wcc@cup.portal.com (wcc - usa) (07/07/90)
> Has anyone had problems with K-Star, MacTCP, and Dynamic IP addresses? > We have one site trying to use this combination with very little success. > The macintoshes usually cannot talk to anything with IP, not even > a machine on their local network accessed through its IP number. > > Just to make life more interesting, they occasionally (say, 1 reboot > out of 10) work just fine. I have been unable to detect any rhyme or > reason to when they do or do not work. There is a very simple procedure that you can follow to fix these problems. I have used it lots of times. 1. Use peek to grab all packets off the wire for those sessions that work and those that don't. 2. Print all the packets out (there'll be lots of them). 3. Crack the packets with the help of a copy of "Inside AppleTalk" in one hand and the KIP sources in the other (these define the MacIP protocol that is the thing that is failing). Note that reading source code in order to crack a protocol isn't easy but it is challenging. I mean it. This is not a ":-)" posting. This is how you do it. > Maybe I should tell them to get Gatorboxes instead... They'd do the same thing. So would MultiGates (though don't let that stop you from buying them :-). Now the fix... > MacTCP: > Dynamic addressing (node id from 1-254 [why does MacTCP want to know?]) > Does this ring any bells for anybody? I'm baffled. "BING!" You want "Server" addressing, not "Dynamic". You've just suffered a Jargon collision. Apple doesn't use "dynamic" to mean what you think it is (and they're bigger). As far as I can guess (the books are 8000 miles away) "Dynamic" means "Pick a random IP address in this range and then ARP for it. If no-one answers it's yours". I think you're meant to set the Macs up to do this on Ethernet in a range of IP addresses the Mac's then can fight for (shock horrors!!). On LocalTalk it will probably work if you fluke an IP address in the STATIC range on the FastPath. If you set the range to the STATIC range it would probably work all the time. The kbox is acting as a MacIP "Server" for the Macs. Hence the term. Note the above debugging technique would have shown this instantly without any cracking as the bad IP addresses are shown up in ASCII in the right-hand column. You would have seen a string like: "192.9.200.1 IPADDRESS" with different IP addresses being attempted. Tom Evans wcc@cup.portal.com Webster Computer Corporation Suite J, 2109 O'Toole Ave. San Jose, California 95131-1303 Ph (408) 954-8054 FAX (408) 954-1832 Head Office tom@wcc.oz.au, multigate@wcc.oz.au 1270 Ferntree Gully Rd. Scoresby, Victoria, Australia Ph 61 3 764-1100 FAX 61 3 764-1179