Remote access systems

MG1 · September 21, 2011, 2:14pm

In this thread I’d like to share some of my most favourite remote access systems. By remote access I mean something similar to Winnili.net, in terms of operating principle. In other words, that you the user are given the chance to utilize a system remotely. Remotely would typically mean not within the local area network (LAN), unless you just happen to be in a gigantic corporate or government network, so rather over a wide area network (WAN).

Most of the time these systems will offer a CLI (Command Line Interpreter) environment, though some others also a GUI (grapical user interface) environment, in the means of a remote desktop (typically forwarded through SSH). Therefore typical means of connection would vary from plain telnet (including standards such as TN3270 and TN5250) and SSH (Secure Shell), along with whatever else may be available.

Feel free to contribute to this thread. Make sure to specify as much information as possible, preferably along with a website with information about the provided services, privileges and usage terms. Something of particular interest will of course be the hardware specifications and operating system of the remote system in question.

MG1 · September 21, 2011, 2:38pm

I already posted about it here, but I’ll do so again in this thread. You may’ve guessed it… yes, the “[B]Deathrow[/B]” OpenVMS cluster!

I’m there practically every day and it’s one of my more favourite remote access systems. You’ll get free disk space, an associated e-mail address, personal web space, there’s a BBS-like (or better than BBS, if you ask me) system called DEC Notes and you’ll have a lot of OpenVMS Layered Products at your disposal, like the HP C/C++, Fortran, Java, etc. compilers. In other words, too much to mention.

It’s also a great opportunity to get acquainted with a VMS cluster system, DCL, DECnet (a nice change from TCP/IP) and so forth.

[CENTER][/CENTER]

One of the sad things about “Deathrow” nowadays is that it’s mostly a single node system, so technically a cluster. The Alpha node (see the information below) [FONT=“Courier New”]GEIN::[/FONT] is one of my favourite nodes though, though I really miss the VAX (MicroVAX 3100/80) node [FONT=“Courier New”][URL=“http://deathrow.vistech.net/manson.shtml”]MANSON::[/FONT]. Lastly, below is some information about the [FONT=“Courier New”]GEIN::[/FONT] node, the most popular and widely available one for that matter.

[INDENT][FONT=“Courier New”]GEIN::[/FONT] is an AlphaServer DS10L, which is a single Alpha (AXP) processor-based 1U (19" RM) server system and it was originally manufactured and marketed by Compaq and licensees in the late 1990s, with the following hardware and software: [LIST][*]DEC Alpha EV6/21264 processor, clocked at 466 MHz with 2 MB cache

OpenVMS V7.3-1  on node GEIN  25-OCT-2011 15:51:42.06  Uptime  38 11:28:02
        AlphaServer DS10L 466 MHz

System: GEIN, AlphaServer DS10L 466 MHz

CPU ownership sets:
   Active               0
   Configure            0

CPU state sets:
   Potential            0
   Autostart            0
   Powered Down         None
   Not Present          None
   Failover             None

  SMP execlet   = 3 : Disabled : Uniprocessing.
  Config tree   = None
  Primary CPU   = 0
  HWRPB CPUs    = 1
  Page Size     = 8192
  Revision Code =
  Serial Number = 1
  Default CPU Capabilities:
        System: QUORUM RUN
  Default Process Capabilities:
        System: QUORUM RUN

CPU 0    State: RUN                CPUDB: 81430000     Handle: * None *
       Process: EMGEE                PID: 2022A562
  Capabilities:
        System: PRIMARY QUORUM RUN RAD0
  Slot Context: 8427A180
     CPU     -  State..........: RC, PA, PP, CV, PV, PMV, PL
                Type...........: EV6 (21264), Pass 2.3
                Speed..........: 462 Mhz
                Variation......: VAX FP, IEEE FP, Primary Eligible
                Serial Number..:
                Revision.......:
                Halt Request...: 0
                Software Comp..: 0.0
     PALCODE -  Revision Code..: 1.98-01
                Compatibility..: 83
                Max Shared CPUs: 1
                Memory  Space..: Physical = 00000000.00000000  Length = 0
                Scratch Space..: Physical = 00000000.00000000  Length = 0
  Bindings:     * None *
  Fastpath:     * None *
  Features:
     Autostart - Enabled.
     Fastpath  - Selection enabled as Preferred CPU.

