msurlich@faui44.UUCP (Matthias Urlichs ) (04/25/88)
I am currently writing a X.25 driver for the Mac SE and II. This will probably be a commercial product. The X.25 network will be accessible thru ADSP (AppleTalk Data Stream protocol), featuring fully transparent connection-forwarding (or so I hope), which means that existing application probably work over X.25. The driver will be accessible over AppleTalk exclusively (for now). This doesn't mean sacrifizing a Mac because AppleTalk can be told to talk to itself even between tasks on the same machine. Question: What additional features would be needed? What features would you like to see? (Having the driver act as a low-level AppleTalk bridge is, unfortunately, out of the question without shutting down "normal" ATalk on the server Mac.) This implementation might be connectable to any X.25 network, subject to approval by local PTT/FCC/??. Question: What are standard procedures to getting such approval? Are there any differences between standard X.25 and local implementations? I am also going to write an implementation of X.28 with a standard "PAD" type interface as well as one that looks like a Hayes modem, to make existing terminal software happy. There already are some programs that redirect the serial (modem) port to somewhere else (network modem, other Mac's serial port, ...). Question: What companies make these products? How reliable are they? Are there any descriptions of the AppleTalk protocols they use to communicate, if it isn't standard ADSP? Are they fully AppleTalk compatible, i.e. do they use the Chooser? The reason for this is that I don't want to write my own modem-port redirecting software which will almost certainly be incompatible with any other such software existing today and that redirecting serial communications isn't easy (as far as I know). Is there any example source code showing me how to do it, in case these companies are uncooperative? Being located in Germany, I probably need some sort of distributor. Question: obvious, especially since I don't know anything about such matters. Please answer via EMail. I'll summarize if you want me to. Please make your answers short because I may have to pay for them if they are too long :-( . -- Matthias Urlichs CompuServe: 72437,1357 Delphi: URLICHS Rainwiesenweg 9 8501 Schwaig 2 "Violence is the last refuge West Germany of the incompetent." -- Salvor Hardin