A Hobbyist DECnet Network - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

8 Dec 2005

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Subject: Re: A Hobbyist DECnet Network
   From: Dennis Boone <drb at msu.edu>
   Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 19:03:52 -0500
     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>

  I'm interested in setting up a network of
hobbyist DEC machines linked
 together in a DECnet phase IV network.  Why?  I suppose there's no
 really good reason, but it seems like it would be fun to be able to
 do "SHOW NET" or "NCP SHOW ACTIVE NODES" and see a whole long list
 of machines that aren't mine :-) Besides, it would be a good way to
 share access to real, non-simulated, VMS/RSX/RSTS and even, maybe,
 TOPS-10 or 20, machines. 
That actually sounds interesting.  Among other things, it would
give folks like me who are newish to decnet a way to test against
known-working systems.

How would you protect these older systems against abuse from the random
crackers?  VMS is probably tolerably safe in current versions, if
properly managed, but I'm betting there are problems with other OSes.
You could do vpns, I suppose. 
VMS if not put up sloppy is fairly tight.  The was a minor bug in 5.x
that was fixed by 5.4.  It's put 5.4 or later up against anything current.

Allison