[HECnet] Use of Area 63 for Testing

[Paul Koning]

> On Apr 6, 2021, at 8:21 PM, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On Apr 6, 2021, at 4:51 PM, Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Given that you have an area number assigned to you
> 
> I don't have a whole area number. I have a 100-number chunk of Robert's area reserved for me.
> 
> -- 
> Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
> https://www.nf6x.net/

Ok.  The same principle holds: a misbehaving node connected to an L1 router can mess up at most that area.  If it mistakenly grabs someone else's node number, those two nodes are affected but others are not.  The only way it could do worse things is if it's a router and it claims to be a really good path to other nodes in the area, and then doesn't live up to the promise.  (That happened in the Internet once, when routers in some corner of the Internet, Hong Kong perhaps, claimed to be the best way to reach Pakistan.)

Short of major software malfunction, not likely when dealing with VMS systems, the main worry is misconfiguration.  For that, connect via an L1 router and look for node address errors.

	paul