[*]256 MB RAM

              System Memory Resources on 25-OCT-2011 15:50:41.72

Physical Memory Usage (pages):     Total        Free      In Use    Modified
  Main Memory (256.00MB)           32768        7891       23807        1070

Of the physical pages in use, 4468 pages are permanently allocated to OpenVMS.

[]dual DE500, on-board ‘Fast Ethernet’ (100BASE-TX), ethernet NICs
[]2× IDE/ATA internal disks, a Maxtor 53073H4 ([FONT=“Courier New”]DISK$GEIN_SYS[/FONT]) and a Seagate ST3120023A ([FONT=“Courier New”]DISK$GEIN_DATA[/FONT]), divided over several logical disk images (with the excellent LD driver)

Device                  Device           Error    Volume         Free  Trans Mnt
 Name                   Status           Count     Label        Blocks Count Cnt
$3$DQA0:        (GEIN)  Mounted              0  GEIN_SYS      20330457   595   1
$3$DQB1:        (GEIN)  Mounted              0  GEIN_DATA    126356175    10   1
$9$LDA1:        (GEIN)  Mounted              0  USERS          2147877     9   1
$9$LDA2:        (GEIN)  Mounted              0  EXTRA           256484     1   1
$9$LDA3:        (GEIN)  Mounted              0  FTP            2849517     1   1
$9$LDA4:        (GEIN)  Mounted              0  USERS_ODS5     2435643     1   1

[*]OpenVMS Alpha V7.3-1, along with many Layered Products (including C, C++, COBOL, BASIC, PASCAL, etc. compilers), DECwindows/Motif V1.2-6 and instead of the standard TCP/IP Services, Process Software MultiNet V5.0 rev. A-X

Active licenses on node GEIN:

------- Product ID --------    ---- Rating ----- -- Version --
Product            Producer    Units Avail Activ Version Release    Termination
ACMS               DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ACMS-REM           DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ACMS-RT            DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ACMSXP-DEV         DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ACMSXP-RT          DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ADA                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ADA-PDO            DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ALLIN1-MAIL-DW-CLI DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ALLIN1-MAIL-SERVER DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ALLIN1-MAIL-SERVER DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ALLIN1-MAIL-VT-CLI DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ALLIN1-MAIL-VT-USE DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
ALLIN1-MAIL-WAN-SE DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
BASIC              DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
C                  DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
CMS                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
COBOL              DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
CXX-V              DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DCE-APP-DEV        DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DCE-CDS            DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DCE-SECURITY       DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DCPS-OPEN          DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DCPS-PLUS          DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DECDCS-SRV-VA      DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DECMIGRATE         DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DECRAM             DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DECWRITE           DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DECWRITE-USER      DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DESKTOP-ACMS       DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DFG                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DFS                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DQS                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DTM                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DTR                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DTR-UI-JAPANESE    DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DVNETEND           DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DVNETEXT           DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DVNETRTG           DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF           DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-CESKY  DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-DEUTSC DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-ESPANO DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-FRANCA DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-HANGUL DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-HANYU  DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-HANZI  DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-HEBREW DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-ITALIA DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-JAPANE DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-MAGYAR DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-POLSKI DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-RUSSKI DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-SLOVEN DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-MOTIF-UI-SVENSK DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
DW-SNA-3270-TE-VMS DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
EXT-MATH-LIB       DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
EXT-MATH-LIB-RT    DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
FMS                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
FMS-RT-UI-JAPANESE DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
FMS-UI-HANGUL      DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
FMS-UI-JAPANESE    DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
FORMS              DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
FORMS-RT           DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
FORMS-RT-UI-HANGUL DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
FORMS-RT-UI-HANYU  DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
FORTRAN            DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
GKS                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
GKS-RT             DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
GKS-RT-UI-JAPANESE DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
GKS-UI-JAPANESE    DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
GKS3D              DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
GKS3D-RT           DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
LSE                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
MACRO64            DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
MAILBUS-400-API    DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
MAILBUS-400-MTA    DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
MMOV-DV            DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
MMOV-RT            DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
MMS                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
NOTES              DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
OPENVMS-ALPHA      DEC             0  0     A      0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
OPENVMS-ALPHA-USER DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
OPENVMS-HOBBYIST   DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
OPS5               DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
PASCAL             DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
PCA                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
PHIGS              DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
PHIGS-RUNTIME      DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
PHIGS-RUNTIME-UI-J DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
PHIGS-UI-JAPANESE  DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
RMSJNL             DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
RTR-CL             DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
RTR-SVR            DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
SQL-DEV            DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
SSU                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
UCX                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
UCX-IP-CLIENT      DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
UCX-IP-NFS         DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
UCX-IP-RT          DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
VAXCLUSTER         DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
VAXSET             DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
VMS-UI-JAPANESE    DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
VMSCLUSTER         DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
VOLSHAD            DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
X25                DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
X25-CLIENT         DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
X500-ADMIN-FACILIT DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
X500-DIRECTORY-SER DEC             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
AVAIL-MAN          HP              0  0     100    0.0  (none)      15-JUN-2012
MULTINET           TGV             0  0     100    0.0  (none)      18-JUN-2012

