From: SMTP%"RELAY-INFO-VAX@CRVAX.SRI.COM" 12-APR-1994 16:30:26.48 To: EVERHART CC: Subj: biz.dec Frequently Asked Questions From: treese@crl.dec.com X-Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix,comp.sys.dec,comp.os.vms Subject: biz.dec Frequently Asked Questions Supersedes: Followup-To: comp.unix.ultrix Date: 11 Apr 1994 21:01:09 -0400 Organization: Digital Cambridge Research Laboratory Lines: 451 Expires: 26 May 1994 01:00:32 GMT Message-Id: Nntp-Posting-Host: quabbin.crl.dec.com Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about Digital Equipment Corporation. To: Info-VAX@CRVAX.SRI.COM X-Gateway-Source-Info: USENET Archive-name: dec-faq/decinfo Last-modified: Sat Mar 05 18:28:11 EST 1994 Version: 1.1 This is the Frequently Asked Questions posting for biz.dec. It addresses questions related to interaction with Digital Equipment Corporation. It is also posted on comp.sys.dec, comp.unix.ultrix and comp.os.vms, but it is not a full FAQ for any of those newgroups. biz.dec is Digital's newsgroup for posting business information on products, services, significant contracts, organizational announcements, cooperative marketing agreements, alliances, seminars, promotions, etc. The newsgroup is organized so that you can establish a "kill" file for articles that are not of interest to you. All postings are organized along the following lines: Subject: DECnews/... Digital Press Releases Subject: Fact Sheet/... - Supporting Fact Sheets Subject: Backgrounder/... - Supporting Editorial Backgrounders Subject: Partner/... Press Releases from Digital's Partners Subject: Seminar/... Seminars offered by Digital Subject: Promotion/... Sales Promotions offered by Digital This FAQ is available as /pub/DEC/dec-faq/decinfo on: gatekeeper.dec.com crl.dec.com decuac.dec.com It can also be obtained by sending mail to ftpmail@gatekeeper.dec.com with the following lines: connect get /pub/DEC/dec-faq/decinfo To make suggestions for changes or additions to this Frequently Asked Questions list, send mail to decinfo-faq-request@pa.dec.com. ===================================================== 1. Where can I find online product information? 2. How can I get press releases? 3. Does Digital have a UNIX Newsletter? 4. Does Digital have a FAX Server? 5. What are the phone numbers for Digital? 6. Can I order products Electronically? 7. How do I subscribe to the Digital Technical Journal? 8. How do I send mail to Digital employees? 9. Is Digital's Customer Update online yet? 10. Where can I get performance information? 11. Where can I get copies of Digital Software Product Descriptions (SPD)? 12. What are the addresses of the Alpha AXP demo systems? 13. How can I submit a bug report by electronic mail? 14. How can I get research and technical reports from Digital's research laboratories? ===================================================== 1. Where can I find online information? Digital provides online product information that is accessible via the Internet. The available information spans a diverse range -- Digital's Customer Update, information sheets, technical overviews, performance summaries, brochures, software product descriptions (SPDs), whitepapers, presentations, the Networks Buyers Guide and even the Systems and Options Catalog (SOC). Back issues of the Digital Technical Journal are also available. This information is accessible using the Internet access tool of your choice -- FTP or any World-Wide Web browser. Instructions for FTP access: 1. ftp gatekeeper.dec.com (16.1.0.2) 2. login anonymous 3. cd /pub/Digital/info All information is in either ASCII text or PostScript form. Each document has an abstract file (.abs) that gives a single paragraph overview of the document. It also contains the formal document name and the release date. Instructions for World-Wide Web access: If you have a World-Wide Web browser, the following URL is all you need: URL: http://www.dec.com/info.html If you do not have access to a World-Wide Web browser and would like understand the World-Wide Web better and learn how to get a Web browser: 1. ftp gatekeeper.dec.com 2. login anonymous 3. get README.www ===================================================== 2. How can I get press releases? DECnews for Press and Analysts is an Internet-based distribution of all Digital press releases. It is provided as a courtesy to analysts, members of the press and the consulting community. To subscribe, send a request to pr-news@pa.dec.com. Please include your name and telephone number in the body of the subscription request. Digital press releases, fact sheets and editorial backgrounders are also posted to the biz.dec news group on a regular basis and archived weekly on gatekeeper.dec.com in the /pub/Digital/info/DECnews-PR directory. ===================================================== 3. Does Digital have a UNIX Newsletter? Digital UNIX News is published electronically for Internet distribution every 3 weeks and contains product and service information of interest to the Digital UNIX community. Each issue spans the breadth of Digital's UNIX offering -- DEC OSF/1, ULTRIX and SCO UNIX. In addition to base operating system information, articles cover related areas such as layered products, hardware platforms, 3rd party applications, educational courses and other service offerings. For subscription information, send a request to unix-news@pa.dec.com with a subject line of "help". All back issues are archived on gatekeeper.dec.com in the /pub/Digital/info/DECnews-UNIX directory. ===================================================== 