  LAT-telnet gateway? (take II) 
 The Question is:
 
We are a company that has 10 or more VAX systems and a few Alpha VMS
systems.  We have one Sun Unix box that we are trying to talk with that has
the Sunlink utility installed that allows it to talk Decnet.  We have
roughly 50 VT220 terminals going through
 DEC Terminal servers running LAT.  Is there a way a to connect the VT220
terminals via the DEC Terminal servers to the Unix box such that all the
user has to do at the LOCAL prompt is to say local&gt; connect &lt;unix box&gt;.  We
are aware of only two solutions
that don't look good to us: 1)change all 20 terminal servers to ones that do
both LAT and TCPIP/TELNET.  2) Have the users login into a VMS account then
do TELNET to the box.  Are there any software solutions that allow a direct
connect? Through our searc
hing of the internet we ran accross a concept of a Router by Cisco Systems.
Is this solution any different than changing all the DEC terminal servers?
 
 The Answer is:
 
  This is not particularly an OpenVMS question, this is a DECserver
  question.
 
  If the particular DECserver devices are sufficiently old, they will
  be capable of LAT.  More recent DECserver devices can use -- or can
  potentially load new firmware which can use -- telnet to communicate
  with the host.  (You do not indicate which specific DECserver devices
  are in use here, nor which version of firmware -- if applicable -- is
  in use.)
 
  If you are using LAT, you will need to pass through a box that can
  communicate with both LAT and DECnet or IP -- the OpenVMS Wizard has
  seen dedicated (captive) logins on OpenVMS systems for this purpose
  -- or you will need to find a LAT client for the target host.
 
  If you are using a DECserver that can use or can be reloaded to use
  telnet, your problem is obviously solved.
 
  Beyond using an intervening OpenVMS or other host system (one that
  supports LAT and the target protocol), the OpenVMS Wizard is not aware
  of a protocol translator box, and would not tend to expect to find
  such a box available.
 
