newsuser@LTH.Se (LTH network news server) (06/05/89)
A couple of weeks ago, I asked the net about running NCSA Telnet through Liaison. Below follows the question and a summary of the replies. The answers indicate that it would work, but only with a FastPath 4. Thanks a lot for the replies! ### The question We have a large number of Macs at the University. Most of them (nearly all) are only connected to LocalTalks. We plan to connect the LocalTalks to the large university ethernet backbone via Liaison, and use NCSA Telnet (maybe with the MacTCP drivers) for telnet connections to mainframes (mostly VAX/VMS and Unix systems). We don't want to use FastPaths or GatorBoxes as the LocalTalk- Ethernet bridges as they are too expensive. The LocalTalk-Ethernet bridge must be able to recognise tcp/ip-in- LocalTalk packets, unpack them, and send them as tcp/ip packets on the ethernet. Liaison does not handle this, but can forward them as EtherTalk packets. Is it possible to set up one (for the whole university) FastPath or a GatorBox as a EtherTalk-tcp/ip bridge and have it perform the neccesary conversion? The scenario would be: * The Macs are connected to LocalTalk * NCSA Telnet sends out tcp-in-LocalTalk packets * A Liaison bridge connects the LocalTalk with the ethernet backbone * The Liaison bridge forwards the tcp-in-LocalTalk packets as tcp- in-EtherTalk packets * The FastPath/GatorBox unpacks the tcp-in-EtherTalk packets, and sends them as tcp/ip packets Of course, it must work in the other direction as well. Would it work? If not, why? Are the alternative solutions? ### clay@claris.com (Clay Maeckel) writes We have a set up like you described in your posting about Liaison bridges fowarding IP-in-AppleTalk packets (both LocalTalk and EtherTalk). The only thing different is we don't use Liaison but only Kinetics boxes! To simplify installation we only have one KBox4 configured with KStar, the KIP server. All the other boxes are doing straight LocalTalk to EtherTalk conversions. NCSA Telnet 2.2 works fine in our setup. We tried version 2.3xxx with the MacIP driver and had problems making connections but I am not sure whose fault it was and if it will work with the released versions. ### kdb%intercon@uunet.uu.net (Kurt) writes Yes what you talked about would work. We have tested our product, which is based on NCSA Telnet, over such a setup. We had a Mac at home with Liason dialed into a Mac at the office with Liason running over LocalTalk to a Kinetics FastPath to a UNIX box running TCP/IP. It was a bit slow but it did work. Hope that answered your question. Oh, have you thought about a PC hooked up over LocalTalk to a Mac running liason dialed into another liason Mac connected to a FastPath (or something) then out to a VAX? That should work as well. Well good luck and if we can help out let us know. ### davide@cs.qmc.ac.uk (David Edmondson) writes Hello. I tried this out the other day and it worked with a fastpath 4 but not with a fastpath2, the difference is that the more recent boxes can dynamically assign IP addresses to machines on ethertalk (which is what appletalked machines going via Liaison look like). My setup was a simple test, an appletalk consisting of a Mac2 and a laserwriter bridged to ethernet by Liaison on a second Mac2. All that was required was to set the config.tel file for telnet2.2 to let it know which zone the gateway is in. ### minshall@kinetics.com (Greg Minshall) writes > We don't want to use FastPaths or GatorBoxes as the LocalTalk- > Ethernet bridges as they are too expensive. Well, I don't know (but, as I work for Kinetics, I'm a bit prejudiced). If you want to dedicate a Mac to the routing function, you are probably going to pay more than for a FastPath. If you don't want to dedicate a Mac, I would *think* (I've never used Liasion - and I think it is probably quite a nice product) that a heavy routing load would bog down the Mac a bit. Anyway, the real reason for this response is... ... > Is it possible to set up one (for the whole university) FastPath or > a GatorBox as a EtherTalk-tcp/ip bridge and have it perform the > neccesary conversion? ... > Would it work? If not, why? Are the alternative solutions? With K-STAR on a FastPath, this is possible. You need to select option 7 (and, by the way, configure things properly everywhere else), and it will service "MacIP" clients (be they NCSA Telnet, our HostAccess, whatever) connected "via" ethertalk as well as localtalk. (By the way, selecting option 7 implies that only one K-STAR (or KIP) box may be "in" the same zone - where "in a zone" means "has the same zone assigned to its localtalk port".) ----- -- Roland Mansson, Lund University Computing Center, Box 783, S220 07 Lund, Sweden Phone: +46-46107436 Fax: +46-46138225 Bitnet: roland_m@seldc52 Internet: roland_m@ldc.lu.se or roland_m%ldc.lu.se@uunet.uu.net UUCP: {uunet,mcvax}!sunic!ldc.lu.se!roland_m AppleLink: SW0022