henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (09/20/89)
I haven't kept track of the Ethernet situation for Macs, but now I've got a user who's curious. Is there an Ethernet interface available for the Macintosh SE/30? (This is the one with a single, slightly non-standard slot.) Note, what's wanted is a real, live Ethernet interface, not an Appletalk-to-Ethernet gateway box. -- "Where is D.D. Harriman now, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology when we really *need* him?" | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
mmccann@hubcap.clemson.edu (Mike McCann) (09/20/89)
In article <1989Sep19.184013.6950@utzoo.uucp>, henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: > I haven't kept track of the Ethernet situation for Macs, but now I've got > a user who's curious. Is there an Ethernet interface available for the > Macintosh SE/30? (This is the one with a single, slightly non-standard > slot.) Note, what's wanted is a real, live Ethernet interface, not an > Appletalk-to-Ethernet gateway box. > -- I have dealt with two companies that make EtherNet cards for the Macintosh SE/30. Kinetics and Asante (a third one called Dove does exist). Asante cards are register level compatible with the Apple EtherNet cards and are only for thin-wire EtherNet. Kinetics is not 100% register level compatible with the Apple EtherNet cards but do have a switch for either thick or thin-wire EtherNet (by careful, the SE/30's bus isn't designed to provide enough power to drive an EtherNet card unless the card is connected to a Delni (for thick wire) so you may want to only use a thin wire card). Of the two companies, Asante is less expensive. I haven't dealt with Asante's Tech Support but Kinetics' Tech Support is very helpful. If you need addresses and phone numbers, let me know. Hope this helps, -- Mike McCann (803) 656-3714 Internet = mmccann@hubcap.clemson.edu Poole Computer Center (Box P-21) UUCP = gatech!hubcap!mmccann Clemson University Bitnet = mmccann@clemson.bitnet Clemson, S.C. 29634-2803 DISCLAIMER = I speak only for myself.
morgan@polya.Stanford.EDU (Robert L. Morgan) (09/21/89)
> Is there an Ethernet interface available for the Macintosh SE/30?
I'm holding one in my hand, made by Asante' Technologies. I think we
got this for testing, so I'm not sure if they're actually on the
market yet. You can call them at (408)736-3360 to find out. As I
recall, they're offering some good prices to Universities these days.
Their other claim to fame is that their boards are "register
compatible" with Apple (ie 3Com) Ethernet boards, so you can use all
Apple software on them, though I'm not sure what this means with the
SE30 board since there isn't an Apple/3Com version yet.
- RL "Bob" Morgan
Networking Systems
Stanfordmorgan@polya.Stanford.EDU (Robert L. Morgan) (09/21/89)
> Asante cards are register level compatible with the Apple EtherNet > cards and are only for thin-wire EtherNet. Kinetics is not 100% > register level compatible with the Apple EtherNet cards Perhaps I should discuss this a little more, since I mention it in my followup too. In the IBM PC world, people have to worry a great deal about whether the networking software they want to run in their computer will work with the network interface card they have installed. Since drivers are written to register-level specs, register-level compatibility among boards can be an issue. People have tried to address the problem by creating vendor-independent standards for the interface between a card and networking software, and in the tradition of the PC, there are now three such: FTP Software's Packet Driver, 3Com/Microsoft's NDIS, and Novell/Apple's OLI. In short, things are a muddle. For the Mac, on the other hand, Apple has established exactly one way of interfacing to an Ethernet card. All manufacturers conform to it by supplying a little bit of software with the card that meets the interface spec, and their card thereby works with any networking software you might want to use. The point of all this is that Asante's claim of register-level compatibility with Apple cards is nice feature for their cards, but is much less important than other concerns like price, performance, reliability, availability, confidence in the company, etc. - RL "Bob" Morgan Networking Systems Stanford
amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker) (09/21/89)
In article <11861@polya.Stanford.EDU>, morgan@polya.Stanford.EDU (Robert L. Morgan) writes: > Asante's claim of register-level compatibility with Apple cards is > nice feature for their cards, but is much less important than other > concerns like price, performance, reliability, availability, > confidence in the company, etc. For the Mac OS, this is quite true. However, one thing I've been curious about is whether or not an Asante board will work with A/UX without having to buy another driver and relink the kernel. Aside from that, though, the only benefit I can see of the Asante board over anything else is that uses a 32-bit data bus to its buffer memory, instead of the 8-bit wide one that most other boards use, which could give a minor speed improvement in some applications. It doesn't seem to matter much in normal use, though. -- Amanda Walker amanda@intercon.com
ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith) (09/22/89)
To elaborate on earlier postings from others, there is a standard way to access Ethernet cards on a Macintosh. If you are on a Macintosh with a NuBus, you determine which slot contains the card, and then open the driver named ".ENET" for that slot. If you do not have a NuBus, you open the driver named ".ENET0". The driver provides a standard interface to the network card. Most, or maybe even all, of the third party cards provide a driver that implements this interface. Thus, everything should work with these cards. Register compatibility may be needed in the DOS world, but on the Mac it's a minor point at best. Discalimer: the company I work for writes Dove's FastNet software, so I may be biased on this subject. Tim Smith
morgan@Jessica.stanford.edu (RL "Bob" Morgan) (09/23/89)
In article <1462@intercon.com> amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker) writes: >>(Robert L. Morgan) writes: >> Asante's claim of register-level compatibility with Apple cards is >> nice feature for their cards, ... > >For the Mac OS, this is quite true. However, one thing I've been curious >about is whether or not an Asante board will work with A/UX without having >to buy another driver and relink the kernel. Asante claims that their card works with A/UX as shipped. They also claim that Apple is looking at Asante's SE/30 card to support Ethernet in the as-yet-unreleased A/UX for the SE/30 for this reason. - RL "Bob"
lim@ns.CWRU.EDU (Hock Koon Lim) (09/23/89)
In article <1989Sep19.184013.6950@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: >I haven't kept track of the Ethernet situation for Macs, but now I've got >a user who's curious. Is there an Ethernet interface available for the >Macintosh SE/30? (This is the one with a single, slightly non-standard >slot.) Note, what's wanted is a real, live Ethernet interface, not an >Appletalk-to-Ethernet gateway box. All our students in the dormitory use the Cabletron's Ethernet interface card for their Mac SE/30. It work with all the network software like SU-Mac/IP, Apple file Server and Novell File server all at once with Multi-Finder(Thanks to the design of the Mac OS). You should be able to find the Cabletron sale office in your area. Dove computer is the other vendor that have Mac SE/30 Ethernet card. You can find their phone in many computer magazine. PS: I have no relation with these companies except I am a satisfy customer. -- Hock-Koon Lim, Information Network services Case Western Reserve University; Cleveland, Ohio, USA 44106 (216) 368-2982 lim@cwlim.ins.cwru.edu