Process Software MultiNet V5.0 Rev A-X, AlphaServer DS10L 466 MHz, 
OpenVMS AXP V7.3-1

[/LIST]

In case you’re curious, this is what a DS10L looks like: [/INDENT][CENTER]

[/CENTER]

MG1 · September 21, 2011, 3:25pm

Another gem and personal favourite of mine has to be the public access IBM AS/400 of RZKH, which stands for [I][URL=“http://www.rzkh.de”]Rechenzentrum Kreuznach[/I] (German: ‘Calculation/Computing Center Kreuznach’). It was suggested to me a few months ago and I’ve been using it fairly regularly, for which I’m very grateful. Besides the AS/400 system, they also provide paid services on more recent systems (running on modern IBM POWER systems, by the looks of it).

RZKH has provided me a chance to become acquainted with IBM’s AS/400 platform, or [URL=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_i”]System i (as they call it nowadays). The provided version of the [URL=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/400”]OS/400 operating system is quite modern, it’s certainly not ancient and it provides besides libraries and objects also things like (virtual) file system support.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to use a TN3270 or TN5250 compatible terminal/-emulator, else you’ll have a real hard time navigating through the forms, fields, menus and such (which rely on the extra function keys, normally found on IBM twinax terminals/keyboards). There are several fully functional shareware/trialware, free and open source tools, even for mobile devices (like Apple iOS and Android tablets), so you’re in luck.

Some things seem to be broken (like the help system), which is unfortunate, but I still think it’s excellent and I’d recommend it to anyone: Definitely worth trying!

psx-dude · September 21, 2011, 3:56pm

Your level is way beyond me. I just dig SSH + Bash for my remote access and scripting needs.

dukzcry · September 21, 2011, 10:21pm

I will introduce nodes with remote access from Russian (located in Novosibirsk) PDP-11.NSK.RU project (formely mostly known as pdp11.org.ru) in this thread. They are: [COLOR=PaleGreen]CTAKAH[/COLOR], an Ersatz-11/SimH-emulated node, running 24/7 and powered by RSX-11M (quite popular multi-user RSX-11 variant); [COLOR=PaleGreen]CTEPBA[/COLOR], OpenVMS/AXP V8.4-powered node, running on DS10 without strict schedule of working hours; [COLOR=PaleGreen]XPEH[/COLOR], SimH-emulated (MicroVAX emulation target) node, powered by OpenVMS/VAX V7.3, running occasionally.
All nodes are publicly avaliable via Internet, except a XPEH, and every one is available via DECNet set of protocols from HECNet network. Remote login protocols for Internet access are: telnet for CTAKAH and CTEPBA, but latest one also provides ssh access to extent. All mentioned nodes have GUEST access, for emulated ones you can also get an personal account (see an e-mail at project page providen in nodes description).
There is a MIM (PDP-11) node also mentioned on the page, but it’s actually located in Schweden and managed by an owner of HECNet initiative. Accessible via telnet, has one advantage over CTAKAH: BQT TCP/IP stack is installed there. You can also request personal account for it.
Since CTAKAH was an initial node under the PDP-11.NSK.RU project, it has own page dedicated to it, with description, only in Russian though. Scroll down, and you’ll see PDP-11 games Most of which were written in old good times, during the periods of boredom by CNC-workers.
I didn’t list bunch of compilers (and their supporting), installed on nodes, but there is too much to list, you can look over the project page by yourself, but simply speaking: almost every thing that you’ll expect to see on typical RT/RSX/VMS node is available on each of these hosts.

