Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!bionet!rutgers!iuvax!silver!gilbertd
From: gilbe...@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Don Gilbert)
Newsgroups: bionet.software
Subject: Guide to VMS Vax news readers
Keywords: VMS, VNews, ANU News, NNTP
Message-ID: <38828@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 17 Mar 90 16:38:13 GMT
Sender: r...@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
Reply-To: gilbe...@iubio.bio.indiana.edu (Don Gilbert)
Organization: Biology, Indiana University - Bloomington
Lines: 84
Posted: Sat Mar 17 17:38:13 1990
A brief guide to installing and reading Internet news from a networked VMS-
Vax:
VAX computers using the VMS operating system, when connected via Ethernet to a
network that includes tcp/ip links to the internet, can be set up to let you
easily read network news, including the bionet.* newsgroups for research
biologists.
Requirements:
* VMS-Vax computer with an ethernet connection
* TCP/IP software to provide communications link
* VNews or ANU-News newsreader software
* A local area NNTP netnews server computer
Does your Vax have an ethernet connection to the internet?
This requires an ethernet board and cable connections. The cost for a
board for a microVax is in the $1000 range.
Do you have a local NNTP netnews server computer?
This is probably a Unix computer which runs netnews software and serves
out news messages following NNTP protocols. You need to check with your
campus computer administrators for the IP address of a local server that you
can read news from.
How to get and install VMS TCP software:
There are several vendors of tcp/ip software for VMS Vaxes. Two popular
ones, which VNews reader supports, are Multinet and Wollongong. Our
university runs both, but network people here and elsewhere tend to favor the
Multinet product. Multinet costs somewhere in the $1000 range; I don't have a
price for Wollongong. These products need to be installed by a Vax system
administrator.
You can obtain Multinet product info from:
TGV Inc., 15139 Old Ranch Road
Los Gatos, CA 95030
Kenneth Adelman, Adel...@WARBUCKS.AI.SRI.COM, (415) 859-4419
You can obtain Wollongong product info from:
The Wollongong Group, Inc.
1129 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto, Ca 94303
(415) 962-7100
How to get and install the VNews software:
VNews is available in versions for Multinet and Wollongong (WINS) software.
The distribution includes fortran source, and executables for VMS 5. You can
find the original distribution from anonymous ftp to krypton.arc.nasa.gov,
directory [pub.nntp] as vnews_multinet.bck for Multinet or vnews_wins.bck for
Wollongong. These are also available via anonymous ftp to
iubio.bio.indiana.edu in directory [archive.util.vms.netnews]. These files
are VMS backup save sets, you may also need fixrec.exe or fixrec.c, in
[archive.util.vms] to correct the backup record size after ftp transfer. Use
binary ftp transfer.
To install Vnews, you may use the supplied executable, and set some logical
names to tell VNews the IP address of your local news server. Or you can edit
a section of the source and recompile the program. The installation
instructions included are clear and simple, and may be done without help of a
vax system administrator. If you recompile this and are using Multinet, you
will need a Multinet library called lib.olb. Unfortunately, the new release of
Multinet, version 2.1, does not include this, but release 2.0 lib.olb works.
Vnews operates much like rn on Unix. The first time you run it, it will
create a file XX.newsrc which contains a list of all newsgroups. This may be
quite long, and you can edit it to remove groups you don't want to read.
Documentation and online help are included, but are not extensive.
How to get and install the ANU-News software:
The ANU-News software, with C source and executables, can obtained by
anonymous ftp to kuhub.cc.ukans.edu or to iubio.bio.indiana.edu, in diretory
[archive.util.vms.netnews] as anunews*.*. These files are compressed, backup
sets. You will need lzdcmp.exe to decompress these, as from
[archive.util.vms]. I have had no success yet in getting ANU-News to talk
with local NNTP server computers. Others, however, have successfully used it
to connect to NNTP servers. ANU-News also operates as a news server.
Don Gilbert biocomputing office / archive for
gilbe...@iubio.bio.indiana.edu / molecular & general biology
biology dept., indiana univ., / ftp iubio.bio.indiana.edu
bloomington, in 47405, usa / (129.79.1.101) user anonymous
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