Re: AS400 over ethernet -- LINUX5250


On Thu, 7 Mar 2002, Rosewood wrote:
>
> I have been doing contract work for a few months now with a company that
> uses AS400s -- and it has been my first experience with these systems.
> We have been using emulation cards in PCs to connect to the AS400 (via
> twinax) but now we are finally getting the option in some of these
> offices to connect via TCPIP.

Yeah, we've been phasing twinax out as well...  Believe me, I haven't
looked back :)

>                                 Most of these offices run windows but
> some will be running linux.  Is Linux5250 what I need to connect to
> these AS400s via linux?

The "Linux" TN5250 is an emulation program that you can use under Linux
to get a 5250 display on your PC. Similar to the 5250 display that's a
part of Client Access for Windows, etc.  (It only does the display and
printer functions, nothing fancy like file transfer, ODBC or Ops Nav.)

I put "Linux" in quotes because our emulator also works on just about
any version of Unix.  I use it on FreeBSD.  Others have used it on
UnixWare, OpenBSD, MacOS X, and of course many different versions of
Linux.

In the next release, it will also run on Microsoft Windows.  People from
the list have been helping to beta-test this, so that might be an option
for you as well.

> If yes, can I SSH into a linux box with Linux5250 installed and use it
> remotely?  Do you know if there are other GPL programs for this type of
> connectivity for windows?

You COULD ssh into a Linux box running TN5250, and then from there use
TN5250 to connect to your AS/400... but the keyboard mapping would be
somewhat ugly.  It should work, though.

It would make more sense to simply connect with TN5250 straight to your
AS/400 without going to the Linux box first.  We support SSL encryption
in TN5250, so it has a level of security that is similar to what you can
achieve with SSH.

Another idea, if you prefer, would be to use the port-forwarding ability
of SSH to pass your TN5250 session through an encrypted channel...  I've
done that before as well, and it works nicely.

In any case, running the actual TN5250 program on the local PC (where the
keyboard is) instead of ssh-ing to the Linux box is preferable because you
have better control of mapping the special 5250 keys...

>
> PS - Are there any sites that give instructions on how to  do the
> install of the ethernet card into the system?  Would anyone here be
> willing to "hook a brother up" -?

Into the AS/400 system or the Linux system or....?

>
> If this is a slight repost I am stupid and sorry - my smtp server has
> been flaky and there was no way of knowing if this sent other then the
> fact I never received my own post.

Hmmm.. it may be a repost...  I know I wrote a message on a similar topic
somewhat recently, but my memory is fuzzy.   If you really want to know,
you could check the mailing list archives, which are on the web at:
         http://archive.midrange.com/linux5250/index.htm

You could probably also get more details on the Windows and SSH
topics I mentioned above by searching those archives.


> If all posts ar filtered and checked
> before sending out, can someone in charge please let me know that?
>
> Thanks a BILLION
>
> (PSS -  Anyware between 5 and 500 could be using  tis setup and if
> linux5250 can do what I think it can - then I would love to help
> contribute financially cause I cant code for crap :P)

I'm not sure how that would work.  This project is a bunch of people who
saw Mike Madore's original work on the Internet and pitched in where we
could.  I don't know about the others, but I've never met anyone from this
mailing list in person.   We don't have an office to send the check to.
We don't have any expenses that I know of.

If you really want to help, there are other ways besides coding.  Here are
some ideas:

        1) Help with documentation.  Especially "getting started" and
              "how-to" style things.

        2) Help with testing new features and reporting bugs/opinions
              so we can keep improving things.

You might also consider donating to Midrange.com, since they provide our
mailing list & archives.  It wouldn't directly help promote the Linux
Tn5250 project, but it's a good cause nonetheless.