  DECnet-Plus, DECnet Phase IV, and IP transport? 
 The Question is:
 
A question concerning DECnet IV &amp; V, DECnet over IP, and routing.
 
Have a network that bridges two sites, each site with a collection
of OpenVMS nodes running a mix of DECnet Phase IV and V (OSI).
DECnet is currently bridged between sites, but newer, faster
communications hardware is coming that will only support IP
traffic.
 
Is it possible to continue to allow DECnet connectivity over an
IP-only connection between sites? For example, can a host be
established at each end running DECnet-Plus and DECnet over
IP to communicate with each other while acting as L1 or L2
DECnet routers? Or is there some other better approach?
 
The problem of course is that some of the OpenVMS systems are
required to remain at older versions of OpenVMS and so a
total DECnet-Plus solution is not available.
 
\bill
 
 The Answer is:
 
  You can establish the DECnet connection via IP, but you will need to
  manually route through a remote DECnet-Plus node to reach a remote
  DECnet Phase IV node, via explicit specification of a node for
  pass-through.  (This is sometimes refered to as Poor Man's Routing.)
  Access between DECnet-Plus nodes will be transparent.
 
