pj@oxy.edu (Paul Jonathan Estalilla Go) (02/05/91)
Is there any way that a PC can be connected to an appletalk network, and through a FastPath so that it can run TCP/IP? Here's the situation: Our campus has an appletalk network and a shitty data switch network. For Mac users, networking is great because all we have to do is buy a PhoneNet connector, get the correct software and voila! On the other hand, non-Mac users have to go through a switch that does not support TCP/IP and then connect to a machine that does. Although I would like to tell everybody to get a Classic if they want to do any networking, I would like to try to find a way to connect a PC to an Appletalk network. Any solutions? Is this a market that has to be explored further? What does the AppleShare PC card do? Paul Jonathan E. Go Occidental College #224 pj@oxy.edu
alee@elaine21.stanford.edu (Andrew Lee) (02/10/91)
pj@oxy.edu (Paul Jonathan Estalilla Go) writes: >Is there any way that a PC can be connected to an appletalk network, >and through a FastPath so that it can run TCP/IP? Here's the situation: >Paul Jonathan E. Go >Occidental College #224 >pj@oxy.edu It's quite possible; I'm using a 386 connected to LocalTalk with an Apple LocalTalk PC Card right now. Apple very recently sold this part of their operation to Farallon, so you should contact Farallon about this board. TOPS also makes a board, and I believe a company called DayStar makes a board (for Micro Channel I believe; the board I'm using and the TOPS boards are for XT/AT buses.) There seem to be a large number of freely available TCP/IP packages that will support the LocalTalk boards for PCs, including NCSA and KA9Q. SI PC-IP was written here at Stanford, though it's no longer supported; they decided to go with Wollongong's WIN/TCP, which I'm using right now. These boards aren't without problems; the (formerly) Apple board doesn't work when my 386 is running at 25 MHz, so I have to slow it to 8 MHz (I suspect that if the drivers would allow me to not use DMA, this might go away), and the TOPS board seems to have trouble with cable lengths that nothing else has trouble with. (I know it doesn't work with my machine, which has 1300-1500 feet of cable between it and a StarController.) Andrew Lee alee@portia.stanford.edu
alee@elaine32.stanford.edu (Andrew Lee) (02/12/91)
alee@elaine21.stanford.edu (Andrew Lee) writes: >There seem to be a large number of freely available TCP/IP packages >that will support the LocalTalk boards for PCs, including NCSA and >KA9Q. SI PC-IP was written here at Stanford, though it's no longer ^^ SU >supported; they decided to go with Wollongong's WIN/TCP, which I'm >using right now. > Andrew Lee > alee@portia.stanford.edu It seems that my article caused some confusion. First of all, Stanford is still supporting its own Mac-IP, as far as I know. They decided, since the campus is now so heavily Mac-oriented, to drop support of SU PC-IP, and made a deal with Wollongong under which they wrote some drivers for WIN/TCP in exchange for a site license or something like that. Also, I don't remember where I found NCSA and KA9Q with LocalTalk support. (I believe I found the former at NCSA.) I do remember that both used low level drivers from the board manufacturers (Apple or TOPS), which wouldn't solve any of my problems, and that I didn't have time to figure out how to configure them properly. WIN/TCP, at least as distributed here, requires almost no effort to set up. Andrew Lee