[Info-vax] tcpip

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

FredK <fred.nospam at dec.com> wrote:
(snip, someone wrote)

>>   The person who sets up something should know how it works.
 
> Only because they are forced to set it up - as opposed to having it 
> semi-automatically (or automatically done).  I don't know how to install the 
> ignition system on my car, I don't have to.
 
> The key difference here IMHO is that when someone who isn't  VMS system 
> manager or network guy gets a system to use at home - he is faced with the 
> "*you* are the network administrator" - it isn't some guy in IT that he 
> calls.  Nor is it Windows where it is all trransparent.  If he's a Linux 
> geek - he already probably knows how to setup a network because he has to 
> :-)  

It is usual now, at least for Windows, Linux, and I believe OS X, 
to automatically configure networking with DHCP.  Before DHCP, one
pretty much had to know something about IP to do it.

It does seem to me, though, that this is the one place where VMS
install doesn't even try to do it.  Note that I don't have to configure
logical names, DCL command processors, or a large number of other
things that are configurable.

If I remember to when I last installed VMS, there was one 
parameter, related to the size of some system resource, that
had to be configured.  I don't remember right now the name of
that one, though.  It seemed like one that it could have set
automatically, though.

-- glen