Well, messing with unique and/or antique OSes which require or provide CLI control usually means that you need something special instead of PuTTY, if you want to get better support or get support at all. PuTTY is a good VT100/ANSI terminal emulator with a powerful support of different remote login protocols, but for rare enough things like IBM AS/400 you need even self-reliant application, i personally did not hear of TN3270/TN5250 support in any complex multi- terminal emulating solution, probably their support may exist in some commercial solution (i’m not count special, TN3270/TN5250-only terminal emulators, uselessly to say).

MG1 · September 24, 2011, 5:09pm

Do you log onto these often? I haven’t done much with TOPS-10, TOPS-20, RT-11, RSTS/E, RSX-11 (-D and -M, the latter quite directly led to VMS) and so on, yet. The moments I tried them, mostly TOPS-10 so far, I immediately noticed how much they still share with VMS. (Which I consider a good thing.)

At one of the last VMS SIG meetings here, people were talking about these ‘legacy’ operating systems.

[COLOR=“PaleGreen”]CTEPBA[/COLOR], OpenVMS/AXP V8.4-powered node, running on DS10 without strict plan of working hours

That reminds me, if everything went right, I was supposed to lay my hands on a DS10 (for € ~10), back in June already. I hope that in the (near) future I’ll be able to get my hands on one then. Thanks for reminding me of pdp11.org.ru, I almost forgot about them, so I think I’ll use this DS10 in the meantime. For the rest I’m also nearly daily using [FONT=“Courier New”]GEIN::[/FONT], a DS10L, which is the 1U version of the DS10.

I didn’t list bunch of compilers (and their supporting), installed on nodes, but there is too much to list, you can look over project page by yourself, but simply speaking: almost every that you’ll expect to see on typical RT/RSX/VMS node is available on each of these hosts.

The PDP-11 will have MACRO-11, which an attraction worth mentioning, along with other typical DEC things like BLISS. I’m not sure about COBOL, for all the predecessors of VMS (so to speak), but I’d think it was there already. DCL is also available, like in RSTS/E (I believe), which would be pretty interesting to work with and compare with the trusty DCL as seen in VMS.

Specially for lovers of linguistics (Marco, you’re welcome there :D): node naming is funny. Every written with Roman letters, each letter matches the letter with same looking from Russian alphabet.

Ah yes, ‘pseudo-Cyrillic’ visual glyph mimicry, got to love it!

VMS/RT-common uppercase writing is comes to rescue there, since not all of lowercased letters from Roman and Russian alphabets in node naming match each other. CTAKAH (ctakah lowercased, стакан, in Russian) states behind the “water glass”. CTEPBA (ctepba lowercased, стерва in Russian) means shrew (woman) there, XPEH (xpeh lowercased, хрен in Russian) is an old grumbler (just to add, хрен is also used for naming of horseradish plant/flavouring and even in states like “его хрен обманешь! - like hell you can cheat him!”).

In some cases, the lower case Latin script letters resemble some Cyrillic letters more. Like /n/ for /п/ [/p/]. Using a combination of both would seem best, or most ‘accurate,’ I’d think.

His nickname obviosly states for our word, “хрен”, but some for a joke or in earnest called him as K`spɛh in audio-podcast.

That’s hilarious! Like all those kids here with “Cee Cee Cee Pee” T-shirts. (Which was a ‘trend’ for a while.)

Well, messing with unique and/or antique OSes which require or provide CLI control usually means that you need something special instead of PuTTY, if you want to get better support or get support at all. PuTTY is a good VT100/ANSI terminal emulator with a powerful support of different remote login protocols, but for rare enough things like IBM AS/400 you need even self-reliant application, i personally did not hear of TN3270/TN5250 support in any complex multi- terminal emulating solution, probably their support may exist in some commercial solution (i’m not count special, TN3270/TN5250-only terminal emulators, uselessly to say).

