Edinburgh Regional Computing Centre ----------------------------------- For the attention of the Edinburgh Computer Users Committee ----------------------------------------------------------- Report on Communications ------------------------ TCPs A new TCP has been installed in the JCMB to provide extra lines. ---- Network charging was included in the last release and charges are now made for terminal, line printer, graph plotter and matrix plotter use. FEPs The Service is stable ---- Nodes The UMC-Z80 Synchronous Line Handler is now working in a satisfactory ----- manner. Node 6 has almost its full complement of lines and has had few crashes in the past period. However all the lines on Node 6 and Node 9 are committed and it will be very expensive to add any new lines to these nodes. There are no plans for developments on these Nodes in the next period. PSS Gateway The software has been stabilised and development work has now ----------- largely ceased. File Transfer Protocol A file transfer service has now been established ---------------------- between the 2972's and various external services, the full details are being published in the October newsletter. In order to establish a Mail service to a wider selection of external sites using the standard protocol it is necessary to have a further round of development on both the PSS Gateway and the FEPs, this ought to be completed by the end of November. X25 We are just installing a second hand PDP 11/60 that will be used as --- a gateway between our GEC X25 switch and the Cambridge Ring. It will use the same software as the PSS Gateway but name & password accrediting will be removed and where possible, in particular on calls from the X25 side, it will be transparent to the user. The Gateway will enable us to start a limited service on the X25 switch although we will be very short of lines until we get a bigger switch from the JNT. B. Gilmore October 1982