[comp.protocols.appletalk] Speeding CAP file access for EtherTalk Macs.

brian@cs.utah.edu (Brian Sturgill) (10/27/89)

I am hoping to improve the file-access speed of our MACS running EtherTalk
in getting files from our UNIX file-servers running CAP.
If I understand things correctly, the Ether-MACS are sending appletalk packets
to our K-box which are then wrapped in an IP packet and forwarded
to the UNIX boxes.  As the Ether-MACS and the UNIX machines are on the
same cable, there is I hope a better way available.

Is there a way to either:
	1) get the EtherTalk macs to send ip-encapsulated packets.

	or

	2) get CAP to receive appletalk packets directly from the
		ethernet?

Brian
---------------
Brian Sturgill
brian@cs.utah.edu

jdarcy@encore.UUCP (Jeff d'Arcy) (10/27/89)

brian@cs.utah.edu (Brian Sturgill):
> 	1) get the EtherTalk macs to send ip-encapsulated packets.
> 
> 	or
> 
> 	2) get CAP to receive appletalk packets directly from the
> 		ethernet?

(1) is very unlikely.  (2) may be quite doable.  I think I'll put that on
my feature list.

Jeff d'Arcy     OS/Network Software Engineer     jdarcy@encore.com
  Encore has provided the medium, but the message remains my own

ragge@nada.kth.se (Ragnar Sundblad) (10/28/89)

In article <10249@encore.Encore.COM> jdarcy@encore.UUCP (Jeff d'Arcy) writes:
>brian@cs.utah.edu (Brian Sturgill):
>> 	1) get the EtherTalk macs to send ip-encapsulated packets.
...
>(1) is very unlikely.

Ok, I think I have heard from elsewhere that this is not possible.
I have thought a little about it, and still haven't figured out wy.
I have also heard a rumor saying that they have such a thing
for internal use at Kinetics.

Is this really not doable???
Please, enlighten me!
	/ragge

amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker) (10/28/89)

Reply-To: amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
Followup-To: 
Distribution: 
Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation
Keywords: 

In article <2202@draken.nada.kth.se>, ragge@nada.kth.se (Ragnar Sundblad)
writes:
> Ok, I think I have heard from elsewhere that this is not possible.
> I have thought a little about it, and still haven't figured out wy.
> I have also heard a rumor saying that they have such a thing
> for internal use at Kinetics.

Kinetics does indeed have something that they are working with, although
it's not a product so far.  Mahboud Zabetian talked about it at InterOp 89,
and since he knows how much Kinetics wants to let out about it, I'll let
him go into the details :-).  There are a couple of semi-subtle things
that make it a little harder than it looks.  The first is that it has to
be able to coexist with other TCP/IP products, which can be tricky if both
want to handle UDP.  The other is that AppleTalk-over-UDP routing is different
enough from normal AppleTalk routing that there has to be some hand-waving
behind the .MPP driver's back, as it were, as well as a certain amount of
manual configuration.  From what I've seen, it works, but it's got its
rough spots.  As a commercial product, these need to be worked out before
Kinetics can reasonably put it on the market.

--
Amanda Walker <amanda@intercon.com>

kre@cs.mu.oz.au (Robert Elz) (10/30/89)

In article <8910300211.AA16825@cuba.Cayman.COM>, brad@cayman.com writes:
> The bottom line is that CAP will speak to one and only one "gateway".

This is true, and it means that to use CAP you must have
a real  (IPtalk capable) appletalk router on your net.
That is, regardless of whether all your macs are on ethernet
and speak IPtalk directly.

However, this does not really affect performance, its not necessary
for all packets to go throgh the gateway .. CAP remembers where it
received its last packet from, and if the next one that it has to
send is going to that appletalk address, it sends it to the
associated IP address.  This is basically every packet that most of
the standard CAP applications send (they're servers, the first
packet comes from the mac client, the server just replies).  The
exception is lwsrv (which initiates the connection to the laserwriter)
but since you're unlilely to be putting an IPtalk driver in your
laserwriter, this is irrelevant (and in any case, its only the NBP lookup,
and then the first packet that has to go through the gateway).

kre