With PuTTY you can connect to OS/400, like the RZKH AS/400 (“[FONT=“Courier New”]PUB1[/FONT]”). However, as I said, the keyboard mappings will be painful and pretty much unusable like that.

It’d be nice if PuTTY added TN3270 and/or TN5250 emulation in the future, as I’m a big fan of it. I’ve even used PuTTY under Linux, because I wasn’t always satisfied with the VT-emulation of [FONT=“Courier New”]xterm[/FONT], [FONT=“Courier New”]rxvt[/FONT] and so on.

dukzcry · September 24, 2011, 11:19pm

No, last time, when i logged in, only CTAKAH node presented, and it was before my meeting with OpenVMS. So, RSX-11M-PLUS was my first experience with something similar to VMS.

The moments I tried them, mostly TOPS-10 so far, I immediately noticed how much they still share with VMS. (Which I consider a good thing.)

Form (PDP-11.NSK.RU project founder) was originally against VMS at all (as i got noticed, when i was in correspondence with him, that’s mostly USSR-feeling traditional conservatism of thinking that “something better/interesting doesn’t exist if i don’t know it”, or “i’ve spent a dozen of my time into some thing, but after that, i found something better, but won’t bother with it, after all”), but later got interested in VMS too (amongst RT-11 variants).

The PDP-11 will have MACRO-11, which an attraction worth mentioning, along with other typical DEC things like BLISS. I’m not sure about COBOL, for all the predecessors of VMS (so to speak), but I’d think it was there already. DCL is also available…

MACRO-11 is there, but i don’t see BLISS in descriptions COBOL is installed only on OpenVMS V8.4-powered nod, but since i’m personally not a fan of archaic, verbositive languages, it’s not a miss for me at all. DCL is exclude there, since it was involved as main scripting language at OpenVMS (also can be found in IAS/TOPS/RT-11 systems).

With PuTTY you can connect to OS/400, like the RZKH AS/400 (“PUB1”). However, as I said, the keyboard mappings will be painful and pretty much unusable like that.

PuTTY is not even good with proper VT100 emulation, what to say about TN-emulation? I presume not only mappings will go bad there, but ASCII graphics may look improper too.

MG1 · September 25, 2011, 4:27am

In the HECnet ‘community’ there are several who think similarly, or share the same resentment (if that’s not exaggerating it too much).

What I don’t understand: VMS isn’t, or wasn’t at first, liked. But then the decision was made to include it, but why such a high version like V8.4? I guess the objections vanished when they saw how true V8.4 still is to the original VMS?

MACRO-11 is there, but i don’t see BLISS in descriptions

If MACRO-11 wouldn’t have been there, something really terrible would be going on!

COBOL is installed only on OpenVMS V8.4-powered node there, but since i’m personally not a fan of archaic, verbositive languages (one example of something archaic, but non-verbositive language which i accept is a LISP), it’s not a miss for me at all.

I actually like it. It’s a good choice for fault-tolerant coding. It was a very popular language under DEC (including VMS), Tandem (Guardian/NonStop/etc.) and various IBM mainframe platforms.

PuTTY is not even good with proper VT100 emulation, what say about TN-emulation? I presume not only mappings will go bad there, but ASCII graphics may look improper too.

Which version do you use? Because PuTTY works great for me! Even many of the most important VT/LK keys (like “Do”) work fine. Do you run or have “[FONT=“Courier New”]$ SET TERMINAL /VT100 /INQUIRE[/FONT]” included in your [FONT=“Courier New”]LOGIN.COM[/FONT]? (Also, don’t forget to pick “VT100+” in PuTTY.)

The only problem is that PuTTY doesn’t come with DEC terminal fonts. (Many UNIX/-derivatives have them included with the X11 base fonts, for example.)

dukzcry · September 25, 2011, 8:05am

Well the PDP-11.NSK.RU is not a first-face or representation of HECNet project at all, Oleg just mentioned his own nodes with public access, all of them he desired to connect to HECNet program (initiative) too. I never heard myself that J. Billquist (founder of HECNet) was against OpenVMS at all.

Which version do you use? Because PuTTY works great for me! Even many of the most important VT/LK keys (like “Do”) work fine. Do you run or have “$ SET TERMINAL /VT100 /INQUIRE” included in your LOGIN.COM? (Also, don’t forget to pick “VT100+” in PuTTY.)

