Connecting to the Academic Mainframe May Require New Software

By Dr. Philip Baczewski, Associate Director of Academic Computing

The Problem

A new version of VM/CMS was brought up on the Academic Mainframe last week. For the most part, this upgrade has been transparent with the exception that some users have reported problems connecting to vm.acs.unt.edu from TCP3270 running on various flavors of MS Windows. Upon further investigation, it appears that TCP3270 version 2.5 does not correctly negotiate its terminal type with the new mainframe VM TCP/IP service, and defaults to a line-mode (VT100) rather than a fullscreen (3270) CMS connection.

The Solution

Fortunately there is a solution to this problem: install version 3.14 (also purchased by UNT) in place of the 2.5 version. Faculty or staff members using TCP3270 on campus should contact their Network Managers to obtain Version 3.14. Users of campus computer labs should inform the lab managers if they determine TCP3270 should be updated. Finally, if you use TCP3270 from home, you can get Version 3.14 by purchasing the UNT Internet Software CD-ROM that is on sale with the UNT bookstore.*

*The current CD-ROM is titled "Internet Software Suite Version 2.0," but a new edition will be on sale soon. See "New Internet Software CD-ROM Coming" in this issue of Benchmarks Online for further information.