Don Stokes wrote:
Are you saying our PC based 4.8K/9.6K links via the DSIR's terminal network were experimental or not solid or are you refering to the earlier attempts to do something with DECnet. :-)
Well, I wasn't there, but my understanding of PC-router SLIP comms over async ports on the DSIR network was that it was, uh, not exactly industrial grade. That's not the same as "didn't work".
I was there and I think it was industrial grade enough for us to discard the other methods of linking to the world until the Kawaihiko folks got their act together to buy the Ciscos and lease Frame Relay from Telecom. The DSIR folks had to make changes to the protocols they ran on their network to allow us to transmit Ctrl-P characters (as I recall) as they were used to terminate 'terminal sessions'. I believe that was Tony van der Peet who did that. And this wasn't just VUW doing this. Ken Spagnolo at Massey was persuade to join the fun and Massey connected to VUW and on to Waikato. I'd argue that the other universities were catalysed into action because of these events. We would still have build a university network but it would have taken much longer. Perhaps we need a similar event to give the REANNZ folk a kick up the backside!