Thanks for your recommendations, but i used PuTTY only for access to remote nodes, not my machine, so didn’t check much of it’s possibilities or limitations, i just remember that i read about poor VT100 emulation implementation in most of terminal emulation solutions, it was selected into additional article on CCSS Interactive Learning website.

MG1 · September 25, 2011, 8:13am

I know.

I never heard myself that Johnny Billquist (founder of HECNet) was against OpenVMS at all.

About that, now that you mention him, are you subscribed to the HECnet mailing list?

dukzcry · September 25, 2011, 8:20am

No, ok i understand you now.

About that, now that you mention him, are you subscribed to the HECnet mailing list?

So you want to say, that V8.4 is dominated in HECNet, amongst other VMS versions (excluding Oleg’s node of course)?

MG1 · September 25, 2011, 4:17pm

What I meant was that it was surprising to read about a certain reluctance, or distrust even, initially towards VMS by some (like in the case of PDP-11.NSK.RU, as you said). Yet, over time, those who are reluctant at first seem to not be able to resist the temptation of at least trying VMS and even all too often end up with the latest V8.4, which is somewhat ironical; I’d have thought they’d go with an older version, like V7.3-2 for VAX at most. To me it seems that once they get to know VMS better, all the way up to V8.4 even, they must be positively surprised to see that VMS is fortunately still true to the original concept and the whole idea.

MG1 · September 30, 2011, 7:00am

Remote access SGI (particularly IRIX for MIPS processors, needless to say) systems are less common, but fairly recently two remote access systems have neem reported at fairly well-known public/remote access systems providers. Both are in Europe.

[LIST][*]SGI [B]Indy[/B] at [URL=“http://poetry.freaknet.org”]Poetry Hacklab in Italy

[RIGHT][/RIGHT]

[SIZE=3]NEW in the Poetry Hacklab[/SIZE]

After the renovation of the physical place that hosts it (the poetry), with the help of the guys in the poetry, the activities ‘of the Poetry Hacklab shared more’ stronger than before! First, some computers are back online history, you can control the page on the computer online, and we started to get my hands on some historic car, in order to create the tab for the site of the museum and, even more importantly, [URL=“http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmuseo.freaknet.org%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DSGI_Indy%26oldid%3D2308”]play with and hit the [B]Silicon Graphics Indy[/B] and currently used in the premises of Poetry!

[CENTER][/CENTER]

Details[LIST][]Manufacturer: SGI
[]Country: USA
[]Year: 1993
[]Serial Number: N / A
[]CPU: MIPS R4400, 200Mhz
[]Memory: 160MB
[]Operating System: IRIX 6.2
[]Provenance: Donated by Valerio Aputini from Rome
[]Condition: Excellent!
[]Parts Missing: None
[]Online Resources: SGI Indy - Wikipedia
[]Location: Poetry Hacklab, available online[/LIST]

[source] (via Google Translate)

[*]SGI [B]Indigo²[/B] at [URL=“http://www.marway.org”]MARWAY in Germany

[SIZE=3]MARWAY got a SGI INDIGO2 (IP22) for the hostfarm[/SIZE][INDENT][SIZE=“1”][COLOR=“DimGray”]published by admin on Sun, 07/17/2011 - 20:18[/COLOR][/SIZE][/INDENT]

[CENTER][/CENTER]

Hi honorable surfer and guest user,

MARWAY got a SGI INDIGO2 (IP22) w/ the following configs: Welcome on SGI IRIX 5.3 Multiverse MELANIE, honorable shell user!

