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connect two decservers

 
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James  Ford
Occasional Advisor

connect two decservers

I have an application that is moving locations. I have a leased line connected to a DECServer that a canned application uses LAT to send pages thru the leased line. I can not move the leased line. Is there a way to connect a DECServer in the new location that the application can talk to LAT and connect that DECSerever to the DECserver in the old location with the leased line, ie funnel/transmit the LAT from one DECServer to the other some how connecting a port on one to a port on the other.
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Robert Gezelter
Honored Contributor

Re: connect two decservers

James,

Routing LAT is a problematical exercise. LAT presumes very low latency. Routing (or bridging) Ethernet frequently violates these presumptions, resulting in dropped connections and other problems.

Depending on other details, one MIGHT be able to put something together using connections looped back to reverse TELNET connections to use the TCP/IP telnet protocol for the routed network and LAT for the end. Why is LAT being used? Would TELNET (TCP/IP) work with this application? There seem to be some details missing.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com
James  Ford
Occasional Advisor

Re: connect two decservers

The canned application writes to a LAT port on a DECServer 200 connected to the vendor over leased line. Thed DECServer 200 is not IP capable. It may be possible to move the leased line to a DECserver 300 but I am not sure since the system has two ethernet cards and the DECServers are on different LANs
Hoff
Honored Contributor

Re: connect two decservers

If LAT is centrally required here, then you need to have a LAN; either a "real" LAN or a low-latency tunnel, bridge, or VLAN.

The LAT protocol was never opened up and was (for many years, if not still) covered by patents and licenses, so no routers or other similar gizmos were never pursued, and are not available. (IP won.)

I assume that refactoring the application has been considered and discarded. If not, the usual path is replacement either with IP and telnet, or replacement with something that "sends pages" (not sure what that means) with another available protocol.

If refactoring is an option, there are various discussions around migrating from LAT to IP telnet available (and around reverse LAT and its reverse telnet analog, if that is in use here), though I would also seriously consider and would investigate approaches beyond the expediency of mapping LAT into its current equivalent of telnet, VPN, ssh or otherwise.

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs LLC
Robert Gezelter
Honored Contributor

Re: connect two decservers

James,

More details are critical. Is the application writing directly to the LAT port, or is it using it as a printer? Is the code available? Does the program ACTUALLY use LAT-specific coding, or is LAT merely the way that things are (were) setup?

In a brute force case, it is also possible to move the DECserver 200 (or another server) and use LAT for a local leg with the rest of the journey being used in a different port via telnet.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com
James  Ford
Occasional Advisor

Re: connect two decservers

To try to make a long story short. A program reads a database with paging information, ie. page text, pager number , paging company, etc, then executes a program that trys to make a connecteion to the paging serviceing company thru LTA device defined to a DECserver port connected to leased line, if connection fails it tries thru another LTA port defined to a DECServer port connected to a modem and dials out to the paging serviceing company. What happens on the other end I don't know. I assume there is a program running on the other end that takes the information sent to it and acutally sends the page to a Customer Service Rep pager based on the company the pager is for and the appropriate pager number and text
Doug Phillips
Trusted Contributor

Re: connect two decservers

The DECserver's ports don't "do" LAT, they do serial or TCP/IP or (?).

What I understand so far is:

1. An application connects to a DECserver via LAT over your intranet.

2. You have some leased-line tele-com equipment connected to one DECserver (serial?) port and a dial-up modem connected to another. The application will try one, and on failure will try the other.

3. You're not responsible for whatever happens outbound past the DECserver ports / comm-equipment.

4. Somethings going to change.

SO, What's staying where it is now, and what's going to move elsewhere: the comm line(s)? the application? the DECserver?
Hoff
Honored Contributor

Re: connect two decservers

DECserver 200 is circa 1990 gear.

You're probably going to have to rewrite (some of) this LAT software stuff. A partial rewrite is probably more palatable than a complete replacement, but there are commercial software tools and packages around that send out pages, and probably some open source for this purpose. And even the rewrite itself likely isn't hairy.

This because the existing software almost certainly doesn't deal with dial tone and dialing out -- and if you don't have the leased line, you're going to have to add code to do that. (There are a couple of ways to implement this, too, whether using language I/O or $qio[w] or LAT-specific calls.)

That, or figure out how to have the modem do this automatic ringdown, or to create an outboard "leased line emulator" box to deal with this, and that approach probably just as much work to deal with -- and more likely to tip over.

Or you get the leased line, such as what's sometimes known as a ringdown line; a dedicated line.

Sorry.

On the plus side, reading off a database and sending email to the paging network or connecting more directly into a paging network or such is straightforward programming. If you're sending numeric pages, those can usually be sent from a touch-tone dial sequence, and that's easy and it requires minimal hardware.

I won't suggest Asterisk or VoIP, but that'll do this sort of stuff, too.

Phil.Howell
Honored Contributor

Re: connect two decservers

if the application is just sending a page down a serial line, you could almost regard it as a remote printer. I know we used to have ports for modems, printers, and consoles as lat services - have a look at "reverse lat" on this page
http://linux-decnet.sourceforge.net/lat.html
Phil
James  Ford
Occasional Advisor

Re: connect two decservers

In case I wasn't clear. As requested, the application is moving to another location(North Royalton Ohio) and the leased line is in Alpharetta,Ga connected to a DECServer 200.