In <[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] writes:

> Remember back when all terminals (not pcs) were connected to the HP 3000 by a
> serial connect to the DTC? One of the 'neat' options from the console was to u
> use
> 'STARTSESS' to log on a particular ldev, assuming knowledge of such things as
> passwords.
>
> Well, we all moved to NS connections. I now find that I would love to be able
> 'startsess' on a pc that is using Minisoft Windows terminal emulator. Any
> positive ideas?

It's been tossed around many times over the years... end result though is
that it's not possible.

Besides other considerations, termulators on PCs are built to connect TO a
host; they aren't designed to accept connection requests FROM a host. In
any case, it'd require a listening (network) process running on the client
(pc) waiting for connection requests from a/any host.

It is something that could be written into one of those termulators pretty
easily; open a listening connection which accepts a specially formatted
message which perhaps includes a user.acct and passwords, then the termulator
connects back to that host using NSVT (or telnet) and logs in. Network
logins always pick an ldev out of a "pool" though, so you couldn't specify
a ldev like you do with :STARTSESS.

End result; it's doable. It would take modifications to one or more terminal
emulator packages (you need to talk those vendors into it) and a simple
custom program on the 3000 which could be invoked like a command file.

Caveat; it would *only* work in environments with some form of static station
addresses (static IP or dependable pc hostnames) where from the host you'd
have to specify the destination IP or node name... It does raise ugly security
issues even with static addresses though (at least with a hardwired terminal
connection, you can be PRETTY sure that the station you expect is on the other
end of that RS232 cable...).

           -Chris Bartram