AS400 Mac Client?

[idkew]

Anyone know if an AS400 Mac Client out there? I did some googling and might have found one, but it looks like an OS 9/Pay program.

I am looking for a free client to use under OS X.

Any ideas how to get my bleeding edge OS X machine to talk to a 25 year old POS?

 

[varmit]

Anyone know if an AS400 Mac Client out there? I did some googling and might have found one, but it looks like an OS 9/Pay program.

I am looking for a free client to use under OS X.

Any ideas how to get my bleeding edge OS X machine to talk to a 25 year old POS?

Command Line and a serial cable, with usb adaptor.

 

[bousozoku]

telnet is the only free client I know and yes, I used to telnet to an AS/400. Command/Function keys were a little messy. Esc + number key, I think.

 

[Diomedes]

PowerTerm. It's is the only way to go to administer AS/400 servers.

It mimics the OS/400 "green screen", with a few Mac touches. Of course, since it is just a front end for the green screen, you will still need to know the CL. PowerTerm can also emulate various other mid-range computers. It is a commerical product, but well worth it - I use it daily.

There is nothing for the Mac that mimics IBM's Explorer-like interface, but PowerTerm gets the job done. I use it in conjunction with Transmit if I need FTP capabilities.

 

[devman]

Anyone know if an AS400 Mac Client out there? I did some googling and might have found one, but it looks like an OS 9/Pay program.

I am looking for a free client to use under OS X.

Any ideas how to get my bleeding edge OS X machine to talk to a 25 year old POS?

Any telnet cient you can find should work. At worst, coming in as a VT100 type terminal will work with the necessary key mappings. Telnet 3270 clients were pretty common (used for mainframe access) and they'll work on an AS/400 also and you'll get a better experience. Finally, if you can find a telnet 5250 client (tn5250) that's the best you can hope for that's free I think.

There used to be several java telnet programs around so they should run on OS X (I presume).

Finally, that 25 years POS was actually introduced about 16 or so years ago and, depending on your point of view, in many ways it has architectural components that are quite bleeding edge today. Single level storage, capability based addressing, machine interface, relational database integrated beneath the machine interface and built directly on top of storage management rather than a primitive file system. A green screen 5250 interface belies what's underneath.

 

[idkew]

Any telnet cient you can find should work. At worst, coming in as a VT100 type terminal will work with the necessary key mappings. Telnet 3270 clients were pretty common (used for mainframe access) and they'll work on an AS/400 also and you'll get a better experience. Finally, if you can find a telnet 5250 client (tn5250) that's the best you can hope for that's free I think.

There used to be several java telnet programs around so they should run on OS X (I presume).

Finally, that 25 years POS was actually introduced about 16 or so years ago and, depending on your point of view, in many ways it has architectural components that are quite bleeding edge today. Single level storage, capability based addressing, machine interface, relational database integrated beneath the machine interface and built directly on top of storage management rather than a primitive file system. A green screen 5250 interface belies what's underneath.

i will have to try tlelneting to it. i am not sure it if will work or not... but it is worht a try. now to try to get all the info i need from IT.

while the as400 may have some good qualities to it, it is not up to my business' needs today. it is down nearly 1 day a week (maybe IT's fault?), was down for several days when a floppy drive failed. this single dead floppy drive, which held the license supposedly, prevented over 100 people from doing work for a few days. it can't handle 100 people on it at once. is slow as can be, doesn't use a gui, as has a copywrite in the green screen from 1980.

 

[bousozoku]

i will have to try tlelneting to it. i am not sure it if will work or not... but it is worht a try. now to try to get all the info i need from IT.

while the as400 may have some good qualities to it, it is not up to my business' needs today. it is down nearly 1 day a week (maybe it's fault?), was down for several days when a floppy drive failed. this single dead floppy drive, which held the license supposedly, prevented over 100 people from doing work for a few days. it can't handle 100 people on it at once. is slow as can be, doesn't use a gui, as has a copywrite in the green screen from 1980.

That's amazing. It sounds as if it's quite old and, as was typical, it was probably bought in an underpowered configuration. I'm just surprised that something so reliable should be having downtime like that. I suppose that IBM isn't maintaining it regularly and that it hasn't been upgraded lately.

If it's not using OS/400 V3R1M0, at least, telnet to it isn't likely to be possible.

 

[idkew]

If it's not using OS/400 V3R1M0, at least, telnet to it isn't likely to be possible.

