21 Feb
2026
21 Feb
'26
7:27 a.m.
Hiya.
Is DECnet for RT-11 still lost? If not, anyone got a link to it?
thx
jake
21 Feb
21 Feb
7:46 a.m.
On 2/21/2026 9:27 AM, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk wrote:
Hiya.
Is DECnet for RT-11 still lost? If not, anyone got a link to it?
thx
jake
AFAIK still lost. There is a guy in AZ that might have it (he has a vast
archive of stuff) but he just moved and it may be a while before he can search.
--
John H. Reinhardt
8:16 a.m.
Thank you John. Could you tell me the AZ guy’s name, perhaps off-list, as not to be
overtly public about it?
thx
jake
On Feb 21, 2026, at 10:56, John H. Reinhardt via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 2/21/2026 9:27 AM, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk wrote:
Hiya.
Is DECnet for RT-11 still lost? If not, anyone got a link to it?
thx
jake
AFAIK still lost. There is a guy in AZ that might have it (he has a vast
archive of stuff) but he just moved and it may be a while before he can search.
--
John H. Reinhardt
22 Feb
22 Feb
7:12 a.m.
Jumping into this thread and I may have missed the answer, can someone
briefly describe what is lost? The RT client to join a DECnet node?
or more than that?
BIll
On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 10:56 AM John H. Reinhardt via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 2/21/2026 9:27 AM, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk wrote:
Hiya.
Is DECnet for RT-11 still lost? If not, anyone got a link to it?
thx
jake
AFAIK still lost. There is a guy in AZ that might have it (he has a vast
archive of stuff) but he just moved and it may be a while before he can search.
--
John H. Reinhardt
7:30 a.m.
I think the DECnet-RT client software to connect an RT-11 node to another
DECnet node is (hopefully now: was) missing.
The DECnet-RT SPD is available at
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/decnet/decnetRT/
The SPD says it is DECnet Phase II.
I would love to lay my hands on DECnet-RT as well as on DECnet/8!
Ulli
Am So., 22. Feb. 2026 um 16:12 Uhr schrieb Bill Degnan via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>gt;:
Jumping into this thread and I may have missed the
answer, can someone
briefly describe what is lost? The RT client to join a DECnet node?
or more than that?
BIll
On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 10:56 AM John H. Reinhardt via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 2/21/2026 9:27 AM, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk wrote:
vast archive of stuff) but he just moved and it may be a while before he
can search.
Hiya.
Is DECnet for RT-11 still lost? If not, anyone got a link to it?
thx
jake
AFAIK still lost. There is a guy in AZ that might have it (he has a
--
John H. Reinhardt
7:34 a.m.
Thanks. I have a lot of rk05 disk packs to work through. Wondering if I
have it on one of those, and a rl02 I have with a lot of misc tools and
utilities compiled by a tech at the time.
Bill
On Sun, Feb 22, 2026 at 10:30 AM Hans-Ulrich Hölscher via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I think the DECnet-RT client software to connect an
RT-11 node to another
DECnet node is (hopefully now: was) missing.
The DECnet-RT SPD is available at
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/decnet/decnetRT/
The SPD says it is DECnet Phase II.
I would love to lay my hands on DECnet-RT as well as on DECnet/8!
Ulli
Am So., 22. Feb. 2026 um 16:12 Uhr schrieb Bill Degnan via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>gt;:
Jumping into this thread and I may have missed
the answer, can someone
briefly describe what is lost? The RT client to join a DECnet node?
or more than that?
BIll
On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 10:56 AM John H. Reinhardt via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 2/21/2026 9:27 AM, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk wrote:
vast archive of stuff) but he just moved and it may be a while before he
can search.
Hiya.
Is DECnet for RT-11 still lost? If not, anyone got a link to it?
thx
jake
AFAIK still lost. There is a guy in AZ that might have it (he has a
--
John H. Reinhardt
8:25 a.m.
On Feb 22, 2026, at 10:30 AM, Hans-Ulrich Hölscher via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I think the DECnet-RT client software to connect an RT-11 node to another
DECnet node is (hopefully now: was) missing.
The DECnet-RT SPD is available at
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/decnet/decnetRT/
The SPD says it is DECnet Phase II.
I would love to lay my hands on DECnet-RT as well as on DECnet/8!
Ulli
Some faint memory says that DECnet/RT might have made it to Phase 3 (endnode only), but I
don't know if that was just a proposal or possibility. Or to put it differently, I
think part of the motivation for the existence of end nodes was to handle tiny systems
like RT11.
As for a copy, an old email mentions this:
On 2018-09-19 15:59, Paul Koning wrote:
Paul, I don't know where it originally came from, but on
ftp://ftp.update.uu.se/pub/pdp8/pdp-8/fromnichols have a decnet8.exe, which is a self
extracting zip archive with the files.
But if you are on HECnet (or else telnet to mim.update.uu.se
<http://mim.update.uu.se/> and log in as guest), and check MIM::US:[DECNET8], you
have the already unpacked files available.
Johnny
I have a copy of the manual, which some searching tells me came from John Wilson's
archives: http://www.dbit.com/pub/pdp8/doc/decnet8.doc that includes a protocol
specification. The code does not exactly match it, but it's quite close.
paul
On Sep
18, 2018, at 4:50 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt(a)softjar.se
<mailto:bqt@softjar.se>> wrote:
There is a phase ii release for rts-8. How easy it would be to get it up and running
might be a different story, but the sources are on the internet.
Where on the Internet?
I've never used RTS-8, nor for that matter any PDP-8, but with some luck I should be
able to read that code and that would be interesting, too.
paul
1:13 p.m.
