Re: Windows NT Mac Server and the GS

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <94306.083114KCR103@psuvm.psu.edu>,
Ken Richardson  <KCR103@psuvm.psu.edu> wrote:
> At work we have a DX2/66 running as the server for our AppleTalk network.
> There are a few macs Ethernetted instead of AppleTalked too.  Out of
> curiousity, I took my GS to work to see how it would interact in
> this environment.  Well, I was hoping for better.  It seemed that
> the Apple II had no difficulty logging on to a Mac  on the network, but
> you were not even given the opportunity to logon as anything besides
> GUEST to the PC running NT.  The radio button to logon as a registered
> user was just grayed out.

I've never tried this myself, and I'm just theorising here.  From a
quick look at the AppleTalk Filing Protocol documentation in Inside
AppleTalk, I can see a few possible explanations for this:

1. If the PC-based server software doesn't implement version 2.0 of the
AppleTalk Filing Protocol, it will be missing some information
required by ProDOS.  I would expect that you wouldn't be able to log
on at all in this case, but it might just limit what can be done on
the server.  For example, AFP 2.0 retains the ProDOS filetype and
auxtype, but earlier versions don't.

The Apple II documentation for AFP says that it supports AFP 1.1 and
2.0, so I don't think this is the problem.

2. The PC-based server software may not implement all of the user
authentication methods.  The methods documented in Inside AppleTalk
are "No Uther Authentication" (probably means to log in as Guest),
"Cleartext password" (in which the password is sent unencrypted over
the network) and "Random number exchange" (which uses the D.E.S.
standard, and doesn't require the password to be sent over the network
at all).

If the Server only supports one method (e.g. random number exchange)
and the IIgs doesn't support this method, then you cannot log on as a
registered user.  The Mac-based sever software should support all
methods.

I don't know off-hand which methods the IIgs supports, and can't find
any clear information on this from a quick scan of the Apple II
AppleTalk documentation.  I seem to remember reading something about
this somewhere, though.

I suspect the IIgs doesn't support the third method (random number
exchange), but the PC _only_ supports this method.
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand