Conference 7.286::digital

    Ian,
    
    Kathleen Warner was just announced as the head of the Internet Program
    Office for Digital. You may want to contact her - I am sure she can
    put you in touch with someone who has this info. Her DTN is 244-7005.
    
    Good luck,
    
    Nancy

    Most of the product groups have anonymous ftp areas set up on the
    Internet for customers to copy patches, MIBs, etc. from. I'm not a UNIX
    guru, but it shouldn't be too hard to set one of these areas up,
    outside of the firewall. Maybe your IM&T people can help.
    
    Debbie
    

    FTP's a one-way road without the handy-dandy crypto-key, available via
    sending mail to NSL::GUARD-REQUEST, using subject: "SENDFORM". 
    TelNet's a no-way road without the key.
    
    Just spent a day researching this, as I'm spending a fortune of the
    company's money for modem access and kermit.
    
    								Tex

    There is a very large ftp site at Palo Alto (pa.dec.com) that is
    used by many both inside dec and outside. We have made information
    available for customer and others there.
    
    There may also be a site at cambridge (crl.dec.com), as well, but I'm
    not sure about that one.
    
    
    

    You might look at ftp.service.digital.com.  The CSC uses this for
    patches etc.
    
    		-Mark

If you want to pull a file into Digital, you can use the FTP 
gateway.  I don't remember how to use it, but UPSAR::GAETWAYS 
probably has the info.

Wes

	None of the existing ftp gateways mentioned will
	solve your requirements without investment in
	crypto-key technology and/or ongoing file-mirroring
	operational arrangements with the gateway operators.

	Add to that that it is at least a 4-stage process
	involving 2 or 3 parties (put, tell, [mirror], get,
	read) that is not conducive to the business communication
	process

	Add to that that the customer will face exactly the
	same issues.

	Why won't e-mail work?  These days there is no practical
	limit to file size or type if both parties use
	*MODERN* off-the-shelf messaging software.  I have
	personally e-mailed tens of megabytes of patch saveset
	to customers.

	If it is intended that the communication be between a
	limited number of named individuals on each side, I
	suggest you train them to use modern e-mail and choose 
	one of the many Digital (or other) products available.

/Chris.

    OK, this could be helpful.  How do you mail save-sets?  We've got
    VAXMAIL and A1 available.
    
    								Tex

    re. -1
    
    uuencode
    
    
    
    cheers,
    		fred deady

	You need to zip the saveset using the "-V" (quotes important)
	qualifier with VMS_ZIP. Then you can uuencode and mail away.

	If you send mail to TSC::INTERNET and ask them about ftp access
	for business reasons, they will be glad to help. I have to
	exchange info with Mitel Corp. on a regular basis. I have
	an account and they have an account. We have a shared directory
	between the two accounts and can xfer stuff that way. They send
	me mail when stuff is uploaded, I go off and manually ftp it back
	down to my NT server. If there was a mirror for NT, that would be
	even better.

	TSC::INTERNET is in Colorado. The person I talked to was Jack
	Callaghan but you should probably send mail to the INTERNET
	account in case Jack is busy. Ask him for setup like mine and
	off you go. (I think the charge is $100/account/year)

	Enjoy,

							mike

    Does anybody know where can I get a copy of uuencode and uudecode for
    VMS? I tried gatekeeper.dec.com but it seems there is only uudecode.c
    exist.
    
    
    -KL

	Most people think of the Internet as the preferred e-mail
	infrastructure inter-company.

	The Internet has some restrictions (fewer these days)
	that in the past required 7-bit characters only in
	the message.  Hence Mike's suggestion for UUENCODE which
	converts messages to 7-bit and requires a matching
	UUDECODE to be performed by the recipient.  This is
	still the lowest common denominator of mailing binaries
	on the Internet.

	However, most serious Internet mail users have overcome
	the 7-bit restriction and use 8-bit Mail or MIME
	which enables direct sending of 8-bit binary file attachments.
	The gotcha here is that you must ensure that both
	parties are enabled for 8-bit.  There are many choices
	of product that provide this.   The Digital end is
	easy as our Internet gateways are 8-bit clean and
	delivery of a binary attachments even to ALL-IN-1
	is perfectly feasible.

