daemon@ig.UUCP (11/02/87)
From: rob@presto.ig.com (Rob Liebschutz) As far as hardware goes, the thing that most people are using is called the Kinetics Fastpath (about $2500), a device which serves as a gateway between your Appletalk and ethernet networks. I believe Kinetics also makes a cheaper product, but you need one for each Macintosh. The phone number for Kinetics is (415) 947-0998. There are various software packages available to provide: 1) File service for the Mac 2) access by hosts on the ethernet (at least unix, probably vms) to appletalk printers 3) access by Macs to host printers 4) telnet/ftp for the Mac 5) backup of Macintosh disks on Unix host tape drives 6) And probably lot's more, but I'll spare you the details here There are free versions of most of the above software available (via the Internet or Usenet) for Unix machines, although I suspect the setup may be a bit complex for the inexperienced. Kinetics also has software that they sell, and they would probably point you to other vendors for things that they don't sell. For Vms Vaxes, you might ask Kinetics. Also, I have heard of some Vms software from the following company: Alisa Systems, Inc. 221 E. Walnut St., Suite 230 Pasadena, Ca 91101 818 - 792-9474 though I don't know if it does what you want, or how good it is. Chances are that you need to run a tcp/ip implementation on your VMS host if your are not already doing that. If anyone is interested in more details or where to get the free software, please let me know and I'll be glad to provide that information. Rob Liebschutz Systems Programmer, Bionet