Subject: 3270e Always Respond

From: "Dianne R. Kelly" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:41:36 -0500

Hello;

  RFC 1647, page 16, section 8.1.3 states that the RESPONSE-FLAG Field ..

     "only has meaning for certain values of the DATA-TYPE field.  For the
DATA-TYPE field values of 3270-DATA and SCS-DATA, The RESPONSE-FLAG is an
indication of whether or not the sender of the data expects to receive a
response.  ..."

  We have just changed our client to only send RESPONSEs when the outbound
data is of type 3270-DATA and SCS_DATA with ALWAYS-RESPONSE or
ERROR-RESPONSE flag set in compliance with the above.   But we have found
that Apertus is sending  SSCP-LU-DATA with ALWAYS RESPONSE set.  This
results in failed connection.  Both Attachmate and Hummingbird clients
reply with a RESPONSE DATA-TYPE inbound message.

  The question is, shall we code against the RFC?  What should we all be
doing?

  Thanks in advance,
    Dianne R. Kelly

Dianne R. Kelly                                 email:    [email-masked]
FTP Software                    phone:  978-684-6873
2 High Street                   fax:       978-684-2005
No Andover, MA  01845           www:    http://www.ftp.com

---

From: "Michael Boe" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:36:09 -0600

>   The question is, shall we code against the RFC?  What should we all be

I think the rule here is, "be liberal in what you accept, and conservative
in what you send." Sounds like you need to do two things:
   a) get on Apertus/CNT/Brixton's case to get this fixed, and
   b) send RESPONSES on SSCP-LU traffic if the server requires it, even
though the server is against spec.

/msb

/msb