	There is another way which Digital also strongly supports
	called X.400.  Here the same gotcha applies - both
	ends must be X.400 capable (e.g. TeamLinks/ALL-IN-1/
	MailWorks in Digital) and something similar at customer
	site and then it works the same way.
	Because X.400 was always 8-bit, there are fewer
	complications and fewer interpretations of how to
	handle binary attachments.    

	Tex - I think you are an EDI type guy so I'm probably
	preaching to the choir.  The way I sent the saveset
	was to create a plain ALL-IN-1 X.400 binary attachment 
	and then just mailed it to the customer with a 2-line 
	cover note. No ZIP, no special manual encoding, just 
	attach and mail.

/Chris.

re .11

	This sort of question is adsked repeatedly in 
	LJSRV2::INTERNET_TOOLS 

	There are several around - the easiest is probably just
	to copy the .EXE files from a VMS system running the
	UXC TCP/IP product.

e.g. 

Directory BBRDGE""::SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]

UCX$UUDECODE.EXE;1        7  (RWED,RWED,RWED,RE)
UCX$UUENCODE.EXE;1        7  (RWED,RWED,RWED,RE)

Total of 2 files, 14 blocks.

    
    FYI, There is also UUENCODE/UUDECODE utilities for the PC. They can be 
    found on:
    
    			winnah::"/ftp/win3/encode"
    
    
    I have successfully sent customers driver files using E-mail with these
    utilities. Of course you would need PathWORKS or WFW to access the file on 
    VMS......
    
    Anyone know if there are public domain MSDOS versions of UUENCODE/UUDECODE
    that could legally placed on distribution kits?
    
    								-Pete

    Thanks to everyone involved, I'm currently researching/testing
    approaches here.  Will post updates when I'm done.
    
    Usage of some of the "new" technologies to satisfy our customers needs
    can save Digital a small fortune on phone usage for dial-up, so I'm
    tryin' to "do the right thing".
    
    								Tex

Realize that you can also use PGP to encrypt your binary files
and to prepare them for mailing.

Personally, I use the Secure Net Key to push my files outside
of Digital - it costs $100/yr.

Once you have it, you can use the ftp gateway to push or pull files.

Chuck

    Doucette - just got my SecureCard Key.  This will be my own personal
    first line of defense for transferring large files, etc.  It will also
    be my first line of defense for using TelNet.
    
    I've also got a need to send software out on a regular basis, small
    files, often the same save set over and over.  What I'm looking at
    doing here is the encode/decode, wherein I can simply send it via
    e-mail across the net with no further action.
    
    I'm also looking into the InterNet services provided by the Commerical
    Internet Services group (thanks, Mike) at TSC::INTERNET.
    
    Last but not least, does anyone have info on how I could use DSNlink
    for this?
    
    							Tex

Hi Tex, you can use DSNlink for this if the customers have support
contracts. Files can be sent out like patches via DSNlink or can be
placed on the hub where they can be copied by or to the customer.
The files themselves would actually be placed on the CNS controlled
hub. You would then need to install DSNExpress to have access from
your home node. 

We have just started EFT on DSNlink V2.0 which is for unix and ultrix
over the internet. liesl

    OK, what do I need on my side besides install DSNexpress? I'm assumin' this
    takes an agreement with the CSC or some other group, as I haven't found
    too many free lunches yet.
    
    Please let me know, as that would be a very viable solution, if it's
    cost effective.
    
    							Tex

Hi again Tex, yes, you'll have to set this up with the CSC. I
don't happen to have the cost numbers but I know they've been
done. The CSC has the breakeven point between DSNlink transfers
and FexEx. They can give you that. I'll send you mail with some
contact names to start with. liesl

    Got 'em and am researching same now.  Appreciated.

RE: .14

>>    Anyone know if there are public domain MSDOS versions of
>>UUENCODE/UUDECODE
>>    that could legally placed on distribution kits?

	Dunno about MS-DOS (I'm sure there is) but if you use Windows,
	DEFINATELY check out WinCode. It's a blessing. Note, Wincode
	can ZIP a file up first, using PKZIP, then UUencode it. (This
	won't work for VMS savesets tho, you need VMSZIP "-V" for that)

	At a shareware distribution server near you.

								mike