florijn@serc.nl (Gert Florijn) (04/12/90)
Hello, We're having some problems with the integration of a Mac SE into our TOPS/UNIX network. Although local reps are looking into it, I hope that some guru out there can provide some clues to the source of our problems. Please use e-mail for answers, since I won't have time to consult comp.sys.mac in the next few weeks. If there is enough material, I will summarize. In case my mail-address gets munged, the signature at the end provides some possible addresses. The setting is as follows. We have an Ethernet of UNIX workstations (among which are some SUNs). We have a Mac II cx that is directly connected to the Ethernet (using Ethertalk) and we use TOPS (version 2.1) to communicate with a Sun server. This setup works fine, and has done so for a few months. Recently we obtained a brand-new Mac SE also equipped with an Ethernet interface and Ethertalk. Of course we want this one also connected to the UNIX machines via TOPS, so I installed the only copy of TOPS for the Mac that we had (the one that also runs on the MacII) on the SE, and connected the machine to the Ethernet. Of course, I selected Ethertalk from the networks accessory. The problem that showed up is that the SE doesn't see the UNIX server. At least, the server doesn't appear in the server window when you open the TOPS accessory. I know that each Mac-TOPS copy is licensed, and that two copies of one version in the same network won't work together. We have ordered the extra copy of TOPS, but it hasn't been delivered yet. But anyway, this isn't the cause of the problem. I have disconnected the Mac II from the network completely leaving only the SE on the net, and restarted the TOPS service on the UNIX machine. The result stayed the same: the SE doesn't see the server. We did some further checks. We obtained an older copy of TOPS (2.0) and installed that on the SE. We hooked the two Macs up in one small network, and published some folders on the Mac II. You guessed it, the SE still doesn't see the server. In my opinion there can be two sources of this problem. The first one is that the Ethernet card is broken. I don't have any idea on how to check for this on a Mac, so any clues on how to do this is appreciated. The other potential problem I can see is that TOPS 2.1 depends on certain versions of system software like Ethertalk. The MAC II has version 1.2 of Ethertalk (and OS 6.0.3), while the SE has version 2.0 of Ethertalk (and OS 6.0.2). Well, that's it. As I said before, any clues, either pointers to solutions or ways in which I can check for certain problems, are appreciated. gert Gert Florijn Software Engineering Research Center P.o. box 424 3500 AK Utrecht Netherlands Tel: +31 (0)30 322640 Internet: florijn@serc.nl Alternatives: serc!florijn@uunet.uu.net