Conference 7.286::atarist

    	Let me know if this works....sounds very interesting.
    
    							-mike-

    ...to revive this note... (and it's not so 'oddball')
    
    	Well, I *think* I got DECnet-DOS running under PC-Ditto. Yes, I
    couldn't believe it myself !! I did not expect anything to work, but I
    attempted it anyhow. I cannot yet say that it *definitely* works, since
    I have not connected to another node. However, it installs OK (using
    DIP); inits OK; loops-back OK (Executor AND Circuit); regularly polls
    the line (10 secs).
    
    	I tested it with a modem, where you can see a LED flash when the ST
    xmits something. After I started DECnet, the little LED flashed
    merrily, every 10 seconds (REP message ?), and so on. I switched my
    modem into "analogue loopback", and the Circuit loopback test worked
    fine.
    
    	DECnet-DOS not only fondles the serial port registers, but it also
    messes around with the clock. It is for these two reasons that I
    expected dismal failure. Not so - good on you, PC-Ditto !
    
    	I'm dying to connect it up with another node, and test the link
    more fully. Now, I would not be in the least surprised if it works.
    
    Eat that !
    
    Jim Burke

    DECnet-DOS under PC-ditto sounds like it'll work as well as Phil Karn's
    NET (TCP/IP) MS-DOS version under PC-ditto.  It'll execute; you'll be
    able to use the command interface.  BUT when an incoming packet
    arrives, the emulation overhead will be too great to keep up with it,
    and it'll do a crash-and-burn if two or three packets arrive in a row. 
    (This happenned over a 1200 bps line.)
    
    Of course, DECnet-DOS may be different, but I'm not holding my
    breath...  (NET was ported to the ST so it now runs fine without
    Ditto.  You want TCP/IP instead of DECnet?)
        fred

I like the idea of  having tcp/ip...

Any appletalk sw/hw available for st?

Thanks

Chad

Fred, I've been meaning to ask you about this for a while.

What will TCP/IP allow me to do, given that I have two ST's?

    TCP/IP is the most popular open protocol suite for systems 
    interconnection in use today.  It is rather like DECnet in a number of
    ways, but it was designed for the ARPAnet and has since spread.  The
    component protocols within the NET package are:
    
    Applications layer:
    	SMTP - Simple Message Transfer Protocol (e-mail transfer)
    	FTP - File Transfer Protocol (file copy, binary or text)
    	TELNET - Remote login or terminal-to-terminal chat
    	FINGER - "Ping" station to see if you get thru
    and maybe more.
    
    Transport layer:
    	TCP - Transmission Control Protocol.  Connection-oriented
    	  transport, not unlike DECnet's NSP.
    	UDP - User Datagram Protocol.  Connectionless transport.
    
    Network layer:
    	IP - Internet protocol.  Datagram oriented internet layer.
    
    Subnetwork (includes data link) support:
    	SLIP - Serial Line Interface; brain-dead framing (no checksum) but
    	  popular with Sunheads.  (Note that IP and TCP have weak checksums)
    	AX.25 - ARRL standard data link layer V2.1 (p-persistence, etc.)
    	NET/ROM - Ron Raikes' own hacky ham radio routing protocol
    	Ethernet - numerous drivers available for PC version, but not Atari
    
    Now, if you have a link between two machines, you can transfer files 
    and look at directories using FTP.  You can play with the sources and
    add your own application stubs to TCP and UDP (it's supported for that
    purpose, as much as it's supported for anything else) for peer-to-peer
    communications.   You can join the ARPA Internet or at least AMPRnet,
    which at this point is a rather disjoint bunch of ham operators.
    
    There's no support for NFS or such, so you can't exactly share disks.
    It's really mainly of use for sending mail, copying files, and the
    like.  I suppose you could probably build a shared-printer application.
    The emphasis, though, is on wide-area applications.  VAXclusters it
    ain't!
          fred

Nice high level information, now let's get specific about the
ST implementation:

	- Can I use it with the Midi ports?

	- With out any further effort
	on my part, can I load it up on my two systems (which are
	connected as for playing Midi-Maze, of course) and FTP files
	between them?

	- What programs does it come with?  You mentioned MAIL.  Does it
	come with a mail reader?  A mail sender?

	- Does the "server" portion run in the background, or do you
	dedicate your machine to being a server when it's running?

	- Do you have a VMS end so that I can call it from a modem on
	my workstation, and send mail to my wife at home on the Atari?

	- Does it come with any documentation?  Does is cost anything,
	or is it free or shareware?

    
    seems this entry fell asleep since '89. Are there any answers to the
    last reply. I happen to have a VAXstation now, and it would be very
    convenient to have some means of data transfer between the VAX and 
    Atari. I was hoping that this could be done with the KA9Q-package and
    TCP/IP. Is it possible? Which port can be used (Midi/serial)? 
    Any detailed information is greatly appreciated.
    
    Bernd