4. Does Digital have a FAX Server? If you do not have Internet access, but would still like immediate product literature, the Alpha AXP FastFAX Service is available. To access this service call: U.S. and Canada 800-842-7027 (from any touch-tone phone) Outside U.S. & Canada 415-694-3916 (from any fax machine) Just by dialing the number and following the voice prompts, an index of available information can easily be retrieved and reviewed. By entering the number of the specific document you would like, within seconds, the requested information prints out on your fax machine. The Alpha AXP FastFAX Service provides the following information: weekly "Good News" articles, hardware and software information, migration, and trade-in programs. The service is continually being updated to provide you with the latest information on products and programs. ===================================================== 5. What are the phone numbers for Digital? 1-800-344-4825 7:30am - 8:00pm ET To obtain pricing information, plan an order, track order status, and to get answers to pre-purchase technical questions. Press #1 to speak to a DECdirect ordering specialist. Press #2 to speak to a technical representative in the Technical Consulting Center. For order placement through fax, dial 1-800-234-2298. 1-800-722-9332 8:30am - 8:00pm ET Desktop Direct provide easy access line for ordering Digital PCs, peripherals, and applications. - Pre-sales and post-sales support - Configuration assistance - Quotes and updates on special pricing promotions - Product literature and specifications on all PC systems For order placement, requests for quotes, or answers to your questions through fax, dial 1-800-524-5694. 1-800-354-9000 24 hours Customer Support Center provides hardware, software, and support for customers who have purchased Digital's technical support. 1-800-332-7378 8:15am - 5:00pm ET Post-sales U.S. Customer Relations hotline for Digital Services. 1-800-332-4636 8:00am - 5:30pm ET Directory assistance for departments within Digital. ===================================================== 6. Can I order products Electronically? The Electronic Connection is on an on-line system to obtain a quote, place an order, or track your order status. It is can be reached by modem dial-in, the Internet, or by TYMNET. Current hours of operation are 6 am to Midnight EST USA. Via Modem: 1-800-234-1998 VT100 or compatible, 1200 to 9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity Via Internet: Telnet to order.sales.digital.com (Address: 192.208.36.1) - or - Telnet orders.sales.digital.com (Address: 192.208.36.2) Both names will access the Electronic Connection (different systems, same functions and content). Select the second address for a trial run and registration. Free. No obligation. Via TYMNET: Log in to host ECONN. ===================================================== 7. How do I subscribe to the Digital Technical Journal? The Digital Technical Journal is published quarterly by: Digital Equipment Corporation 146 Main Street MLO 103/B68 Maynard, MA 01754-2571 Subscriptions to the journal are $40.00 for four issues and must be prepaid in U.S. funds. University and college professors and Ph.D. students in the electrical engineering and computer science fields receive complimentary subscriptions upon request. Orders, inquires, and address changes should be sent to the Digital Technical Journal at the above address. Inquiries can also be sent electronically to dtj@crl.dec.com. Single copies and back issues are available in hardcopy for $16.00 each from Digital Press at: Digital Equipment Corporation 1 Burlington Woods Dr. Burlington, MA 01830-4597 Back issues are also available at no cost on gatekeeper.dec.com in the /pub/Digital/info/DTJ directory. Each issue is composed of multiple articles. Articles are available in four formats: file.txt ASCII (text only) file.ps PostScript (text and figures) file.ps.Z UNIX compressed PostScript file.zip ZIP-compatible compressed PostScript See the README file for copyright and hardcopy subscription information. See the index file for specifics on article file names. ===================================================== 8. How do I send mail to Digital employees? If you have Internet ftp capability, grab ~ftp/gateway.doc from gatekeeper.dec.com which contains every bit of relevant lore we've ever collected on this topic. If you must get by with what little information we have room for here in the FAQ, well, read on. The easiest way to find out how to get mail to a Digit is to have them send mail to you. If you get their mail, look at the headers (check the "From:" line, in particular) and try sending mail to the address as it appears to you. (If the person you are trying to contact doesn't know how to send you mail, have them grab gateway.doc (it is located internally at DECWRL::"/gateway.doc") and read it carefully. If you need to send mail to someone ``from scratch'', you will need to get them to tell you their address. If they say something like ``JOVE::VIXIE'' then the right way to reach them is one of: vixie@jove.enet.dec.com vixie%jove.enet@relay.dec.com ...!uunet!decwrl!jove.enet!vixie If on the other hand they say something like ``I'm PAUL VIXIE @WRL,'' then you can try one of these: vixie@wrl.mts.dec.com vixie%wrl.mts@relay.dec.com ...!uunet!decwrl!wrl.mts!vixie In the best of all possible worlds they will say something like ``My address is '' in which case you should send to one of: vixie@pa.dec.com vixie%pa.dec.com@relay.dec.com ...!uunet!decwrl!pa.dec.com!vixie If you try most or all of the above suggestions and can not figure out what you're doing wrong, send mail to our gateway postmaster, which is one of: postmaster@dec.com postmaster@decwrl.dec.com ...!uunet!decwrl!postmaster ===================================================== 9. Is Digital's Customer Update online yet? Digital's Customer Update provides technical information about new Digital products, services, and strategies plus details on third-party agreements. It is published monthly in hardcopy form and bi-weekly in electronic form. It is accessible by FTP, is distributed via news group, and is part of the World-Wide Web. In addition to the current issue, past issues are available back to July 1993. Via FTP: gatekeeper.dec.com: /pub/Digital/info/Customer-Update Each issue is split up into multiple text files, by article. An "At A Glance" summary is the lead article for issue. Issues are named by date. See the index file in the above directory for more explicit directions. Via World-Wide Web browsers: Digital's Customer Update has a dedicated area of Digital's web server where the current issue is always featured. Digital's Customer Update is located by URL: http://www.dec.com/pub/Digital/info/html/Customer-Update/home.html It can also be reached by navigation from the home page of Digital's World-Wide Web server. The URL of the home page is: http://www.dec.com/info.html It is part of "Product and Service Information" accessible from the "What's Here" page. A WAIS search capability is available to quickly locate past articles of interest. Individual articles have also been integrated into the Web servers indexes, by title and subject. Digital's web server is located at: Via Network News Readers: All articles of each issue are also posted to the biz.dec.decnews news group. ===================================================== 10. Where can I get performance information? Performance information on Digital's VAX, DECstation, DECsystem and Alpha AXP families is available in: gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/DEC/DECinfo/performance/ There are two subdirectories: sys/ Provides overall Systems Performance (SPECmarks, etc) tpc/ Provides TPC-A/B/C Performance Reports Have a look at the index file in either subdirectory to see what is what. ===================================================== 11. Where can I get copies of Digital's Software Product Descriptions (SPD)? Most SPDs can be found on gatekeeper.dec.com: /pub/Digital/info/SPD. They are numbered in the usual way; check the file "index" if you aren't sure of the number. Note that there are over 1100, so 'ls' will get you a long listing! ===================================================== 12. What are the addresses of the Alpha AXP demo systems? As a service to the Internet community, Digital provides Internet access to Alpha AXP systems so that users may evaluate the Alpha AXP architecture and test the functionality of the supporting operating systems, compilers, tools, and utilities. To evaluate a DEC OSF/1 AXP system, telnet or rlogin to: axposf.pa.dec.com or 16.1.0.14 To evaluate an OpenVMS AXP system, telnet or rlogin to: axpvms.pa.dec.com or 16.1.0.15 For either system, the user name is axpguest. No password is required. ===================================================== 13. How can I submit a bug report by electronic mail? A subset of customers can today submit bug reports electronically. DSNlink is a software tool that provides electronic communications capabilities between systems at customer sites and the Digital Customer Support Center. The VMS version utilizes modems in the U.S. and X.25 in Europe. The ULTRIX version utilizes Internet-based mail. Operating system requirements are as follows: V1.2 OpenVMS VAX (V5.2 or higher) V1.2 OpenVMS AXP (V1.0 or higher) V1.0 ULTRIX VAX (V4.1 or higher) V1.0 ULTRIX MIPS (V4.1 or higher) Unfortunately, DSNlink is only available to customers with maintenance contracts and the ULTRIX version is not available outside the United States at this time. The next version will provide ULTRIX and DEC OSF/1 support on a world-wide basis. Customers in the U.S. may call the DSNlink Customer Support at 1-800-332-8014 for more information regarding DSNlink, or to begin the order process for the service. Customers outside the U.S. should contact their local Digital sales representative. ===================================================== 15. How can I get research and technical reports from Digital's research laboratories? Digital has five corporate research labs, Cambridge Research Center (CRL) Network Research Laboratory (NSL) Paris Research Laboratory (PRL) Systems Research Center (SRC) Western Research Laboratory (WRL) All produce research and technical reports (in PostScript form) that are made available via anonymous FTP from gatekeeper.dec.com in /pub/DEC/{CRL,NSL,PRL,SRC,WRL} ============================================================================== Information contained in this FAQ is believed to be accurate as of its publication. It is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment by Digital Equipment Corporation. Digital, the Digital logo, Alpha AXP, AXP, DEC, DECstation, DECsystem, OpenVMS, ULTRIX, and OpenVMS are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. OSF/1 is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark licensed exclusively by X/Open Co. Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Copyright 1994 Digital Equipment Corporation. All rights reserved.