[Info-vax] tcpip

[Richard B. Gilbert]

On 11/2/2010 12:37 PM, Bob Koehler wrote:
> In article<ian406$91m$1 at usenet01.boi.hp.com>, "FredK"<fred.nospam at dec.com>  writes:
>>
>> Not being a TCPIP expert, just a code jockey - the response is
>> understandable and dissappointing.  I have to say that every time I setup a
>> new version of VMS at home (which I tend to do from scratch) - setting up
>> TCPIP is always a journey for me because frankly I don't really want to know
>> how TCPIP works - I just want an IP address, and have the handful of things
>> I need to work to work (like Telnet).
>
>     The person who sets up something should know how it works.
>

Easier said than done!  My first experience with TCP/IP was with version 
2.7 of UCX.  It didn't work where we most needed it!  Neither did v3.0, 
V3.1, V3.2, nor V3.3.  V3.3 worked more or less as it was supposed to 
but only after ECOs 1,2,3,4,....13 were applied.

The relationship between the software and the manuals was, to say the 
least, strained!  One could almost call the documentation a work of fiction!

DEC *finally* published a TCP/IP package that actually worked.  They 
abandoned the VMS version and ported the UCX (Ultrix)  version to VMS. 
ISTR that this was called V5.0.  It sort of worked most of the time.

The site should have hired an expert but I was all they could afford.
That's one of the ways in which experts are made.  I can't claim that I 
became an expert but I learned a lot about TCP/IP, especially SMTP and 
met some very nice and very competent people from DEC, though I met and 
knew them only by telephone.