Login Problem (250' RS-232 Lines)

[Dan Kary]

We are having some trouble with long (250') terminal lines.  When the system
is booted the login message is sent out each line.  If the terminal on one of
these long lines is turned off, there is an echo on the line that is interp-
reted as a login name.  After 60 seconds login times out and sends a new login
message causing the sequence to repeat.  Considerable CPU time can be wasted
if several lines are doing this at one time.

This is a serious problem for us because our machine shuts down each night
to do backups, file consistency and quota checks.  The noisey line problem 
occurs each morning when the machine reboots.  The machine is a VAX 11/780
running 4.2BSD.  The serial line controllers are DEC DMF32's.  I suspect that
other sites have seen this problem.  What options do we have for preventing
this problem (other than not rebooting every night)?

		Dan Kary
		North Dakota State University
		300 Minard Hall
		Fargo, ND   58105
		(701) 237-8171
		ihnp4!dicomed!ndsuvax!nckary