Free software BY Northern Telecom Inc. This software is furnished for free and may be used and copied as desired. This software or any other copies thereof may be provided or otherwise made available to any other person. No title to and ownership of the software is hereby transferred or allowed. The information in this software is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment by NORTHERN TELECOM INC. NORTHERN TELECOM assumes no responsibility for the use or reliability of this software on any equipment whatsoever. Northern Telecom Inc. Network Support Systems Division P.O. Box 649, Airport Road Concord, New Hampshire 03301 (603) 224-6511 X2024 Program: VAXNET Author: Robin Miller Date: Spring 1985 Description: VAXNET is a program which allows communcations between two computers using an asynchronous terminal port. The systems can be connected either directly using a null modem cable or via a dialup modem. Communications with the remote system is accomplished using a second port on the local system. *************************************************** * * * I want to give special thanks to D. Cottler, * * G. Everhart, and Ted Nieland for adding support * * for the HAYES, Racal-Vadic 212/3450, and VENTEL * * auto dial modems. * * * *************************************************** This is the 7th submission of VAXNET. This is VAXNET Version 9 which has the following new features: o Auto dial support has been added for the RACAL-VADIC VA212 and VA811/VA831/VA3450, the HAYES SMARTMODEM 1200/U.S. Robotics, DEC DF112, the VENTEL, and the RIXON R212A Intelligent modems. o The call-back feature allows users to use autodial modems to call them back from a batch job. The command procedure CALLBACK.COM can be customized for your installation. o A list of remote port symbols can be specifed at startup time. If this list exists, then VAXNET will allocate the first available port. This feature is useful when you have multiple ports with autodial modems. See the "SET PORT PORT_LIST" help section for details on defining these symbols. o In conjunction with the list of remote ports, a list of modem types and remote speeds can also be setup via symbols. This is useful when you have different types of autodial modems which may operate at different speeds. See the "SET MODEM MODEM_LIST" help and the "SET SPEED SPEED_LIST" for details on defining these symbols. o DCL symbols can now be defined to have VAXNET automatically start the remote transfer program (i.e., SNDRCV). See the "START_REMOTE" help section for details. o The PARITY command can be used to change the remote parity. See the "SET PARITY" help section for details. o The program no longer attempts to change the HANGUP terminal characteristic unless the MODHANGUP characteristic is enabled. o The default DISPLAY_SCREEN count is changed from 25 to 10 if the remote speed is 1200 baud or less. o The auto-login feature is no longer restricted at startup time to use with autodial modems only. o Fixed problems during auto-login when using a secondary login and password. o The names of the previously undocumented DCL symbols used by auto-login and scripting have changed. These symbols are used to override the default retry and timeout counts. The new names are now documented in the "AUTO_LOGIN" and "SCRIPT" help sections. o When executing a VAXNET command file (i.e., Vaxnet> @file.com), the display of the command lines read are controlled by the "SET VERIFY ON or OFF" command. By default, verify is enabled. New Features Continued: o Fixed a re-transmission problem when receiving files using the XMODEM protocol. o The symbol UNIX_MODE can be set true to disable informational messages. This prevents startup messages, messages when spawning a new process, and when transmitting the break signal. o The REFormat program has been rewritten in FORTRAN so the optional VAX/RSX-11 layered product is not required. The MISH program has not been converted yet (still MACRO-11). Program Features: o Virtual Terminal Mode. VAXNET runs in virtual terminal mode at any baud rate. I've run at 19.2K baud without loosing characters as long as the remote system responds to the XON / XOFF flow control protocol. Running a slower baud rates does not require this support since incoming characters can be processed fast enough. o Log File Capability. By using the log file capability, all output from the remote system can be written to a disk file on the local system. The log file is later reformatted using the REF utility and can then be edited and/or printed. This capability is very useful for generating documentation or for tracking changes you've made at a remote site (such as patches). o Support Multiple Protocols. Currently the original VAXNET protocol and the XMODEM protocol are supported. The KERMIT protocol will be added in a future release. o File Mishing Utility. The MISH program is used to convert any type of file into printable ASCII for file transmission. The program uses HASP data compression and stores the file attributes in a header record which is later used to convert the file back into it's original format. o Autodial Modem Support. VAXNET supports the DEC DF03 and DF112, RIXON R212 and R212A, VADIC VA212, VA3450, and VA3450, VENTEL, and HAYES Smartmodem 1200 auto dial modems. o Dump Mode Operation. The DUMP command is used to send files to a system which doesn't have the SNDRCV or VMODEM programs for transferring files with error checking. This capability used in conjunction with the log file feature is an alternate method of transferring ASCII files between systems. This is the method used for bootstrapping a system which doesn't have one of the file transfer programs. o Script Mode Operation. In script mode, a remote terminal session can be driven by commands in a script file on the local system. This file contains the prompts to expect from the remote and commands to send when these prompts are received. o Batch Mode Operation. Using an autodial modem, the auto- login capability, and a script file, you can automatically send files to another system. These features have been used to succesfully send TELEX's or MAILGRAM's via the EASYLINK system and to send mail between VMS systems. Future Features: o Partial support for a SLAVE command has been added. This will allow you to transfer bulk ASCII data from the remote system to a local disk file or line printer without the overhead of virtual terminal mode. For example, a spooled terminal port on the remote system can send it's output to a local printer. o Support for the KERMIT protocol. Although a VMS version of KERMIT exists (the one I was using was written in BLISS) VAXNET supports features unavailable in KERMIT. Problems: 1. Software overrun errors may occur at high baud rates unless the alternate typeahead buffer is enabled for the remote port. 2. Broadcast messages do not get written to the local terminal when you are in VAXNET. Notes: The system manager must allow read, write, and logical I/O operations to the remote terminal port. This is done using the DCL "SET PROTECTION=(,,,WORLD:RWL)/DEVICE device:" command. VAXNET Installation: The executables are available and are ready to go when you are. The command file VLOGIN.COM must be modified for your installation to point the logical names at the VAXNET directory. This command procedure defines the logical names and DCL symbols neccessary to to run VAXNET. You may wish to define the logical names /SYSTEM in your site specific startup command file and define the DCL symbols in your system login command file to make VAXNET available to all users when they log in. The following is a copy of this command procedure: $! $! Define the symbols for programs used with VAXNET: $! $ define sys$vaxnet dev:[vaxnet] $ define hlp$library dev:[vaxnet]vaxnet.hlb $ callback :== @sys$vaxnet:callback $ dialup :== @sys$vaxnet:dialup $ mish :== $sys$vaxnet:mish $ ref :== $sys$vaxnet:ref $ sndrcv :== $sys$vaxnet:sndrcv $ vaxnet :== $sys$vaxnet:vaxnet $ vmodem :== $sys$vaxnet:vmodem The CALLBACK and DIALUP command procedure must be modified for your installation if you are using auto-dial modems. You should add the following commands to the site specific startup command file for all VAXNET remote ports. VAXNET can't set these characteristics automatically since they require privilege. $ SET TERMINAL device:/NOTYPEAHEAD/PERM $ SET TERMINAL device:/ALTYPEAHEAD/PERM $ SET TERMINAL device:/TYPEAHEAD/MODEM/PERM $ SET TERMINAL device:/NOBROADCAST/PERM $ SET TERMINAL device:/MODEM/PERM $ SET PROTECTION=(,,,WORLD:RWL)/DEVICE device: Although the normal typeahead buffer is normally sufficient for low speed ports, enabling the alternate typeahead buffer should prevent the possible loss of any characters. The default sysgen parameter for the size of the alternate typeahead buffer is normally adequate. If the remote port is a direct connection to another system, you should set the port to /NOBROADCAST to prevent an echo loopback problem between the systems. For modem ports, you will want the broadcast characteristic enabled. The remote port must be set /MODEM for VAXNET to request auto-dial modem information. This characteristic should be enabled for all modem ports so the modem gets hungup when the program exits. Build Procedures: If you should need to rebuild VAXNET, the following command files are available to assist you: VAXNET.COM Compiles all the FORTRAN modules. VAXNETLIS.COM Compiles /DEBUG and generates listings. VAXNETLBR.COM Generates the VAXNET object module library. VAXNETBLD.COM Generates the VAXNET executable via LINK. VAXNETHLP.COM Generates the VAXNET help library. COMP.COM This command file is used to compile and replace individual modules in the library. Other Files: DIALUP.COM Template command procedure used for dialing a phone number using an auto dial modem. CALLBACK.COM Template command procedure used for having an auto dial modem call you back at home. VLOGIN.COM Command procedure used to define logical names and DCL symbols used with VAXNET. VAXNET Directories: [VAXNET.MISH] Contains the files for the file mishing utility. This program is used to convert any type of file into an ASCII format for file transmission. After the mished file is received on the remote system this program converts the file back into it's original format with attributes retained. [VAXNET.SNDRCV] Contains the files for the VAX and RSX SNDRCV program and a SNDRCV TECO macro for systems which supports TECO. This TECO macro has been used on RSX-11M/M+, VAX/VMS, and RT11 running version 36 of TECO. [VAXNET.RSXNET] Contains the files for the RSXNET program. This is a subset of the VAXNET program which runs on RSX-11M/M+. [VAXNET.RSXNET.REF] Contains the files for the reformatting utility. This program is used to reformat the log files generated by the VAXNET/RSXNET programs. It also has useful features such as EBCDIC to ASCII translation. This is the MACRO-11 version. [VAXNET.REF] Contains the files for the reformatting utility. This program is used to reformat the log files generated by the VAXNET program. This version is written in FORTRAN for use on VMS. [VAXNET.VMODEM] Contains the files for the VMODEM program which supports the XMODEM protocol. The UNIX version also available in this directory.