sdh@flash.bellcore.com (Stephen D Hawley) (02/08/90)
I have a front end interface to a mainframe that currently communicates via the serial port. My superiors have asked if I could possibly speed up the communications by using ethernet. Fine. I have an Apple EtherTalk installed (Using V 1.0 since 2.0 doesn't work with our internet), and can access all the nice dandy laser printers on our network. This is not what I want. Since I'm on an ethernet with billions and billions of other machines (most of which are suns, decstations, and the like), I should be able to start a shell on one of the machines right? So. How do I do this? NCSA telnet does not work, so this is clearly of no help in terms of looking for source. In sum, I'm looking for a way to open a channel (socket, whatever) to some arbitrary host on our network and (among other things) run a terminal emulator on top of this. As a minor flame, I am rather disturbed by the almost complete lack of any kind of technical information in the manual for the card. Call me old-fashioned, but when one purchases a peripheral, I believe one should get a little more in-depth information than how to select an icon in the control panel! This is like buying a radial arm saw that has the ability to cut at any angle or tilt with a variety of blades, but not being given the instructions beyond how to put on a pair of safety glasses, turn the beast on and off and make cuts at the factory settings. In the case of the EtherTalk card, it's worse because the settings aren't even VISIBLE. Hmf. Steve Hawley sdh@flash.bellcore.com A noun's a special kind of word. It's ev'ry name you ever heard. I find it quite interesting, A noun's a person place or thing.
amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) (02/08/90)
In article <19790@bellcore.bellcore.com>, sdh@flash.bellcore.com (Stephen D Hawley) writes: > This is not what I want. Since I'm on an ethernet with billions and > billions of other machines (most of which are suns, decstations, and the like), > I should be able to start a shell on one of the machines right? Well, an Ethernet board in itself does not automatically give you this capability, any more than it would on any other machine... > So. How do I do this? NCSA telnet does not work, so this is clearly of no > help in terms of looking for source. I don't know if it's all that clear--NCSA Telnet seems to work for many thousands of people all around the world, using Ethernet boards from many different manufacturers in many different kinds of Macs. Perhaps you could be a little more specific about how it is failing for you... > As a minor flame, I am rather disturbed by the almost complete lack of any > kind of technical information in the manual for the card. A quite in-depth technical description of the card, as well as the Ethernet and EtherTalk drivers, is available from Apple. It is completely worthless to someone who is using the card with pre-existing software. If you need it for programming, you can buy it for a nominal fee; if you don't, you don't have to pay for it (or be confused by it, for that matter). This isn't a PC-- you don't need to know the I/O map for a device before you can use it :-). You can also get a complete TCP/IP driver (with sample code and complete documentation) from Apple. It's called MacTCP, and costs $100 for a single copy, $2500 for a non-commercial use site license. This will let you open TCP connections to other machines and transfer data across them. It's a little more complex than using the serial driver, but as long as you have a reasonable amount of Macintosh programming experience and some knowledge of TCP/IP, it's not at all hard to use. > Hmf. > > Steve Hawley > sdh@flash.bellcore.com Of course, if you don't have the time or inclination to call Apple and see if they have the information you want, or do some troubleshooting to find out why NCSA Telnet doesn't work on your machine, there are a number of companies who specialize in commercial, supported TCP/IP software, and who will walk customers through setup, configuration, and problem determination. I'm sorry if this article sounds flippant, but I answer questions about Mac Ethernet devices and TCP/IP networks every day, and most problems are due to confusion or just plain old operator error. -- Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation "Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly upon our own point of view." --Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Return of the Jedi"
rdominy@palantir.gsfc.nasa.gov (Robert Dominy) (02/09/90)
In article <19790@bellcore.bellcore.com> sdh@flash.bellcore.com (Stephen D Hawley) writes: > I have a front end interface to a mainframe that currently communicates > via the serial port. My superiors have asked if I could possibly speed up > the communications by using ethernet. Fine. I have an Apple EtherTalk > installed (Using V 1.0 since 2.0 doesn't work with our internet), and can > access all the nice dandy laser printers on our network. > > This is not what I want. Since I'm on an ethernet with billions and > billions of other machines (most of which are suns, decstations, and the like) Just being attached to an Ethernet doesn't mean anything. You have to understand what protocols the machines you want to connect to are using. Once you've done this there are a number of commercial and free products available to "speak" the protocol and do the functions you want. The only software that comes with the EtherTalk card is the driver for the AppleTalk (EtherTalk) protocol. > So. How do I do this? NCSA telnet does not work, so this is clearly of no > help in terms of looking for source. For example NSCA Telnet does TCP/IP, terminal emulation, and file transfer. If your computers use TCP/IP (and most UNIX workstations do) then NCSA Telnet WILL work for you (you do have to set up some Telnet parameters, but this is in the Telnet manual). > As a minor flame, I am rather disturbed by the almost complete lack of any > kind of technical information in the manual for the card. Call me Technical documentation IS available. However, for the vast majority of users who just want to print to their LaserWriter, such documentation is hardly needed. I suppose you're in the camp that expects Apple to provide the Inside Macintosh & electrical schematics with every Mac! ------------------------------- Robert Dominy NASA Goddard Space Flight Center