Problems with using 'talk'

[John 'tms' Navarra]

In article <CHRIS.91May12141219 at banach.iesd.auc.dk> chris at iesd.auc.dk (Christian J. Callsen) writes:
>
>I have a problem using the 'talk' program. I am sitting on
>iesd.auc.dk, a Sun Sparcstation 1, running SunOS 4.1.1, in Denmark
>[Europe].
>
>I want to talk to a person on stat.purdue.edu in Indiana (also running
>SunOS). When I try to call, I get connected, and then 'talk' just
>sits there, reporting:

>[Checking for invitation on caller's machine]
>
>And nothing else happens.
>
>I have experienced that a friend of mine from Norway can talk to me
>with no problems, but when I try to talk to him, the above also
>happens. What am I doing wrong here?
>
>Does anyone have ideas for how I could get the 'talk' up and running ??
>

    SUN is braindead! It uses the old 4.2 version of talk and most computers
 use the 4.3BSD talk. This I find VERY stupid -- but this is SuN that is what
 the S means!

       what I did was compile the 4.3 talk from uunet.uu.net and ran it no
 problem. It worked fine with the talkd that was already running. Now I can
 talk to computers at other universities that I couldn't before.  

 I was not sure why this worked however. I was told that the problem was more
 fundamental than this but nevertheless I tried compiled just the normal BSD
 talk anyway and everything worked fine.

 SuN is going to have to start taking some more initiative in fixing MANY 
 bugs in there systems. I have even seen them DENY there was a problem even
 though the problem was obviously there --(anyone have port problems with
 there SUN's? )   

>advTHANKSance
>
>Chris J. Callsen
>E-mail: chris at iesd.auc.dk


-- 
>From the Lab of the MaD ScIenTiST:
      
navarra at casbah.acns.nwu.edu