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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Tension on July 12, 2008, 04:03:42 AM

Title: CBMvax
Post by: Tension on July 12, 2008, 04:03:42 AM
What was on the CBM vax machine? Theres traces of it all over the web. Did cbmvax.com ever exist? Whats with all the exclamation marks in addresses? Im intrigued.
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Matt_H on July 12, 2008, 04:54:26 AM
I don't know much, but maybe this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAX) can help. I think it was the system Commodore used for their internal network. It must have had some sort of early-Internet external communication capabilities as well, since I think they also used it to communicate with developers via email, although I might be getting it confused with BIX.
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: LoadWB on July 12, 2008, 09:30:45 AM
The bangs in the address were essentially how the old email systems routed messages (UUCP, IIRC.)  There was no "cbmvax.com" it was just "cbmvax".

You'll find traces of the old routing scheme all over Usenet messages from the period.  I believe the system still runs today, though not within circles I travel.  This is relegated to the oldest of wizards and warlocks -- an age unknown which exists only in legend.
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: bloodline on July 12, 2008, 09:39:53 AM
(http://www.whyisit.us/cbmvax/img/vax11-750.jpg)

Probably about as powerful as my old Mobile phone...
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Tension on December 01, 2008, 04:48:09 AM
This just confounds me even more...

http://www.whyisit.us/cbmvax/index.htm



Why does this picture exist anyway?

Hmmm......
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: terminator4 on December 01, 2008, 05:33:43 AM
@Tension

something to ask some of the commodore engineers today. :lol:
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Tension on December 02, 2008, 02:28:21 AM
Quote

terminator4 wrote:
@Tension

something to ask some of the commodore engineers today. :lol:


Are there any ex-CBM people on these forums?
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Tension on August 02, 2009, 05:11:07 PM
none then?
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Boudicca on August 02, 2009, 07:56:53 PM
Quote from: Tension;517766
none then?


Vax was the King of mini's at the time CBM were around, we had one. No doubt Commodore probably had one or two. Then IBM PC came along......That was the end of DEC.......almost.....Dec Mumps is still used in quite a few hospitals today (Mckesson PAS) therefore VMS Lingers on..... ;)
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Nostalgiac on August 02, 2009, 07:57:34 PM
"cbmvax" was nothing more then the hostname of the mail server.

The picture is just a picture of a Digital Research VAX machine which (might have been) the actual box that they used.

And as LoadWB said... there were several other mail systems out there before the internet SMTP  one.

So... nothing special - nothing to see... move on

Tom UK
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: tone007 on August 04, 2009, 03:21:55 PM
Now I'm going to have to find a VAX machine to get on the internet to go with my purchase of cbmvax.com and its related domains.
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Tension on August 06, 2009, 12:02:40 AM
Quote from: tone007;517987
Now I'm going to have to find a VAX machine to get on the internet to go with my purchase of cbmvax.com and its related domains.


Did you actually buy the domain???
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: tone007 on August 06, 2009, 01:54:18 AM
Sure, why not, it was available.
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: persia on August 06, 2009, 02:50:16 AM
Yeah, I'd have spent the 9 US bucks a year on it too.  Good move.

Quote from: tone007;518186
Sure, why not, it was available.
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: trekiej on August 06, 2009, 06:13:35 AM
Looks like it could do a nice load of laundry.
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Tension on August 06, 2009, 10:45:26 AM
Quote from: tone007;518186
Sure, why not, it was available.


Excellent!!

Always wondered what the page was for... Still none the wiser. :)
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: tone007 on August 11, 2009, 11:37:51 PM
Phase 2 complete.

(http://jungle.net/tone/cbmvax.jpg)

Next step, learn how to operate it!

Any hints appreciated.
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Tension on August 12, 2009, 12:56:16 AM
Does it use IMPs?
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: tone007 on August 12, 2009, 01:38:36 AM
...beats the heck out of me.  I know it's heavy, though.
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Plaz on August 12, 2009, 01:44:29 AM
Quote from: tone007;518923
...beats the heck out of me.  I know it's heavy, though.


We retired our last vax servers around 2004 and had move production work off earlier around 2002. Don't know how much I can remember.... logins, print spoolers, process streams... ouch, now I think I hurt a memory cell. You should be able to find some DEC manuals on the net I would think.

Plaz
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Steady on August 12, 2009, 08:07:02 AM
@tone007:

Get yerself a DEC terminal and learn VMS. To get a jump on VMS I believe OpenVMS can be downloaded in some form for practice, but from my VMS time I remember there being a cabinet full of manuals and lots of things are different to what you would normally expect coming from the PC/UNIX world ... have fun.
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: Jope on August 12, 2009, 08:41:35 AM
Quote from: LoadWB;407021
The bangs in the address were essentially how the old email systems routed messages (UUCP, IIRC.)  There was no "cbmvax.com" it was just "cbmvax".

You'll find traces of the old routing scheme all over Usenet messages from the period.  I believe the system still runs today, though not within circles I travel.  This is relegated to the oldest of wizards and warlocks -- an age unknown which exists only in legend.

You are correct, it was just UUCP routing, very common on the internet up to the late 80s. SMTP and NNTP running on top of TCP/IP took over quite early on, so most of us never had to deal with UUCP.

More than you ever want to know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UUCP
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: myce on November 23, 2009, 09:44:59 AM
Quote from: tone007;518909
Next step, learn how to operate it!

Any hints appreciated.

Maybe I could help here. Recently set up VMS on an old AXP-Board.
So, if you are still interested, contact me.

myce
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: DonnyEMU on November 23, 2009, 12:50:42 PM
If you need some help feel free to ask. My first multi-user computing environment in College (a long time ago) was a Vax Cluster..
Title: Re: CBMvax
Post by: tone007 on November 23, 2009, 01:33:22 PM
Well, I eventually did find an old TCP stack (CMUIP) to run on the machine, which provided telnet, FTP, and finger services, but it seems for the version of VMS the system is running (5.4) there don't seem to be any HTTP servers available, so I've put the project aside until I can find a newer OS to run on the system.

For now, it's happy sitting in my "server room."

(http://jungle.net/tone/heaters.jpg)