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1990-12-08
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40 lines
To: tcp-group@ucsd.edu
Subject: Mailbox on serial line
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 90 18:24:51 +0100
From: klemets@sics.se
I have added a serial line listener to NOS which provides mailbox
access over a COM port, just like an ordinary telephone BBS.
The commands to activate and deactivate the listener on async
interface ax0 are
start mbox ax0
stop mbox ax0
respectively.
I hope this feature will be useful for instance when somebody who does
not have SLIP software wants to get it. They can then connect to NOS
using a telephone modem and download an uuencoded software distribution.
It will also provide safe sysop access for unmanned routers. Connect a
TNC and a telephone modem to the hilltop router, and all maintenance
can be handled safeley over the phone.
Currently only COM port -> BBS access is provided. Is there any
interest in having a gateway in the other direction? (A phone patch
facility.)
To implementcode this code I had to enhance the NOS socket library a
little bit. The AF_LOCAL sockets would only work in one direction, ie.
one would need two AF_LOCAL sockets for bidirectional communication,
breaking the transparency in comparision with other socket types. I
implemented the socketpair(AF_LOCAL,...) function which yields two
mutually connected local sockets. The socket(AF_LOCAL,...) call returns
a local socket that is connected to itself, thus making the scheme
nicely backwards compatible with the original behaviour.
This stuff is all in the mailbox.arc file at sics.se.
Anders