To use Chaosnet, you need to take a few steps.

If you are never ever going to connect to the Global Chaosnet (which would be a shame), pick a 16-bit number where both octets are non-zero, and translate it to octal, which is the base used everywhere.

If you might at one point connect to the Global Chaosnet, e.g. to have more communication opportunities, you should contact Björn (bjorn@victor.se) to get an address which work with the rest of the net. Give a brief description of what system or systems you want to connect, and we'll work out the details.

First emulated systems are described, then modern alternatives.

If you are running ITS using the PDP-10 emulator klh10, things are reasonably easy.

The configuration is done in two parts: the klh10 emulator, and ITS itself.

To use Ethernet as the link layer, use

devdef chaos ub3 ch11 addr=764140 br=6 vec=270 myaddr=XXXX ifmeth=pcap

where XXXX is your Chaosnet address. See “Picking a Chaosnet address”.

To use UDP as the link layer, instead use

devdef chaos ub3 ch11 addr=764140 br=6 vec=270 myaddr=XXXX chip=3040/router.chaosnet.net

Find your configuration in SYSTEM;CONFIG > at the appropriate IFE MCOND, such as IFE MCOND DB if you are running a vanilla DB system. Make sure to use the following, where XXXX is your Chaosnet address (same as above).

DEFOPT CHAOSP==1	;Has CHAOS net
DEFOPT MYCHAD==XXXX	;CHAOS net address
DEFOPT NINDX==50.	;Number of indices
DEFOPT CH11P==1		;CHAOS net goes through Unibus

Note: if you run an up-to-date version of klh10 and ITS, you don't need to recompile your system to change the Chaosnet address, but you need to make sure CHAOSP and CH11P are enabled as above.

You might also want to rename your system - see instructions here.

You can of course add hosts to SYSHST;H3TEXT > and run :SYSHST;H3MAKE, but you can also use DNS in ITS. It's a bit of a mess right now, I'll document it later.

LambdaDelta uses the Ethernet link layer. The configuration is done entirely in the lisp system.

Edit SYS:SITE;HOSTS TEXT to change the CHAOS address of your host. ¹⁾

Use (make-system :site :compile :noload :noconfirm :no-reload-system-declaration) to recompile the site configuration, including the host table.

Use (UPDATE-SITE-CONFIGURATION-INFO) to load the updated site configuration, including the host table.

If you are not using the Bogodyne system, you need a DNS resolver - find one here.

You need to use SYS:SITE;HOSTS TEXT for your local address, but if you don't want to add other hosts manually, you can use DNS.

Edit SYS:SITE;SITE LISP to set the appropriate site options. Suggestions:

Use (make-system :site :compile :noload :noconfirm :no-reload-system-declaration) to recompile the site configuration.

Use (UPDATE-SITE-CONFIGURATION-INFO) to load the updated site configuration.

usim uses UDP sockets for link layer, and can also use an internal “local” Chaosnet server for e.g. FILE and TIME protocols.

See the “chaos section” of [https://tumbleweed.nu/r/usim/doc/trunk/README.md|the usim documentation], and “Network configuration” for LambdaDelta (note: there is no DNS support in the CADR system).

The Chaosnet bridge program, cbridge, can use any link layer, depending on your needs (see above).

See https://github.com/bictorv/chaosnet-bridge/blob/master/CONFIGURATION.md. And I should add documentation.

See https://github.com/bictorv/chaosnet-bridge/blob/master/CONFIGURATION.md, the dns option. If you use LambdaDelta, you can turn on the forwarder option and add the Chaosnet address of cbridge to :DOMAIN-CHAOS-SERVERS (see above) as an octal number.

See https://github.com/bictorv/chaosnet-bridge/blob/master/NCP.md. No really, I should add stuff here. But see the example programs