root@naucse.UUCP (Paul Balyoz) (06/23/89)
Net-friends, I am wondering about compatibility of Token Ring
vs. Thick Ethernet for use with TCP/IP. Specifically, if I buy
Apollo's highend workstation (Prism/10000?) and want to local-net
other apollos via Token Ring, I will still want to use this big
workstation as a gateway to other existing Ethernets on campus.
We will be using the standard unix O.S.'s that come with the Apollo.
Questions:
* Can this Apollo act as a normal gateway, assuming I buy
the two different network interfaces for it (token, ether)?
* Will the specially designed Apollo protocols still function
properly (such as NCS) on the Token Ring LAN, along with the
standard Internet services such as mail-delivery, ftp, telnet,
name serving, etc. ?
* Is anyone doing anything similar to this, currently?
* If this won't work, would using Ethernet all around be a
possible solution, albeit a little slower?
I don't have much Token Ring experience/knowledge, but have been
using Ethernet for some time now. All machines run Unix & TCP/IP.
We will eventually have Internet access, but currently only have
campus-wide ethernet. Token ring would only encompass Apollo
workstations, nothing else.
All responses will be gratefully acknowledged! Thanks.
--
Paul Balyoz, Software Specialist II ...!arizona!naucse!root
Northern Arizona University --or--
PO Box 15600 ...!arizona!naucse!pab
Flagstaff, AZ 86011burati@apollo.COM (Michael R. Burati) (06/29/89)
In reply to <1508@naucse.UUCP> comp.dcom.lans: > From: root@naucse.UUCP (Paul Balyoz) > > Questions: > * Can this Apollo act as a normal gateway, assuming I buy > the two different network interfaces for it (token, ether)? Yes. The DN10000 (and any other current Apollo system) can act as a gateway if you have the two network interfaces installed. The gateway SW (both TCP and Apollo's DDS) is bundled with the latest version of the operating system (sr10.1). Note: I am speaking for the Apollo Token Ring product only, not other types of token ring. > * Will the specially designed Apollo protocols still function > properly (such as NCS) on the Token Ring LAN, along with the > standard Internet services such as mail-delivery, ftp, telnet, > name serving, etc. ? Yes. NCS will work over Ring and/or Ethernet, and is even independent of the protocol used (ie: it can use the DDS protocol, or TCP protocol's for talking to non-Apollos). Sendmail, ftp, telnet... will work fine over both ring and ethernet and the gateway machine will route the tcp packets from one type of network to the other. > * Is anyone doing anything similar to this, currently? Yes, but I can't give any names out myself. Try asking on comp.sys.apollo for reference accounts, using this configuration. > * If this won't work, would using Ethernet all around be a > possible solution, albeit a little slower? If you need to, you could run all your Apollo's on ethernet and not use token ring at all, but you would be losing the benefit of the higher speed of token ring. If you have any questions about the above or additional questions on whether something would work or not, contact me at the address listed below. Michael Burati, Technical Consultant; Educational Market Apollo Computer Chelmsford, MA 01824 -------------------- burati@apollo.COM ...!ulowell!apollo!burati