It’s not a trick, it’s an SGI INDIGO2 (IP22) with the following configs:
[LIST][]IP: [145.253.97.122]
[]FQD: melanie.marway.org
[]Gateway to Internet: 2 MBit/s up and 2 MBit/s down ATM-Shrink Link at vodafone-ip.de (www.arcor-ip.de) TCP/IP Backbone Network
[]CPU-Box:[LIST][]200MHz mips R4400 CPU, w/ R4010FPC FPU
[]256MB Memory
[]256MB Swap
[]AUI/10BaseT Ethernet NIC
[]SGI GR3-Elan (with four graphic processors)
[]Iris Audio Processor
[*]4GB SCSI Boot/Root-Disk and 1G /melanie[/LIST][/LIST]

Additionally installed software (optional stuff):[INDENT]IDO (IRIS Development Option) for IRIX 5.3-stable, binutils-2.20.1-1, expart-2.0.1-2, zlib-1.2.5-1, gettext-0.16.1-2, libiconv-1.11-2, less 409, gcc/g++ version 2.7.2.2 (C/C++ Compiler Suite, incl. ld, as, nm, gdb), ELM 2.4ME+ PL100 (25), Sendmail 8.14.5/8.14.5 (smtpd), bash 4.0, gmake 3.81, screen 4.00.03, sed 4.2.1, tcl 8.4.16, grep 2.5.3, openssh 5.8p1, irc 2.8.2, mutt 1.4.2.3 (e-mail client), nano 1.2.5 (editor)[/INDENT]

Hav’ a nice stay on host melanie,
MARWAY.ORG Hostmaster Staff Team
staff@marway.org
[INDENT][INDENT][SIZE=“1”]Last Modification: Sun Jul 17 19:39:10 CEST 2011 by vaxima@melanie.marway.org[/SIZE][/INDENT][/INDENT]

[source][/LIST]

Definitely worth checking out, even if the actual graphics parts is problematic or simply not possible. Still a great opportunity for people who haven’t had the chance or opportunity, nor thus the honour and pleasure, of using IRIX before.

MG1 · October 2, 2011, 2:46pm

Be sure to check out these two remote VMS nodes, associated with the CCSS ([I][URL=“http://plato.ccsscorp.com”]Computer Consulting System Services[/I]) Interactive Learning program for OpenVMS. It’s provided and run by the very generous, kind and notable OpenVMS authority, William Pedersen.

[LIST][][SIZE=“3”]AXPDEM::[/SIZE][LIST]
[]TCP/IP host & services: [FONT=“Courier New”]charon.stromasys.com[/FONT] [FONT=“Courier New”]:22[/FONT] [COLOR=“DimGray”]SIZE=“1”[/SIZE][/COLOR] / [FONT=“Courier New”]:23[/FONT] [SIZE=“1”]COLOR=“DimGray”[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[]login: [FONT=“Courier New”]CCSS_DEMO[/FONT]
[]password: [FONT=“Courier New”]CCSS_PASSWORD[/FONT][/LIST]

OpenVMS V8.3  on node AXPDEM   2-OCT-2011 22:23:09.20  Uptime  27 11:57:58
        AlphaServer ES40
              System Memory Resources on  2-OCT-2011 22:23:09.24

Physical Memory Usage (bytes):     Total        Free      In Use    Modified
  Main Memory             (MB)   1024.00      906.29      116.21        1.48

Of the physical memory in use, 42.35 MB are permanently allocated to OpenVMS.

System: AXPDEM, AlphaServer ES40

CPU ownership sets:
   Active               0
   Configure            0

CPU state sets:
   Potential            0
   Autostart            0-3
   Powered Down         None
   Not Present          1-3
   Failover             None

Device                  Device           Error    Volume         Free  Trans Mnt
 Name                   Status           Count     Label         Space Count Cnt
AXPDEM$DKA0:            Mounted              0  ALPHASYS        2.22GB   383   1
AXPDEM$DKA300:          Mounted              0  USERDISK        1.24GB     5   1
AXPDEM$DKA500:          Mounted              0  BACKUP          2.44GB     1   1

Device                  Device           Error
 Name                   Status           Count
LTA0:                   Offline mounted      0

[*][SIZE=“3”]TST713::[/SIZE]
[INDENT]No UCX (nor TCP/IP Services) running. In other words, simply connect to it with the same login credentials via DECnet:

$ SET HOST VAXLAB

(The DECnet address/node number is [FONT=“Courier New”]52.713[/FONT].) [/INDENT]

OpenVMS V7.2  on node TST713   2-OCT-2011 22:22:39.11  Uptime  27 11:56:35
        VAX 4000-106A
              System Memory Resources on  2-OCT-2011 22:22:39.13

Physical Memory Usage (pages):     Total        Free      In Use    Modified
  Main Memory (64.00Mb)           131072       89478       39918        1676

Of the physical pages in use, 20867 pages are permanently allocated to OpenVMS.

