[HECnet] ANF10 network

[Paul Koning]

So does ANF10 do routing?

DECnet had real routing with Phase III (1982).  It had sort-of-routing in limited cases with Phase II "intercept", but realistically that was a one-hop network, with an extra sort-of-hop to get across the 10/20 system's front end.

Meanwhile, Typeset-11 had routing (Phase III style) in 1978, that was an entirely unrelated design not using any DECnet bits at all.  

	paul

> On Nov 16, 2021, at 11:45 AM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
> 
> Peter probably remembers this much better than I do. But back in the 80s, I was using ANF10 in Stockholm, and it was a network with more than 10 nodes. But I understood it as not everyone had a direct connection to everyone. But maybe I misunderstood something? Otherwise I would try to figure out how that was working. There were definitely KS machines on there, along with some KLs, and I think one KI. :-)
> 
>  Johnny
> 
> On 2021-11-16 17:34, Robert Armstrong wrote:
>>   Supratim and I (with some help and encouragement from Peter) have set up an ANF10 network between the TOPS10 nodes VENTI and TWONKY.  If you haven’t heard of it, ANF10 (short for “A Networking Feature” – yes, really!) predates DECnet (I’m pretty sure, although I’m sure there will be debate about that) and provides mostly the same functions – remote terminals, file transfer, etc.  ANF10 also has remote RJEs with card readers, line printers and terminal concentrators.
>> .net/anf
>> [ANF10 network: connected to VENTI(20), located at VENTI(20), 2 nodes]
>> Node    VENTI   (20)    SIMH KS10 VENTI 7.04 NET        14-Nov-21
>> Node    TWONKY  (37)    SIMH KS10 TWONKY 7.04NET        15-Nov-21
>>   It’s possible to run ANF10 and DECnet both, and that’s what we’re doing so TWONKY and VENTI are also available on HECnet.  If anybody else has a TOPS10 system and would like to connect it would be nice to add a few more nodes, but there is a problem.  TOPS10 supports a maximum of two KDP/DUP lines on the KS10, and you need one for DECnet and the other for ANF10.  That means each system can talk to at most one other ANF10 system, which limits the network size to two nodes.   Bummer…
>>   There are a few options available –
>> ·DEC made some DNxx PDP-11 boxes that supported multiple ANF10 connections.  We could set up one of these as a router.
>> ·Somebody could hack TOPS10 to allow more than two DUP lines.
>> ·Somebody could write a pyDECnet type gizmo that speaks ANF10.
>> And there might be others that I haven’t thought of yet.  Any ideas?
>> Bob
> 
> -- 
> 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