On Feb 21, 2026, at 11:53 AM, Zane Healy via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Feb 21, 2026, at 7:28 AM, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On the other hand, the even more obscure DECnet/8 was found a couple of years ago. Its
main limitation is that it is Phase I, which is not compatible with any later DECnet. I
have some support for it in DECnet/Python development code.
paul
Hiya.
Is DECnet for RT-11 still lost? If not, anyone got a link to it?
thx
jake
I have been looking for a copy for nearly thirty years.
Zane
1:22 p.m.
Where can DECnet/8 software be found and are there any manuals or notes how
to use it?
Am Sa., 21. Feb. 2026 um 22:14 Uhr schrieb Paul Koning via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>gt;:
On the other hand, the even more obscure DECnet/8 was found a couple of
years ago. Its main limitation is that it is Phase I, which is not
compatible with any later DECnet. I have some support for it in
DECnet/Python development code.
paul
On Feb 21, 2026, at 11:53 AM, Zane Healy via
cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Feb 21, 2026, at 7:28 AM, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Hiya.
Is DECnet for RT-11 still lost? If not, anyone got a link to it?
thx
jake
I have been looking for a copy for nearly thirty years.
Zane
1:38 p.m.
On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 4:14 PM Paul Koning via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On the other hand, the even more obscure DECnet/8 was
found a couple of years ago. Its main limitation is that it is Phase I, which is not
compatible with any later DECnet. I have some support for it in DECnet/Python development
code.
Yes. Back in the mid-80s when I was using a PDP-8/a at home every day
(128Kw memory, RL8A/RL01... nice system), I had heard about DECnet/8
but it was hard to track down even then. It was widely
known/understood at the time it was only Phase I, but still, it was
*networking* for a PDP-8!
I did manage to get RTS-8 working on that machine, with OS/8 in a
process. I never ended up writing any from-scratch stuff for RTS-8
but I did go through the documentation examples and got it working.
-ethan
7:54 p.m.
I didn't know the 11/23 had net. We used fat coax and vampire taps on the
network capable machines.
On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 1:39 PM Ethan Dicks via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 4:14 PM Paul Koning via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On the other hand, the even more obscure DECnet/8
was found a couple of
years ago. Its main limitation is that it is Phase I, which is not
compatible with any later DECnet. I have some support for it in
DECnet/Python development code.
Yes. Back in the mid-80s when I was using a PDP-8/a at home every day
(128Kw memory, RL8A/RL01... nice system), I had heard about DECnet/8
but it was hard to track down even then. It was widely
known/understood at the time it was only Phase I, but still, it was
*networking* for a PDP-8!
I did manage to get RTS-8 working on that machine, with OS/8 in a
process. I never ended up writing any from-scratch stuff for RTS-8
but I did go through the documentation examples and got it working.
-ethan
27 Feb
27 Feb
4:58 p.m.
I don’t believe that DECnet on RT-11 supports Ethernet.
Zane
On Feb 27, 2026, at 4:49 PM, Jim Davis via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I didn't know the 11/23 had net. We used fat coax and vampire taps on the
network capable machines.
> On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 1:39 PM Ethan Dicks via cctalk <
> cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 4:14 PM Paul Koning via cctalk
>> <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
>> On the other hand, the even more obscure DECnet/8 was found a couple of
> years ago. Its main limitation is that it is Phase I, which is not
> compatible with any later DECnet. I have some support for it in
> DECnet/Python development code.
>
> Yes. Back in the mid-80s when I was using a PDP-8/a at home every day
> (128Kw memory, RL8A/RL01... nice system), I had heard about DECnet/8
> but it was hard to track down even then. It was widely
> known/understood at the time it was only Phase I, but still, it was
> *networking* for a PDP-8!
>
> I did manage to get RTS-8 working on that machine, with OS/8 in a
> process. I never ended up writing any from-scratch stuff for RTS-8
> but I did go through the documentation examples and got it working.
>
> -ethan
>
6:21 p.m.
Not unless there was a Phase IV version, and I don't believe that happened. Heck, it
was a struggle to get permission to do Phase IV on RSTS...
paul
On Feb 27, 2026, at 7:58 PM, Zane Healy via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I don’t believe that DECnet on RT-11 supports Ethernet.
Zane
On Feb 27, 2026, at 4:49 PM, Jim Davis via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I didn't know the 11/23 had net. We used fat coax and vampire taps on the
network capable machines.
> On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 1:39 PM Ethan Dicks via cctalk <
> cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 4:14 PM Paul Koning via cctalk
>> <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
>> On the other hand, the even more obscure DECnet/8 was found a couple of
> years ago. Its main limitation is that it is Phase I, which is not
> compatible with any later DECnet. I have some support for it in
> DECnet/Python development code.
>
> Yes. Back in the mid-80s when I was using a PDP-8/a at home every day
> (128Kw memory, RL8A/RL01... nice system), I had heard about DECnet/8
> but it was hard to track down even then. It was widely
> known/understood at the time it was only Phase I, but still, it was
> *networking* for a PDP-8!
>
> I did manage to get RTS-8 working on that machine, with OS/8 in a
> process. I never ended up writing any from-scratch stuff for RTS-8
> but I did go through the documentation examples and got it working.
>
> -ethan
>
15
days inactive
22
days old
13 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
Bill Degnan -
Ethan Dicks -
Hans-Ulrich Hölscher -
Jacob Ritorto -
Jim Davis -
John H. Reinhardt -
Paul Koning -
Zane Healy