TST713, a VAX 4000-106A
Multiprocessing is DISABLED. Uniprocessing synchronization image loaded.

PRIMARY CPU = 00
Active CPUs:      00
Configured CPUs:  00

Device                  Device           Error    Volume         Free  Trans Mnt
 Name                   Status           Count     Label        Blocks Count Cnt
$2$DUA0:      (TST713)  Mounted              0  OVMSVAXSYS     2113578   185   1
$2$DUA1:      (TST713)  Mounted              0  USERDISK       2285268     5   1

Device                  Device           Error
 Name                   Status           Count
LTA0:                   Offline mounted      0
RTA1:                   Mounted              0

[/LIST]

I created some directories, a [FONT=“Courier New”]LOGIN.COM[/FONT] file with some useful symbol definitions, a MACRO-32 (VAX assembly) source code with compiled and linked output, along with some other things. Feel free to check it out!

MG1 · October 9, 2011, 12:37pm

Having difficulty with remote DECwindows sessions, or did the possibility itself not occur yet to you? Make sure to read this and give it a shot! It’s definitely worth it.

Myrkraverk · December 3, 2011, 9:07am

I created an account with rzkh for access to AS/400. Unfortunately, nothing happens. Repeatedly.

I type in my login name, press enter or tab, then my password. When I press enter I just fall back to my login name input field. This happens both with tn5250j from sourceforge, and with basic telnet in mxrxvt. Though with the latter I get a lot of noise output as well.

Am I doing something wrong or is the rzkh system “down” this weekend?

MG1 · December 3, 2011, 5:09pm

It works for me. There’s no SSL, as far as I’m aware (so simply port 23, for telnet, plus the TN3270/TN5250 terminal protocol). Did you perhaps try to invoke SSL? I remember I tried that originally, which didn’t get me connected either. (I don’t know the exact reason, if any at all, but my guess is that SSL is disabled for performance reasons.) It could also be that the system suffered some downtime or (unannounced) maintenance briefly, or that you tried to connect during some kind of ‘peak hour’.

Speaking of OS/400, I’ve been playing around with it as of late. I was meaning to dedicate a thread to some of my COBOL and RPG adventures, also to discuss some System i ‘connectivity’ software (besides the usual F/OSS programs).

Myrkraverk · December 3, 2011, 7:33pm

I get the login screen when I telnet with ssl on port 992. Both with tn5250j and directly in my terminal with openssl s_client -connect pub1.rzkh.de:992.

Neither that, nor regular telnet on port 23 allows me to log in to the system though.

MG1 · December 4, 2011, 5:07am

Very peculiar problem, I must say. From what kind of operating system/environment did you try to connect? Do you know, for instance, that the VMS Telnet and MultiNet Telnet clients have built-in TN3270 nd TN5250 emulation? You could give those a try, e.g.:

$ MULTINET TELNET /TN3270 pub1.rzkh.de

$ MULTINET TELNET /TN5250 pub1.rzkh.de

Or, simply without “[FONT=“Courier New”]MULTINET[/FONT]” and even just:

$ TN3270 pub1.rzkh.de

With the regular VMS Telnet client:

$ TELNET /TERMINAL_TYPE=`type` pub1.rzkh.de

Where [FONT=“Courier New”]type[/FONT] can be one of the following TN3270 types:
[LIST][][FONT=“Courier New”]IBM-3278-2[/FONT]
[][FONT=“Courier New”]IBM-3278-3[/FONT]
[][FONT=“Courier New”]IBM-3278-4[/FONT]
[][FONT=“Courier New”]IBM-3278-5[/FONT][/LIST]

You can try this on [FONT=“Courier New”]GEIN::[/FONT], with both the OpenVMS TCP/IP Services (formerly known as UCX) and MultiNet available.

I get the login screen when I telnet with ssl on port 992. Both with tn5250j and directly in my terminal with openssl s_client -connect pub1.rzkh.de:992.

That’s strange, because I get nothing at port 992 (and I don’t recall having ever tried that particular port either). The official IBM System i Navigator program doesn’t report SSL as being enabled on the [FONT=“Courier New”]pub1.rzkh.de[/FONT] host.