newsuser@LTH.Se (LTH network news server) (05/25/89)
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?
--
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}!enea!ldc.lu.se!roland_m AppleLink: SW0022minshall@kinetics.UUCP (Greg Minshall) (06/01/89)
From article <1989May25.152904.13504@LTH.Se>, by newsuser@LTH.Se (LTH network news server): ... > 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".) Hope this helps. Greg Minshall minshall@kinetics.com (this seems to work these days). 1-415-947-0998