Conference jamin::pathworks32

    >According to the manual, there is a Digital's PPP with Pathworks 32 for
    >Windows 95 and Windows NT. Now a customer wants to use this. Remote
    
    Note 205 says:
    >PATHWORKS 32 does NOT provide a PPP implementation for Windows NT
    
    
    specifically, the SPD says:
    
    * PPP datalink protocol for Windows 95, and DDCMP datalink protocol
    for Windows 95 and Windows NT V4.0.
    
    
    and the table on page 8-2, for PPP, says:
    
    Windows 95 only. Microsoft's TCP/IP, Microsoft's IPX, Digital's DECnet
    
    Windows 95 and Windows NT: provided by Microsoft with no DECnet
    support.
    
    

    the DECnet-PPP for WIn95, btw, requires that you be dialing into
    something that understands DECnet-PPP.  In the Americas, that's
    practically unknown.  I'm lead to understand that there's a DIGITAL
    Terminal Server sold in Europe that does this.  Someone in Europe can
    perhaps post names/part numbers/etc for such a beast (would have been
    nice to have some of this sort of information in the Hardware
    Requirements section of the documentation or SPD).
    

No current terminal server supports DECnet as far as I know, whether 
it be over PPP or anything else.

Some routers do DECnet over PPP: the DECNIS, the DRS (RouteAbout) 
family, the WANrouter 90. Note that for all of these, they support 
PPP over Sync interfaces only. So to be used with PATHWORKS 32 PPP, 
you'd put an ISDN terminal adapter on the PC serial port and use that 
to dial into a router.

	Vincent

    That means that the implementation of Digital's PPP in Pathworks 32 and
    all the writing in the documentation is done for nothing. It's never
    been tested, because there is nothing that understands Digital's PPP.
    The customer who have read the user's guide and had the expectation
    that he could use this feature in his network environment is now moving
    away from Pathworks. This will cost us income, just because he now
    won't buy the product.
    
    Thanks for the help,
    
    Cees Anbeek
    Pathworks Support Utrecht

> That means that the implementation of Digital's PPP in Pathworks 32 and
> all the writing in the documentation is done for nothing.

	I assume that there is SOME device that supports dial-up
	DECnet over PPP...  Perhaps an OpenVMS machine?

    Please read note .3 again from Vincent Berger.  DECnet over PPP was
    offered primarily for continuity from PATHWORKS for DOS & Windows for
    ISDN connections (it also ran over X.25).  With W95, ISDN support
    requires a terminal adaptor connected to the async port because
    Microsoft's monolithic design for PPP/ISDN and lack of interest in
    engineering collaboration meant we could not add DECnet as a transport
    to their WAN components for integral ISDN boards.  
    
    DECnet/PPP does operate as intended over ISDN with a terminal adaptor
    connected to the async port.  A direct ISDN connection, or ISDN
    terminal adaptor to async or sync port is required at the other end of
    the WAN connection.  DECnet/PPP over async was not offered for the
    previous PATHWORKS for DOS and Windows precisely because no vendor,
    including Digital, offers DECnet/PPP over async on any router or end
    system.  
    
    DECnet/DDCMP is offered on W95, as it was on the previous
    versions of PATHWORKS, and does support direct async connections to
    OVMS/VAX systems.  Again, this was offered for continuity since a
    number of customers have been using that WAN datalink for many years.
    
    Apologies are offered for the documentation which most
    certainly was not clear about the intended use of DECnet/PPP on W95. 
    The engineering team working on WAN components for the PATHWORKS client
    did the best they could under very constrained circumstances imposed by
    both Microsoft and Digital.  Please try and explain to any interested
    customers the limited objectives of DECnet over WAN connections for the
    PATHWORKS W95 client.  The engineering team really did want to do more 
    for WAN connectivity, but the company has decided that these
    capabilities no longer warrant the investment.
    
    Richard Smith
    

given that, in the US anyway, my customers don't have ISDN and 
for whatever reason don't want DDCMP... is the Connection Manager
of any use to them in a RAS/PPP TCP/IP only dial-up connection?
If so, what options in the setup program should be selected to 
just get the connection manager and/or how could it be installed
by itself?

	Steven

For TCP/IP PPP, you'll be better off using Windows 95 vanilla PPP. 
PATHWORKS 32 PPP doesn't add anything for these configurations.

	Vincent

Thanks.