Getting an ibm as/400

[Yvan Janssens]

Hi Devin,

I myself have several hobbyist machines, and I know a few other people who
do.

The 70 day timebomb is set by the OS and the different software packages
you install. So, let's say, you install the OS, the development tools and
Client Access. Each of them will have their own 70 day time bomb, after
which you will have to enter a license key which is tied to your hardware
serial number (and some other things). The 70 day time period starts when
you first start a product, so let's say, you only used Client Access on the
10th day after you started the OS, then that's when your 70 day time period
starts for that product.

After the 70 day time period ends, you'll have to reinstall.

It is very likely your machine will come with a tape drive. If possible,
try to see if you can find tapes for it (maybe they come with it?). This
way you can create a distribution tape from your installation CDs, which
makes reinstalling a lot more painless - the OS comes on six or so CDs,
which you'll have to swap during install. You'll probably lose about half a
day to a day to go through that.

As said before, try to look for the license keys in the documentation from
the machine. They are in the format *XXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX, *and can be used
to disable that time bomb. If you can, try to pick it up when someone who
actually knows the machine is around so you can ask someone knowledgeable.
You want to ask for LICKEYs.

Wrt. the terminals, make sure you get all the cabling. They use twinaxial
cabling, and you'll need the pig tails, "bricks",... . It's not standard
stuff, so it's unlikely you'd be able to make your own from what you can
find in your drawer. Also make sure to grab the terminal keyboards,
depending on how old the terminal is it might either use an RJ-45 plug, or
a DIN one. These keyboards use a modified version of the protocol PS/2
keyboards use, and some terminals can survive PS/2 keyboards with the right
plug soldered on them, but not all of them do. Your mileage will vary.

Also, if you connect the machine to the internet, make sure to change all
default passwords. There are quite a few.

Y.

2016-04-13 15:30 GMT+01:00 devin davison <lyokoboy0 at gmail.com>:

> I called in again yesterday night, still not ready to pick up though. The
> guy assured me the drives were being wiped not removed, which is good.
>
> How does the whold 70 day licence thing work. Is that a specific limitation
> to os/400 or built into the hardware of the machine itself?
>



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