🚀 go-pugleaf

> Does split addressing *work* using atalkad?

I haven't tried it myself, but certainly there isn't any way for atalkad to
deliver both an IP address for the Kbox and a different one for its client
range: there just isn't any place to put this info.  But remember that atalkad
does two things:

1) it delivers local config info to each Kbox (eg, number of clients, LocalTalk
net number and zone name, etc)

2) it delivers a routing and zone table to every box in its internet.

In general, #1 isn't crucial because you can configure all this info by hand
with FastPath Manager (FPM).  But if you want to have Kboxes form an AppleTalk
internet across IP-only paths, there isn't any substitute for the routing info
provided by function #2.  On the Kbox at least (dunno about other products),
you can't just type this info in.

It could be that you could configure the split addresses by hand using FPM and
still use atalkad to deliver the other local info to the box.  I've observed
that K-STAR is pretty good at using hand-configured info first where it exists,
and atalkad info for any other parameters.

Another approach is to hand-configure everything with the FPM, and just use
atalkad to deliver routing info.  I think it should work to just set up an
atalkad like:

24.9    E       158.36.19.40      Stanford
53.26   E       158.36.58.43      Twilight
95.3    E       158.36.171.10     Danger
73.8    E       158.36.22.40      Zilla

where the IP addresses are those of your Kboxes, and the net numbers and zone
names those of their respective LocalTalks.  Ie, replace the "K" lines that
you're no longer using with E lines that just provide routing/zone info to the
rest of the net.  It's worth a try.

Here's another approach.  I get the impression that you're doing this because
you've run out of IP address space on your original subnet.  What we do a lot
of (though it's controversial) is to use more than one subnet on a single
Ethernet (it's almost always Kboxes that make us want to do this).  Our cisco
routers make this easy to do.  This gives you N*254 (assuming you're using
8-bit host parts) IP addresses on the Ethernet; sorta like Phase 2, huh.  You
do have to make sure that boxes on the same Ethernet with different IP subnet
numbers still agree on AppleTalk net numbers and zone names.

> I may wish to setup a second atalkad -- can I run this
> while the existing one is running (it's control is out of my hands), but
> running different atalkatab files?

Sure.  It's not unreasonable to run two Kboxes with similar but non-identical
atalkatabs (just make sure they don't contradict each other).  If I have two
atalkatabs, A and B, users who are on nets defined only in A will only be able
to communicate with other nets defined in A (and similarly for B), while users
on nets defined in both A and B will be able to communicate with the union of
the two internets.  You can use this method to dig yourself into amazingly deep
procedural holes, if you wish 8^).  Of course, if two Kboxes using two
different atalkatabs share an Ethernet and do RTMP, they will exchange all
their routes and zones, with possibly amusing results.  

 - RL "Bob" Morgan
   Networking Systems
   Stanford


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