that would preclude that. I don't understand yet what makes my cellular connection quality so variable. Maybe loading on the local cell towers? Neutrino flux? Demonic corruption? Oddly, when my cell phone reports a "5GE" or "LTE" connection, I expect a poor experience. Everything works best when it's reporting "4G". My connection quality at any given time unpredictably ranges from "doesn't work at all" to "play World of Warcraft for hours with no issues". It's frustrating, but that's the price I pay for living on a nice, big patch of dirt instead of in suburbia.

My current physical hardware includes my VAX-11/730, a PDP-11/34A, and a planned future PDP-11/44 project. All of the physical hardware is waiting in varying states of disrepair for me to give it more attention, so I'll use SIMH simulations for semi-regular activity. My VAX-11/730 has formerly run, but it's presently waiting for me to fix some mouse damage. My PDP-11/34A is a work in progress; I've gotten the CPU working, but the big Fujitsu SMD drive it came with has a dead power supply that I haven't debugged yet. I don't know what's on its hard drive. I'll probably run RSX-11M on it, at least part-time? My PDP-11/44 is still a pile of dusty boards, an even dustier pile of chassis to Frankenstein together, and a twinkle in my eye.

Has anybody else been on HECnet with dialup-like, or even (gasp!) mobile connections?

-- 
Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/