ted@nieland.DAYTON.OH.US (Ted Nieland) (02/20/90)
I am setting up a large Phase II Appletalk network where we are installing 9 Kinetics Fastpath gateways using the Fastpath manager revision 5.1. I am having a problem with the KSTAR software. I was wondering if anyone else on the net has seen anything like this or could be of any help. We are talking to Kinetics, but the response so far has been nothing. The network is an ethernet backbone with Macintosh and PC's on the ethernet. Approximately 180 computers will be off the backbone. File and mailservers using Ethertalk are also on the backbone. The Macintosh computers are using the 3COM Etherlink NB card for MAC II family. The Mac SE's or MAC SE/30's are using Etherport SE or Etherport SE/30 cards. We will also have some machines connected via Nuvotech SCSI ethernet controllers. Apple Laserwriters and Imagewrites and TI Omnilasers, using appletalk, are to be attached through the Fastpath boxes and are distributed around the network (approximately one per wing of the building). There will anywhere from one to 7 devices off each Fastpath. The Fastpaths are downline loaded with the Kstar software and setup with the backbone having net number 1000 and each of the Fastpaths have the phonenet side of the box set up with a netnumber that is a multiple of 100 and is, of course, unique for each box. All options in the options menu are turned off. What we have found is that after the Fastpath is has been set up, and we go into the chooser on the Macintosh computers on the Ethernet, all the laserwriters (imagewriters or whatever device) will disappear after a couple of minutes. Clicking on the laserwriter (or imagewriter) icon does not bring back the list. We continued to work with the devices to see what we could find. Note that while doing these tests, no other activity was on the network. The following is what we found: 1) If a Mac (#1) is on the ethernet with the chooser selected to look at laserwriters, the menu will be empty. Another Mac (#2) is on the twisted pair with the laserwriters. As soon as Mac #2 selects the laserwriters under the chooser, both Macs will have all the laser writers show up in the chooser. Within a couple of minutes of Mac #2 existing the chooser, Mac #1 will lose it's list of the laserwriters in the chooser. 2) If Mac #1 and Mac #2 are on the ethernet. Mac #1 is in the chooser selected to look at the laserwriters, the menu will be empty. Mac #2, which had previously chosen a laserwriter, goes to print a document. The print will go through the system. As soon as the printing starts, the list of laserprinters will appear in the chooser of Mac #1. Within a couple of minutes of the print job being completed, the all the laserprinters will drop from the chooser of Mac #1. 3) If a Mac (#1) is on the ethernet with the chooser selected to look at laserwriters, the menu will be empty. Another Mac (#2) is on the twisted pair with the laserwriters. Mac #2 is set to have CheckNet running constantly. Mac #1 will now show all the laserwriters. As long as CheckNet is running, all the laserwriters will remain on the Mac#1's menu. After CheckNet is stopped, the laserwriters disappear from the Mac#1's menu after a couple of minutes. I would appreciate any suggestions anyone has from the net. Are there many sites out there running Appletalk Phase II? Ted Nieland TED@NIELAND.DAYTON.OH.US (Home) TNIELAND@AAMRL.AF.MIL (Work)