I tried telnet, and it did not work. But- that may not be the as400's fault. If i ping it, it does not come up, but I can connect to it via sharing (must have afp built in?) I also can't ping anywhere else, so IT may be preventing me from pinging.

is there any java programs out there or something to give me limited client access? i do not need to admin it, or anything big, just need to look at a database.

 

[bousozoku]

I tried telnet, and it did not work. But- that may not be the as400's fault. If i ping it, it does not come up, but I can connect to it via sharing (must have afp built in?) I also can't ping anywhere else, so it may be preventing me from pinging.

is there any java programs out there or something to give me limited client access? i do not need to admin it, or anything big, just need to look at a database.

That doesn't mean that telnet is enabled. I believe if you "go telnet" on any OS/400 menu, you'll be able to find out whether it's enabled or not.

Actually, from something with a JDBC connection, you should be able to access the database. Where the drivers are stored, I don't remember.

 

[devman]

i will have to try tlelneting to it. i am not sure it if will work or not... but it is worht a try. now to try to get all the info i need from IT.

while the as400 may have some good qualities to it, it is not up to my business' needs today. it is down nearly 1 day a week (maybe IT's fault?), was down for several days when a floppy drive failed. this single dead floppy drive, which held the license supposedly, prevented over 100 people from doing work for a few days. it can't handle 100 people on it at once. is slow as can be, doesn't use a gui, as has a copywrite in the green screen from 1980.

Hmm, well as has already been said, there's no way you should be having that sort of downtime. They are *very* reliable systems. I've no idea what this license on the floppy is about. Never heard of that before. Also, AS/400s can handle thousands of concurrent users - but it all depends on if the machine is appropriately sized and configured for the workload, etc. (you know, the usual stuff).

The AS/400 was introduced in 1988 (give or take a year). Now the S/38 dates back to 1980 and the AS/400 and S/38 have many similarities (AS/400 was built from S/38 architecture) so maybe that's why there's a (c) 1980. I've not even been near an AS/400 for years now to check or remember.

 

[devman]

I tried telnet, and it did not work. But- that may not be the as400's fault. If i ping it, it does not come up, but I can connect to it via sharing (must have afp built in?)

It's probably using SMB.

I also can't ping anywhere else, so IT may be preventing me from pinging. is there any java programs out there or something to give me limited client access? i do not need to admin it, or anything big, just need to look at a database.

Could be any number of things. You really need to find out from IT what version and release of the operating system (OS/400) they are running. Then also ask if TCP/IP is even enabled/configured on the machine. Then, with this info, you'd be better off finding an AS/400 discussion board and asking for help with telnet in to an AS/400.

It's been too long and I don't remember enough of the details.

If it turns out they are not runnning TCP/IP then your choices are limited to a native 3270 emulator (mainframe green screens) or a native 5250 emulator (IBM midrange green screens: S/36, S/38, AS/400, iSeries). Again, in the case of 3270, this presumes the AS/400 is configured for 3270 terminal access.

Now, assuming there is TCP/IP you can (as mentioned elsewhere in the thread) consider using JDBC to access the AS/400 database. The IBM product was called the AS/400 Toolbox for Java. There is an open source version of this freely available called JTOpen. It contains the JDBC drivers you can use on the client side. Again, there's almost certainly some setup needed on the server side (AS/400) for this to work.

 

[idkew]

It's probably using SMB.



Could be any number of things. You really need to find out from IT what version and release of the operating system (OS/400) they are running. Then also ask if TCP/IP is even enabled/configured on the machine. Then, with this info, you'd be better off finding an AS/400 discussion board and asking for help with telnet in to an AS/400.

It's been too long and I don't remember enough of the details.

If it turns out they are not runnning TCP/IP then your choices are limited to a native 3270 emulator (mainframe green screens) or a native 5250 emulator (IBM midrange green screens: S/36, S/38, AS/400, iSeries). Again, in the case of 3270, this presumes the AS/400 is configured for 3270 terminal access.

Now, assuming there is TCP/IP you can (as mentioned elsewhere in the thread) consider using JDBC to access the AS/400 database. The IBM product was called the AS/400 Toolbox for Java. There is an open source version of this freely available called JTOpen. It contains the JDBC drivers you can use on the client side. Again, there's almost certainly some setup needed on the server side (AS/400) for this to work.

thanks, i will try your suggestions monday.