Re: Localtalk gateway/bridge

[Phil Beesley <pb14@le.ac.uk>]

In article <MSGID_1=3a393=2f9005=40fidonet_8a1143fa@fidonet.org>, Steve
Quarrella <Steve.QuarrellaNOSPAM@f9005.n393.z1.fidonet.org> wrote:

>  TH> I've been trying to get the same thing working for a while now, but
>  TH> took a little hiatus.
> 
> Same here.  You wrote this to me on 9/6, and here I am today.  I saw a
> comment in this thread about something at the byte level with System 6.0.1,
> and while I know little about how the IIgs talks to the Mac, I'm inclined to
> agree.  I was moving some things around the other day, and in the course of
> doing this, I fired up one of my SE systems on the LocalTalk network.  With
> the LocalTalk bridge running on my Power PC 7200 in the middle, the SE could
> see my NT Server (running Services for Macintosh).  The Apple IIgs can't, and
> from there, I'm dead until I can afford to splurge on a IIgs Ethernet card.

I missed this post last week -- on holiday, trying to take a break from
computers. The one and only thing that I did with a (modern) computer
was get a bit further with Services for Macintosh and the IIgs.

My previous experiences have been similar to Steve's: the IIgs is
unable to see a Windows 2000 or NT4 system running Services for
Macintosh in the AppleTalk control panel, unlike older Macintoshes (I
have successfully networked a Mac 512 (not 512ke) to W2K and NT4
previously).

The change I made on the NT side was to enable AppleTalk Router Seeding
-- this effectively means that the NT box explicitly tells other
devices (Macs, Apple IIs) what servers and zones exist on the network.
Once this was done, the IIgs could see either an NT4 or Windows 2000
server in the AppleTalk control panel.

There are still some problems. When I login from the IIgs, I must login
as Guest; the authenticated login mechanism is greyed out in the dialog
box. The same problem has been reported by Marsha when connecting to a
Linux box running Netatalk.

I took the blunt implement approach to getting my IIgs to see my
server; it may be possible to configure AppleTalk routing (on the
server or via a dedicated router) so that the Windows server becomes
visible without enabling Seeding. If you try this, please be careful
about enabling AppleTalk Seeding if you are attached to somebody else's
network. It is harmless on a small private network but could make you
very unpopular if you mess up a corporate or educational AppleTalk
network.

Phil