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Connecting a physical terminal via LAN to Serial Port

by Ali

I am looking for some advice and recommendations on how to best go about accomplishing the following: I have recently come into possession of an actual physical terminal that can be connected to a device via a standard RS232 (serial) port, so far so good. I have a number of devices that can be connected to for maintenance (e.g. FW updates, configuration, etc.) via a serial port. Currently I have been using an old laptop with a terminal program (Procomm Plus) whenever I want to connected to one of these devices. This involves crawling around connecting the serial cable, doing what needs to be done, crawling back disconnecting, rinse and repeat. I can connect the physical terminal to one device at a time and have a permanent connection to that one device, great for one device but not so useful. So I was thinking if it would be possible to do this over the LAN. I know about console servers where I could connect multiple serial devices to the server and then access each device over LAN via a telnet client on a modern system using an IP:port schema. This works great except I don't get to play with my shiny, new to me, authentic experience terminal device. So I am wondering if there is a box that provides a telnet CLIENT to a serial port device? I.E. a box smart enough that handles the telnet client, LAN functions, and terminal emulations internally and then provides a text based interface through a serial port that is compatible with my physical terminal? That way my physical terminal would be connected to the RS232/LAN bridge all the time and I could connected to not only the serial ports connected to the console server but other telnet accessible services as all the heavy lifting would be done on the bridge. I am ideally looking for a ready to go, low power device, I can hide away as opposed to setting up a PC of my own running some *nix flavor that I know can do this but is way over kill. Oh yeah and if it is super cheap even better. Thanks! -Ali

3 years, 8 months

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Re: BBS memorabilia (fwd)

by Fred Cisin

The greatest ever video about pre-WWW internet was "Hyperland". a 1991 BBC documentary by Douglas Adams and Ted Nelson, and also starring Tom Baker. A few years BEFORE WWW, it predicted the future of the internet. https://archive.org/details/DouglasAdams-Hyperland If you want subtitles/captions, 5 years ago, I created an .SRT (camptions file of it! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4hCJm9ZEADCblVSVlBxdmZyREU/view?usp=drive… (400MB video with subtitles burned in) .SRT file: http://www.xenosoft.com/HyperlandCAPS_En_US_0_77.srt

3 years, 8 months

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BBS memorabilia

by Ryan de Laplante

Over the years I have been collecting BBS related memorabilia such as Night Owl shareware CDs, Boardwatch magazine, BBS magazine, books, manuals, original disks, etc. Does anyone have any BBS memorabilia they might be willing to sell to me? I’m particularly interested in PCBoard box/disks/manuals. I know the software can be downloaded from the Internet.. I’m interested in the original box set. I’m also interested in CRS Online pamphlets, receipts, catalogues, etc. Has anyone ever seen promotional videos showing Prodigy, Compuserv, Delphi, GENie, AOL? I've collected disks, but the systems are long gone so archived video is all we have to remember them by. When I was young, I remember seeing disks and pamphlets for these services in the box when upgrading modems. They had serious brand recognition. By the time the Internet was becoming available to the public, I remember being more interested in getting a Compuserv account lol. After getting our first Internet account in 1994, I was confused because I didn’t know where the “file areas”, “message areas” and “chat” were after being so used to BBS menus. Eventually I learned about FTP, USENET, and IRC. We even had a “yellow pages” paper book where you could look up topic specific FTP, USENET, and Gopher sites.

3 years, 8 months

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Searching for software for Tektronix 4970 Cluster Controller

by Alexander Huemer

Hi The Tektronix 4970 does something similar to an IBM 3174 or 3708. It hooks up terminals to an IBM mainframe, in this case Tektronix graphics terminals, see [1], p.36ff. Is anybody here in possession of the software that runs on it? -Alex [1] http://bitsavers.org/pdf/tektronix/tekniques/vol7/Tekniques_Vol_7_No_03.pdf

3 years, 8 months

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Cheap Lantronix Hardware

by Jonathan Chapman

All, Per the LAN-attached serial thread, here's another cheap Lantronix device: https://www.ebay.com/itm/123577635191 This is a LRS-2, which is basically a two-port LRS-1, one of their older models of serial bridges. The LRS-2 is nice not only for the two ports, but because it also has AUI and thinnet. No PSU, but it's a typical 12V 1A center positive supply. Thanks, Jonathan

3 years, 8 months

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How to reproduce the DEC cabinets' grey colour paint?

by P Gebhardt

Hello list, does anybody of you know colour codes or the mixture to obtain the grey paint that DEC used for their early H960 cabinet side panels as well as for their later cabinet from the 80s and 90s like the H9A10 or H9A15? Some of my cabinets have scratches and I would like to cosmetically fix this. I thought I remember some discussions about DEC paint some years ago but I couldn't find anything helpful in my archives except for discussions about colours for DEC's classic front panels. Any pointers are very much appreciated. Thanks, Pierre ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.digitalheritage.de

3 years, 8 months

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Old fashioned PCB layout images, red/blue

by William Sudbrink

Hi, What is the "correct" name for the style (technology?) of circuit board layout images where the top is blue, the bottom is red and overlaps are purple? Also, any silkscreen is black. I thought someone once told me that there was an automated tool (maybe in KiCad?) that would produce Gerbers from that type of image. Does anyone know of such a utility? Thanks, Bill S. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

3 years, 8 months

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Re: HP 3000 system w/ Printers, Terminals, all working, for sale on eBay (or privately...) Possible Free Delivery!

by mark＠markesystems.com

From: <mark(a)markesystems.com> Subject: [cctalk] HP 3000 system w/ Printers, Terminals, all working, for sale on eBay (or privately...) Possible Free Delivery! > I've just listed my complete HP-3000 system on eBay here. This is an > HP-3000 917LX system with: Silly me - the link of course got stripped out in this text-only email. It's: https://www.ebay.com/itm/325286539219 ~~ Mark Moulding

3 years, 8 months

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Re: Connecting a physical terminal via LAN to Serial Port (Ali)

by mark＠markesystems.com

> I have recently come into possession of an actual physical terminal that > can > be connected to a device via a standard RS232 (serial) port, so far so > good. <...> > connected to one of these devices. This involves crawling around > connecting > the serial cable, doing what needs to be done, crawling back > disconnecting, > rinse and repeat. <..> > connected to the console server but other telnet accessible services as > all > the heavy lifting would be done on the bridge. I am ideally looking for a > ready to go, low power device, I can hide away as opposed to setting up a > PC > of my own running some *nix flavor that I know can do this but is way over > kill. Oh yeah and if it is super cheap even better. Thanks! What about one of these? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DWLS7DP $11.38, and provides four ports. If that's not enough, you could do a bi-level multiplex arrangement; 5 of these ($56.90) would provide 16 ports. Zero power requirements, no software configuration. If it were me, I might consider buying a two-pole rotary switch with enough positions and solder one up, but for less than 12 bucks, it's hard to beat this... ~~ Mark Moulding

3 years, 8 months

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HP 3000 system w/ Printers, Terminals, all working, for sale on eBay (or privately...) Possible Free Delivery!

by mark＠markesystems.com

I've just listed my complete HP-3000 system on eBay here. This is an HP-3000 917LX system with: Disks: (2) 2GB drive (possibly RAID, but I'm not sure) Tape: (2) DAT (built-in and external) 16-port terminal concentrator 12-port Ethernet hub Terminals (2) HP 700/96 + one 700/92 that probably doesn't work Line-printer 300 LPM with stand, ribbons, and paper Dot-matrix printers (2) with ribbons All cables MPE/iX, ASK/ManMan, QUERY, TurboIMAGE FORTRAN Documentation (50+ pounds, including all service and upgrade records) It all works perfectly (as of two days ago). There's a possibility that I might deliver it if you're near Portland OR or the San Francisco Bay area, or off the I-5 in between; otherwise it's local pickup only (in either location). It's listed for $2600 buy-it-now, or a starting bid of $2000, but if you're really interested email with an offer and we'll see what can be worked out... ~~ Mark Moulding

3 years, 8 months

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