X.25 links still available? [telecom]

| To: snipped-for-privacy@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org | Subject: Fwd: X.25 links still available? [telecom] | Reply-To: snipped-for-privacy@encompasserve.org | | From: snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com | Subject: X.25 links still available? [telecom] | Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 18:40:41 -0700 (PDT) | | Does anybody know if it is possible to get an X.25 hook up nowadays? | | Ideally over the D channel of a basic ISDN connection. | | sampsa

The anwer is almost certainly "no", unless you are already an existing customer.

I was working at Digital Equipment / Compaq / HP when the port to Itanium was being done, back in the early

2000s. At that time, we had to decide what layered products to port. Since I had a background in Telecommunications, I researched the question of porting the PSI product set. Even back then, all of the carriers in North America and Europe that I could find had stopped accepting new customers for X.25 and related services: they only supported businesses that had their own private networks running over the packet network. At most, there was one very small carrier in Finland or Iceland that was privately operated that accepted new customers, and possibly one in Korea (couldn't read all of the web site). Most of the companies that had offered X.25 in the U.S. no longer existed at all.

More than 10 years later, I would expect even most support for private networks to be gone.

Bart

***** Moderator's Note *****

I thought all the credit-card processing networks were on X.25 - not so?

Come to think of it, what happened to Tymnet and Telenet? Weren't they using X.25?

Bill Horne Moderator

| To: snipped-for-privacy@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org | Subject: Fwd: X.25 links still available? [telecom] | Reply-To: snipped-for-privacy@encompasserve.org | | From: "B. Z. Lederman" | Subject: X.25 links still available? [telecom] | Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 09:16:41 -0500 (CDT) | | | To: snipped-for-privacy@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org | | Subject: Fwd: X.25 links still available? [telecom] | | Reply-To: snipped-for-privacy@encompasserve.org | | | | From: snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com | | Subject: X.25 links still available? [telecom] | | Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 18:40:41 -0700 (PDT) | | | | Does anybody know if it is possible to get an X.25 hook up nowadays? | | | | Ideally over the D channel of a basic ISDN connection. | | | | sampsa | | The anwer is almost certainly "no", unless you are already | an existing customer. | | I was working at Digital Equipment / Compaq / HP when | the port to Itanium was being done, back in the early | 2000s. At that time, we had to decide what layered | products to port. Since I had a background in | Telecommunications, I researched the question of | porting the PSI product set. Even back then, | all of the carriers in North America and Europe that | I could find had stopped accepting new customers for | X.25 and related services: they only supported | businesses that had their own private networks running | over the packet network. At most, there was one very | small carrier in Finland or Iceland that was privately | operated that accepted new customers, and possibly | one in Korea (couldn't read all of the web site). Most | of the companies that had offered X.25 in the U.S. | no longer existed at all. | | More than 10 years later, I would expect even most | support for private networks to be gone. | | Bart | | ***** Moderator's Note ***** | | I thought all the credit-card processing networks were on X.25 - not so? | | Come to think of it, what happened to Tymnet and Telenet? Weren't they | using X.25? | | Bill Horne | Moderator

The credit-card systems may well have used a packet internally, but that would qualify as a private network. In 2005 private networks were still supported. The connection from the actual point of sale is often still dial-up for smaller vendors and restaurants. With the growth in the economy, I would expect the credit card network has switched to something newer with greater bandwidth, and less expensive equipment. But I haven't had personal contact with this business for some time.

Incidentlaly, CCITT recommendation X.25 only refers to one interface between customer equipment and the packet network. Most of what people refer to as X.25 isn't, it's some other part of the network. And most terminals worked in accordance with the X.29 recommendation: not that any of that really matters anymore.

Tymnet went through some acquisitions, eventually ending up in MCI, which ended up in Verizon. Telenet became part of GTE, which became Sprint. I don't think you'll find packet switching or X.25 on their web sites as an offering anymore.

Bart

Sure. You can route it over a T1. It's just a serial port. The public switched network, though, is pretty much gone, so you can't call Tymnet or Telenet up and ask for a switched line.

You can also encapsulate X.25 over IP for transmission, which is how most folks with X.25 systems are going today. IP connectivity is very very cheap.

Cisco will sell you a box that will do the encapsulation. Get two boxes, two ISDN lines, call one from the other and you have a network. Mind you, getting two ISDN lines that actually work in the US is the hard part. And you are paying for the circuit-switched connection even when you're not using it, which defeats the benefit of X.25.

--scott

I had ISDN from Qwest (in Seattle) briefly several years ago. I didn't have an opportunity to explore it in detail, but they allegedly provided X.25 service on the D-channel (at least, it's in the BRI tariff). Notably, they explicitly did not offer any X.25 connectivity between CO switches.