Communications Software nightmare
Leslie Mikesell
In article <01bcf072$e594bf40$68e464ce@brentfid>,
Brent Fidler <bren...@twave.net> wrote:
>I know very little/next to nothing about unix or xenix, but have been
>handed the responsibilty for our company's five PC's which use a
>manufacturing system that is running on xenix. We are using modems, phone
>lines, and Kermit (a dial up connection) to transfer our critical data from
>or five factories to our corporate offices. We are having many problems
>with this. Our mfg. systems software vendor is telling me that kermit
>sucks and is the root of a lot of our problems. I belive this because we
>can use Windows based Telix on a PC and log in and transfer files all day
>long without any problems. I am told that Kermit is just not robust enough
>to effeciently and consistently log in and transfer files. I am told its
>protocols are too sensitive to things such as line noise. The vendor is
>also telling me that they know of no other communications program that is
>better than Kermit.
>
>Is this the truth? Since I am so ignorant in this field, any help would be
>greatly appreciated.
First check to see if you are running a recent version of kermit and
if the failures actually happen during a poorly written dial/login
script or during the transfers. Kermit is a very old program and
recent versions have improvements in both the transfer protocols and
scripting capabilities. It's still kind of a klunky way to do things
but it should be possible to make it reliable.
Les Mikesell
l...@mcs.com
John Prochaska
Brent Fidler wrote:
>
> I know very little/next to nothing about unix or xenix, but have been
> handed the responsibilty for our company's five PC's which use a
> manufacturing system that is running on xenix. We are using modems, phone
> lines, and Kermit (a dial up connection) to transfer our critical data from
> or five factories to our corporate offices. We are having many problems
> with this. Our mfg. systems software vendor is telling me that kermit
> sucks and is the root of a lot of our problems. I belive this because we
> can use Windows based Telix on a PC and log in and transfer files all day
> long without any problems. I am told that Kermit is just not robust enough
> to effeciently and consistently log in and transfer files. I am told its
> protocols are too sensitive to things such as line noise. The vendor is
> also telling me that they know of no other communications program that is
> better than Kermit.
>
> Is this the truth? Since I am so ignorant in this field, any help would be
> greatly appreciated.
>
> Southern Glove Mfg. Co., Inc.
I've used kermit for limited file transfers under various unix's (not
really under
xenix) without too much problems, although it is a rather cumbersome way
to go. Why
not just set up uucp? It's very dependable, you can use polling to get
more efficient
use of the phone lines and it is very reliable. The only problem with
uucp is in the
fact that uucp error messages are difficult at best to figure out, but
once it is set
up, problems (in my experience anyway) are very few and far between. We
have several
sites all setup using uucp on a regular basis (files being automatically
copied back
and forth between all sites many times a day without any interference
from any users
or admins).
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John Prochaska (jo...@deepwell.com)
-------------------------------------
'Tis a simple task to make things complex,
but a complex task to make them simple
Brent Fidler
Fred Smith
Brent Fidler (bren...@twave.net) wrote:
: I know very little/next to nothing about unix or xenix, but have been
: handed the responsibilty for our company's five PC's which use a
: manufacturing system that is running on xenix. We are using modems, phone
: lines, and Kermit (a dial up connection) to transfer our critical data from
: or five factories to our corporate offices. We are having many problems
: with this. Our mfg. systems software vendor is telling me that kermit
: sucks and is the root of a lot of our problems. I belive this because we
Your software vendor is mistaken (if I wished to be inflammatory, I'd
say he's got his head in his armpit, but I won't:-). kermit is a very
robust protocol, and can be configured to handle virtually any kind of
hazardous duty. But it may be that you would benefit from updating the
kermits on both ends to modern versions (with greater capabilities)
and purchasing the manuals so you will know what kinds of things you
can do with it.
: can use Windows based Telix on a PC and log in and transfer files all day
: long without any problems. I am told that Kermit is just not robust enough
: to effeciently and consistently log in and transfer files. I am told its
: protocols are too sensitive to things such as line noise. The vendor is
: also telling me that they know of no other communications program that is
: better than Kermit.
: Is this the truth? Since I am so ignorant in this field, any help would be
: greatly appreciated.
No, I would say it is not the truth.
I use various flavors of kermit (ckermit, mskermit, k95) at work all
the time for file transfer and general terminal comms work. We use
it as an automated file transfer and scripting engine in several of
our products that are used by clueless end-users, and it just works.
You can get recent binaries (and sources, too) for kermit from Columbia
University (from memory, I think it's ftp://kermit.columbia.edu) and a
human for support questions at (again, from meory)
sup...@kermit.columbia.edu.
The ckermit and mskermit manuals are available from any good computer
bookstore and are worth the forty bucks.
Fred
--
---- Fred Smith -- fre...@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us -- fr...@computrition.com ----
"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow;
it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
---------------------------- Hebrews 4:12 (niv) ------------------------------
Brian Evans
I've used zmodem for Xenix for almost all of
my file transfer work. For scripts I use
QModemPro (dos application) on a OS/2 box to
communicate with Xenix clients. The scripts
login to Xenix and use shell commands and
sz/rz to send and recieve files. For long
distance especially this is about 5 times the
speed of UUCP or Kermit.
Brian Evans
Klaus ter Fehn
Brent Fidler (bren...@twave.net) wrote:
(...)
> long without any problems. I am told that Kermit is just not robust enough
> to effeciently and consistently log in and transfer files. I am told its
> protocols are too sensitive to things such as line noise. The vendor is
> also telling me that they know of no other communications program that is
> better than Kermit.
A customer of mine is using kermit for years to transmit critical data
to his customers. Although I'd prefer UUCP for automated data exchange
over modem lines I must admit that it works. And because his customers
are using (shudder) DOS PC's to receive/send the data, kermit seems to
be a good solution. I think your vendor is trying to sell you a $1000
software :-/ - or he's not clever enough to configure automated kermit
sessions.
--
Klaus ter Fehn Wagnerstr. 4 Mobile: +49-172-2529379
40212 Duesseldorf Phone: +49-211-356880
k...@gun.de FRG/Germany Fax: +49-211-356881