3B1 vs. 7300, uucp/mail Fight, Round One

[thad at cup.portal.com]

Has anyone succeeded in connecting two UNIX-PCs via a single serial port on
each system and having bi-directional uucp and mail function between them?

I attempted this and, after using a DLM (data line monitor) on the serial
port, discovered that each system's login herald would be interpreted as a
login attempt by the other system with the result being each system would
"fight" the other.  Actually brought one system to its knees until I pulled
the cable.

The "fight" occurs when both systems have their (respective) serial port
configured as "CALLER and HOST.

When one system is configured as "CALLER" and the other as "HOST", there is
no conflict, but mail and uucp traffic only flows from the CALLER to the
HOST; uucp or mail on the HOST remains queued forever.

I cannot afford the luxury of dedicating TWO serial ports on each system
simply for uucp/mail between them (esp. since one system only has a single
serial port).

Both systems have 3.51 Foundation Set software.

The null-modem cabling I'm using:

System A, tty004          System B, tty000

      (1)-----------------------(1)
      (2)-----------------------(3)
      (3)-----------------------(2)
      (4)-----------------------(5)
      (5)-----------------------(4)
      (7)-----------------------(7)
   (6)(8)-----------------------(20)
     (20)-----------------------(6)(8)


The UNIX-PC docs "claim" that inter-system mail and uucp is trivial; does
this imply that one must use StarLan (or something?)



Thad Floryan  [thad at cup.portal.com (OR) ...!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad]