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From: graham@DRCVAX.ARPA ("Daniel J. Graham")
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: VAX TO PHONE LINE, TRANSFERRING FILES
Message-ID: <8707281100.AA01356@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Mon, 27-Jul-87 15:10:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8707281100.AA01356
Posted: Mon Jul 27 15:10:00 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Jul-87 05:34:03 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: "Daniel J. Graham" 
Distribution: world
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 36

Greetings and Pervarications:

I find that I need some help.  Here is the scenerio:

Our VAX 780 is tied to a Micom switch that also has a few modems on it as 
outdial lines.  A user may log into the VAX, or may choose Outdial and have 
direct access to a modem for dialing things like DSIN.  If the user has a 
PC for capturing the material he/she gets over the phone line, great, but 
if just a terminal, he is relegated to printing what comes over the 
terminal, than keying it back into the VAX.

Our communications people will gladly make a direct connection from the 
Outdial service to a port on the VAX.  What I need is a program that I can 
run that will attach itself to that port, send commands to it, and read the 
material coming from it and send it to my terminal and a file.  Since DSIN 
and many bulletin boards don't have Kermit like packages, The program has 
to be completely self-supporting, no handshaking.

Sending stuf to the port is as simple as opening the terminal port, say 
TTA0: as a file and writing to it.  Reading what comes back is a different 
matter, though.  This is where I am stuck.  How do I know how many reads to 
issue?  How can the program know that a carriage return, or a, "a" or 
whatever is required in order to continue receiving output.  If the data is 
displayed to the screen, I can know that, but then how is the interaction 
handeled??

I am rather ignorant about communications and the like.  Perhaps I am 
creating a problem that has been solved long ago.  I solicit your 
suggestions, and possibly programs to do what I need.  I appreciate all the 
help I can get on this one.

Thanks very much,

Dan Graham
GRAHAM@DRCVAX.ARPA
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