[HECnet] Use of Area 63 for Testing

[Johnny Billquist]

Hi, all.

First of all, to comment on the OP. Area 63 has indeed been reserved for 
people interested in doing hidden areas, like DEC did. I also do not 
remember much detail right now, but others asked for it, and I saw no 
problem in reserving one area for it. Others might even be using this, 
based on comments here.

When it comes to PMR and PASSTHRU, I might have some stuff for RSX that 
could answer some questions, but I would have to dig through things... 
Not sure if there is enough interest for any digging around right now.

Finally, when it comes to duplicate addresses, the most obvious 
casualties are always the two nodes where the duplication actually 
happens. If they are just endnodes, the damage always stops there. While 
this is maybe not a good state, it at least is containable. But make 
sure people do not get creative and just start changing to arbitrary 
other addresses, or we are going to need to take more drastic action.

I can understand the desire to make it easier for people with little 
understanding to hook up, there is a risk that if you don't know what 
you are doing, you create problems for others that you don't even 
understand. I would really recommend that we don't make it *too* easy 
for people to hook up. I don't want to hold hands for people who have no 
idea what they are doing, just to prevent chaos on HECnet.

Finally, if you setup nodes that are not endnodes, the responsibilities 
grow. Especially if you are in an area where others are also active, 
since any kind of router can potentially wreck havoc in an area, or 
possible even with the inter-area routing.
So for those, I would even more suggest that you do not set anything 
like that up for someone who don't know what they are doing.

Now, these comments are not really targeted at anyone in particular, but 
something for everyone to be aware of, and consider, when you hook up 
others. HECnet is rather distributed, really. I do manage the area 
allocation, and area 1. But when I hand out an area to someone, then 
everything about that area becomes that persons responsibility. So 
adding new people, new nodes, new links, or whatever, is totally up to 
them. I can certainly offer a bit of support, but the "owner" of an area 
is really the deciding person on what happens in that area. If the owner 
sub-let part of the area to someone else, I think it still makes sense 
to consult with that area owner, if you further sub-let, or hook others 
up, since this definitely can have an impact on the area.

Think about it. We should all try to be good neighbors. DECnet, while 
ok, isn't at the robustness level, or security (well there are none) of 
modern internets.

   Johnny

On 2021-04-07 02:50, Paul Koning wrote:
> 
> 
>> 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
> 

-- 
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