Question:
Using TCP/IP on AS/400 midrange system
Answer:
The AS/400 midrange system with the V3R1 release of its operating system,OS/400, provides a means to implement TCP/IP as a communications protocol.Achieving this connectivity is surprisingly simple.
For starters, IBM provides TCP/IP at no extra cost with V3R1. You willneed to make sure that the Connectivity Utilities/400 are installed on yoursystem. This is also included free of charge.
Here is what you need to do to take advantage of TCP/IP:
First, log in to your AS/400 system with an account that has the *IOSYSCFGauthority. Use the CHGTELNA command and press F4 to open the optionsscreen. The AUTOSTART parameter when set to *YES will make sure that thetelnet server job starts every time you run the STRTCP command (whichstarts the TCP/IP interface). If this parameter is set to *NO, youwill need to run the STRTCPSVR (start TCP/IP servers) command and specify*TELNET or *ALL as the input. The other values such as the timeoutparameter and the ASCII to EBCDIC translation can be left unaltered if thedefaults are preferred.
If the TCP/IP subsystem is not active on your system, you can start it withthe STRTCP command. Now, when you display jobs in the QSYSWRK subsystem,you should observe a job called QTGTELNETS. You will also need to verifythat the automatic creation of virtual devices is enabled. Use theWRKSYSVAL (work with system values) command to verify that the QAUTOVRTparameter is set to a value (0 to 9999) that is large enough to accommodatethe maximum number of telnet sessions that you anticipate. After thesetasks are completed, you are now ready to service telnet requests to yourAS/400.
From a workstation on your IP network, open the telnet application andinitiate a connection to your AS/400 by specifying its IP address. Thepreferred terminal type is the IBM 5250; note that the VT100 type can alsobe used with a valid keyboard map.
You can also initiate a telnet session from your AS/400 system to anotherremote system. In order to achieve this, you need to use theSTRTCPTELN command (start TCP/IP telnet). Use the RMTSYS parameter tospecify the host name or IP address of your remote system. If you were totelnet into another AS/400 system, the terminal type would automaticallydefault to 5250.
