I tried pinging the gateway from the NetBSD command prompt and get
no reply, but if I ping the MV II from another computer it responds
just fine, so I know the DEQNA is transmitting and receiving.
Download the sets on to a machine on the local network, then fetch
them from that machine.
Hm, yes, if "the gateway" is some mass-market turnkey box, it may well
not get along with the VAX.
And I just had another thought: trailers. I can't recall whether
NetBSD of that vintage defaulted to trailers or not; man ifconfig on
one of my 1.4T SPARCs indicates *it* does, so your NetBSD might too. A
modern mass-market consumer boxof recent vintage may well not support
trailers. Try ifconfig qe0 -trailers, maybe? And/or try pinging
something other than the gateway from the VAX? I now realize my
debugging suggestions have been based on the assumption that the ping
attempts have been between the same two boxen, just in different
directions; I now realize that was an unwarranted assumption.