SUMMARY: TCP to X.25 conversion?

From: Mike Daffey (mcegate!miked@faloz.fujitsu.oz.au)
Date: Thu Dec 29 1994 - 22:09:01 CST


I asked:
>Can anyone recommend a box which will do TCP/IP to X.25 conversion?
>We want to talk TCP from a Sun running 2.x (using some TLI code)
>via ethernet to this box. A call to a specified TCP port number
>should cause a call to a pre-configured X.121 address. We are NOT
>trying to do IP encapsulation - we want to glue a TCP virtual
>circuit to an X.25 virtual circuit. We've tested one such device,
>but its big drawback is that it insists on a telnet layer between
>TCP and X.25. Since we are sending/receiving arbitrary binary data
>we'd have to implement a telnet layer ourselves - something we'd
>rather avoid.

Received a number of replies, some recommending the Sunlink X.25
product. This is possibly an option, but is not a preferred one because
the only APIs are socket interface which won't be supported in the
future and a network level interface which doesn't look very portable.
We have a (possibly futile) desire to stick with the existing TLI code
and also preserve portability.

Several respondents said they were using Cisco routers to do this. Thanks to
the people at Cisco for _rushing_ me a heap of information. Looks like
we'd need a 4000-M with the protocol conversion software (which is
now part of the Enterprise pack). There are some doubts about how
easy it would be to handle bidirectional arbitrary binary data (we'd still
have to worry about a telnet layer), and we'd wind up paying for a box and
software which can do a LOT more than we really need...

Thanks to:

davec@HK.Super.NET (Dave Curado)
Jim Hand <hand@cnj.digex.net>
Rogerio Rocha <rogerio@bvl.pt>
Scott Spevacek <spev@badger.state.wi.us>
Kevin.Sheehan@uniq.com.au (Kevin Sheehan)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Daffey, miked@fujitsu.oz.au
Fujitsu Australia phone +61 3 8685583
20 Queens Road fax +61 3 8685741
Melbourne VIC 3004 Australia



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