More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call  +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

Barr announces RJE/NJE over IP

Now traditional SNA communication protocols such as RJE and NJE can connect via IP and no longer require SNA.  Barr has announced support for IBM's Enterprise Extender, enabling the conversion from RJE/NJE via SNA to RJE/NJE via TCP/IP.

Enterprise Extender (EE) is IBM's answer to integrate all SNA applications into IP networks.  EE is also referred to as HPR/IP, which stands for High Performance Routing over IP - an extension of APPN (Advanced Peer to Peer Networking).  EE works with existing IP networks and does not require changes to applications or to IP routers.  In a nutshell, EE is a blending of SNA and IP, with support for all legacy SNA LU types at the top of the stack, HPR and APPN in the middle and UDP/IP at the bottom.

RJE and NJE applications are used for connecting to a mainframe and submitting and receiving jobs.  Customers connect their RJE and NJE systems to the mainframe in a variety of ways, including 802.2 LLC2, SDLC and MS/LUA connections.  Now, for customers using BARR/RJE or BARR/NJE, EE offers a huge benefit: you can connect directly to the mainframe via TCP/IP.

It is easy to make the switch from your SNA-connected RJE/NJE applications to IP-connected applications.  The implementation is simply a change in the communications link (VTAM).  To connect your mainframe to BARR/RJE or BARR/NJE via IP, you do not need to change your existing RJE/NJE definitions.

Barr Systems makes it easy to switch from SNA to TCP/IP and still use your BARR/RJE and BARR/NJE applications.  Because EE is transparent to your SNA applications, you will not have to make any changes to them.  If you think EE Link can help your organization eliminate SNA, please contact David Kirk on +61-3-9521-8070 or ee-info@atac.com.au.

Emtex VDE 2 Feature release

With the release of Emtex VIP 8.4SP3, Emtex has officially released VDE 2.0, which introduces the following VDE ACTIONS for customer use in their own VDE Scripts:

• BARCODE

• INSERT

• Page Control:

• Device Control:

The following updates to VDE SmartStream are also included:

• FORMATDELIMITER

• FORMATARRAY

Additionally, the VDE Documentation has been rationalized and now comprises:

• VDE SmartStream User Guide (inc. Message Guide)

• VDE Editor User Guide

• VDE Reference Guide (inc. VDE Technical Overview, Syntax Diagram).

Further VDE functionality is brought into the customer domain with this update.  All VDE ACTIONS and COMMANDS released in VDE 2.0 are documented, tested and a part of VDE Customer Training.

Contact Atac for more info.

Barr Print/Channel (now as a Service)

BARR PRINT/CHANNEL is a software and hardware module that allows you to physically connect your Windows-based computer to your mainframe channel via Bus & Tag or ESCON.  It emulates multiple mainframe-attached printers and is a relatively simple method of printing from the mainframe to your network printers.

Many clients have utilised PRINT/CHANNEL at mainframe sites, sending received data via TCP/IP to remote Barr machines with channel-attached or IP-attached mainframe printers.  In this mode, Barr replaces expensive channel-extender technology.

BARR PRINT/CHANNEL now runs as a stand-alone Windows Service.  A Windows Service starts when the machine starts, independent of user logins.  BARR PRINT/CHANNEL communicates with either a local or remote BEPS SPOOL/NT machine, via a direct IP socket connection.

What does all of this mean?  You no longer require the Barr SPOOL/NT base module at the mainframe end of a channel-extension scenario.  This reduces the complexity and simplifies management in some situations.  Data is fed into the remote machine as it is output from the HOST, allowing real-time remote printing to occur.

Barr's PRINT/CHANNEL allows you to relocate centralised printers to remote sites with NO MAINFRAME CHANGES at all.  (This can be very appealing to some users.)  It intelligently separates 3211 print jobs, extracting job info from banner pages.

This product can soak up data almost as fast as the HOST can send it, providing for rapid JES spool offloads in times of peak loads, when it really matters.

Need to channel extend your mainframe printers, or convert Bus & Tag IPDS to IPDS over IP?  Contact Atac today.

Did you know . . . ?

• Chinese New Year is celebrated on a different date each year because it occurs on the first day of the First Moon (New Moon) of the lunar calendar.  The corresponding date in the solar calendar varies from as early as January 21st to as late as February 19th.  (This year was February 9th.)

• Bit
     A binary decision
  Byte (8 bits)
     1 byte: A single text character
  Kilobyte (1024 bytes)
     2 Kilobytes: A single typewritten page
  Megabyte (1024 Kilobytes)
     1 Megabyte: A short novel
  Gigabyte (1024 Megabytes)
     1 Gigabyte: A pickup truck filled with books
  Terabyte (1024 Gigabytes)
     1 Terabyte: 50,000 trees made into paper and printed
  Petabyte (1024 Terabytes)
     25 Petabytes: All hard disks sold in 2002 worldwide
  Exabyte (1024 Petabytes)
     5 Exabytes: All words ever spoken by humans
  Zettabyte (1024 Exabytes)
     1 Zettabyte: Australia mapped in square millimetres
  Yottabyte (1024 Zettabytes)
     1 Yottabyte: Number of stars in the firmament

• You can use any viewer you want to view PCL, Postscript or PDF files in the Barr Spool Window.  If you use the Barr Enterprise Print Server to route previously composed print files in languages such as PCL, Postscript and PDF, the normal Barr text viewer can only view these files in hexadecimal dump mode.  This is where the 'Send To' feature comes in.  If you have a viewer installed on the PC, such as the Adobe Acrobat Viewer for PDF files, all you need to do is create a shortcut to this program and drop it into the C:\Program Files\Barr\Spooler\SendTo\ folder.  Then, when you want to view a file in the Barr Spool Window, just right-click the file, select Send To, and then select your viewer.

In addition to the "Send To" feature, Barr now offers BARR/TOOLS, an integrated Xerox LCDS and Metacode viewer.  With this option, you may view, proof and debug jobs right from the spool window.

Q & A

Q.  How can I save our Barr Spool log files?

A.  We have an easy solution that takes advantage of the built-in Windows Scheduler Service.  The Windows Scheduler allows you to define a program to run at given intervals.  In this case, the program is a simple 'bat' file that will check for the existence of C:\program files\common files\barr\log\logfilebak.bdb and rename it using the system parameters for Date and Time.  BEPS imposes a limit on the logfile.bdb file of about 4mb.  Once it reaches this limit, it renames the current logfile.bdb to logfilebak.bdb.  By renaming logfilebak.bdb to something else first, the next time BEPS goes to overwrite logfilebak.bdb, it doesn't exist, so it creates a new one.  You can tell how often you should schedule the 'bat' file by looking at the create times for logfile.bdb vs. logfilebak.bdb.

If you aren't familiar with the Windows Scheduler, all you have to do is open Settings | Control Panel and choose "Scheduled Tasks".  If you don't have any tasks set up, then choose "Add Scheduled Task" and this will start a Wizard that will walk you through the process.  Barr has included a file called savlog.txt (be sure to rename it to savlog.bat, as some mail servers filter .bat extensions), which is the bat file that was created for the Scheduler to execute.  Because the renamed file includes date and time, there is very little chance that it will run into a problem where the file already exists.  Be sure to set the "start in" folder to the folder where you've saved savlog.bat, or save it in a folder that is included in the environment search path.

Q.  Who is/are Atac?

A.  Atac is the Barr and Emtex Distributor for Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.  With over thirteen years experience in the market, we support systems running 24x7x365 from Christchurch to Tokyo and Perth to Mumbai, in most of the largest print shops in the region.

Our customers include banks, print bureaux, financial institutions and petro-chemical companies as well as printer and mainframe vendors.  Outsourcing organisations and facilities management companies make extensive use of Atac's expertise.

Atac is privately owned, with an extensive technical background stretching back over thirty seven years of continuously profitable operation.

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