At Mon, 19 Jan 1998 09:36:45 -0800, Mark Sexton <[log in to unmask]>
wrote,

>Does anyone know of a SLIP server for MPE? What we need is something that
handles
>IP through DTC ports. We have customers that want to send us data using
>TCP/IP.
>For security reasons, we don't want to connect directly to the Internet
>or allow outside
>users onto our internal LAN.
>Thanks,
>Mark Sexton
>Global Payment Systems/LA

Here's one possible solution but it may not be too cheap depending on the
alternative selected:

The first part is to get hold of a boat-anchor PC (say a 486), load it with
Solaris or Linux, and enable RAS support (PPP or SLIP).  This part is likely
to cost you less than a $1000, though it may consume considerable time.

Then there are a number of alternatives.

1) you could multi-home your HP3000, so that the connection between the
gateway pc and your HP3000 is on a separate physical link.  That is, put two
LAN cards in the 3000, one for internal, the other for PC alone.  The
alternative could be considerably more dear than for the PC.  If you have a
separate network cards for your DTC and internal LAN, then you might
consider attaching to the DTC network.  After all, very few people sniff the
DTC protocol (AFCP?)

2) may be to subnet your internal LAN.  For example, you might set up two
sub-nets 192.0.1.1-126 and 192.0.1.129-254, by using a mask such as
255.255.255.128, with existing users on the lower bands, and slip/ppp users
on the higher.  The 3000 would be configured to receive both, and providing
nothing else is bridging between the two sub-nets they will remain logically
isolated.  Subnetting can be a pain though in a small shop.

3) is to put a firewall between the gateway PC and your internal LAN.  This
could be in the form of a router (if its handy) or software on the gateway.
The TIS Firewall Kit is freely available over the net.  With the firewall,
you can restrict the connections between the caller and the network, say to
the HP3000 only.  It would be a good idea to limit the socket (port)
connections to say VT, and maybe FTP or other specials that you need
(IMAGESQL?).

Hope this helps.

Jim "still looking for that .sig" Wowchuk