[HECnet] Connecting an HP Itanium BL860c to HECNET... without ethernet

[Paul Koning]

> On Dec 10, 2021, at 8:44 PM, Bob Leigh <bobleigh at twomeeps.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Dec 10, 2021 at 3:18 PM Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
> I don't know that VMS ever did it, but a number of DECnet systems support DDCMP over async lines (terminal serial ports).  That's part of the standard.
> 
> DECnet-VAX implemented dynamically switching a terminal line to DDCMP around 1985-1986.  The DCL command was something like SET TERMINAL/PROTOCOL=DDCMP.  The idea was to dial into the VAX via modem line, login, then issue the SET command to start DDCMP.  The first release or two of VMS to implement this was buggy in ways that annoyed a certain NYC-based customer whom I had to support. ;-)

RSTS/E V10.1 has that exact same command.  The missing bits (which I fixed in my code and posted here a few months ago) were in NCP and the event logger, so without those fixes you didn't have any documented way to turn on the line in DDCMP mode and give it to DECnet to use.

	paul