[no subject]

> Actually, we have a large number of IIci's, IIcx's (or whatever), and
> assorted PowerMacs attached to the network on both ethernet and localtalk
> (depending upon where on campus they are). I am currently typing this on
> a Power Macintosh 5260/100 in another dorm room, which is attached to the
> ethernet network by means of a blue ethernet cable which is identical to the
> one used to attach the Mac SE's to the network. All of these normally
> ethernet attached computers are able to access all of the Mac servers
> over EtherTalk.

The type of cable isn't conclusive - 10Base-T cables have enough wires
to run a serial connection, though it would be rather confusing to use
the same wiring for two physically incompatible connections.

Your mention of EtherTalk brings up another issue: if a machine is
connected directly to Ethernet, it should be able to run TCP/IP and
AppleTalk simultaneously over the network.  If it is connected via a
LocalTalk port, TCP/IP data would have to be encapsulated in AppleTalk
packets and extracted by a router before being fed onto Ethernet.

If there are some serially connected Macs, then they might be able to
run AppleTalk encapsulated in TCP/IP over SLIP or PPP (I'm not sure if
this is possible), or TCP/IP encapsulated in AppleTalk over a simulated
LocalTalk connection (RS-422 point-to-point connection to some kind of
terminal server).

I'd be interested to hear if your computer centre can explain this
conclusively.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail Mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand