Communications Speeds for Physical Terminals

The communications speed of your physical terminal must match the speed of the terminal port to which it is attached. The port may have the autobaud feature enabled, meaning it can automatically detect the speed at which your terminal is trying to communicate. If so, you may begin your login session by pressing ENTER a few times, waiting a second or so in between keypresses. The system will adjust the terminal port speed to match your terminal before prompting you for your username. Pressing keys other than ENTER will interfere with the ability of the system to discern your terminal speed.

If your port does not have autobaud enabled, you must set your terminal speed to match what the system is expecting. For OpenVMS systems, 9,600 baud, 8 bits, no parity, and one stop bit are good first assumptions, particularly for the console terminal port. Check with your system manager if in doubt.

When changing the communications speed of a terminal at which you are already logged in, first set the speed of the terminal port via the SET TERMINAL /SPEED=speed command. Afterward, set the speed of the terminal to the same value. You should confirm that your terminal supports the desired speed before starting.