On 28 Apr 99, at 15:37, Petrus Naryana wrote:

> Can I get advice if there is any 3270 terminal emulation program that runs
> under Win95/98 to access IBM mainframe/MVS that I can download and use for
> free? I hate having to search it. But I need it for contigency purpose.
> Thank you in advance for any advice.

  There's a telnet variation called "tn3270" -- I'm not entirely clear on
whether this is the program, the protocol, or both -- which *might* be
helpful to you.  Or not -- read on.

  The classic 3270 terminals were connected to a "concentrator" -- typically
about the size of a microwave oven -- by co-axial cables; the concentrator
was connected into the SNA (or similar) network around one or more mainframes.
  The 3270 emulation hardware that I was using in the 1989-1992 timeframe
consisted of a card with a co-axial connector, RAM for a screen buffer, a
small on-board CPU, and various support circuitry, and the emulation software
largely consisted of mapping the RAM on the card to the screen.  The co-axial
connector of the card still went to an IBM concentrator and into the SNA
network.
  I believe I saw references then to a product which would effectively
integrate the concentrator's functionality inside the PC, but that was going
to replace the co-ax connection with some other kind of IBM network connector
-- it *still* wasn't going to be a software-only solution.

  Telnet generally provides a way to make a remote network connection look
like a locally-attached terminal.  normally this would be a serial/asynch
terminal, but I *think* tn3270 makes it look like a 3270.  So if there is
some server you can connect to that is running this, maybe all you need on
your PC is a telnet client -- and there's one included in Windows already,
although there are some shareware/freeware ones that you might prefer.


David G

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