At our company we have a small network running on an old VAX/VMS server using Pathworks version 4.0, this system has been quietly and effectively running for years, and so I have no intentions of making any changes to it directly. However it would be very useful if I could link it with our main network running on windows98 and XP systems. I doubt that it is practical to attempt to connect these systems directly, so I thought I would attempt to use a windows for workgroups 3.11 system to connect to both networks. The networks.wri file in wfw3.11 suggests that it is possible to connect to both Pathworks and windows networks but doesn't explain how. I have found references to files that tell you how to do it, but the actual files themselves don't seem to exist anymore. I have played with different configurations and can get a connection to the VAX through windows, but only when Netbeui and ndishlp.sys fail to load. Any help would be appreciated.

Josh, It has been a while since I worked with Pathworks 4 (my recollection is that it dates from approximately the early 1990's). Do you have to documentation set for server and user sides of Pathworks? - Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

We have a number of manuals for the VAX and for Pathworks, we also have the discs to install Pathworks client onto a PC. However, the documentation only refers to windows 2.0 and windows 3.0, so guess it must date from the very early 1990's or late 1980's.

Josh, That sounds reasonable. It has been a long while since Pathworks 4 was current, and I would be cautious until I details have been verified. My best guess, without looking for the manuals and spending some time digging through them, is that the server MIGHT be able to interroperate with current clients which are not running Pathworks specific software, at least to the extent of providing file access. If not, the files could also be accessed by switching to a later version of Pathworks (and VMS) which do provide such support (or a variety of other techniques to access the files). Is the need for access ongoing? Or is it a one shot conversion requirement? However, there are limits to the amount of research that I can feasibly do gratis as a public service. Unfortunately, my public service budget would be obliterated if I took the extended time necessary to get a definitive answer. - Bob

Thanks for taking the time to try and help me with this problem Bob. After searching the internet for a solution I have come to realise that this would have been an obscure problem even 10 years ago, when people knew about Pathworks v4.0. Having said that I've come to believe that the problem is with wfw 3.11 and its 32-bit file access system. I still have a few more option to try, I believe DEC produced an integration kit to solve this problem, but I haven't been able to track it down yet. The reason that I want to connect a PC to both the VAX and windows networks is to allow data to be loaded onto the VAX (which runs software that processes that data and then plots it on a laser photoplotter) from a windowsXP system, without having to use floppies, which can be a pain if the data files are bigger than 1.44Mb. Since the VAX does its job faultlessly and because I have no experience with VAX VMS, I have no intention of attempting any changes or upgrades to it, I'd rather stick with the floppies than risk damaging this system.

Josh, Another possibility is to use a serial link and a no-cost (or low cost) program (e.g., Kermit). It will take a while to transfer a large data set, but the combination of ZIP and Kermit, can reliably transfer very large files over a simple serial interface at a speed faster than the process of writing multiple floppy disks. Provided adequate space is available on both sides of the connection, I have transferred multiple megabytes of data. When you count the time and effort involved in dealing with multiple floppies, the serial speed of 9.6K or 19.2K is actually faster than the floppies. The use of ZIP allows you to transfer entire directory trees with a single transfer. If you are able to use a version of C-Kermit, with the sliding window support, the average speed is improved. I hope that the above is helpful. - Bob (aka RLGSC)

There is an PW 4.1 implementation guide at : http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=coert.744630193%40athena.research.ptt.nl (long URL, may wrap). I don't know if this also works for 4.0. If you only want to do file transfer, another option may be to install Decnet on the PC (assuming you have it on the server as well). There was a Pathworks utility to copy files using Decnet, I believe it was called NFT (network file transfer ?). Commands where like C:> NFT COPY filename VAXNAME"userid"::