🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <305@fairlight.oz> gary@fairlight.UUCP (Gary Evesson) writes:
>In article <6613@apple.UUCP> dwb@apple.UUCP (David W. Berry) writes:
>>	Sorry, I can't buy this one.  Given that every Mac ever made has
>>the AppleTalk hardware built in, and that the driver/protocol software
>
>Ahem....
>
>	1) There is no special hardware in the Mac for Appletalk - it plugs
>	   into the serial port.
>	2) Appletalk costs a fortune - for no good reason as far as I can
>	   see. I spoke to a dealer here in Australia who wanted to sell me
>	   100m of cable for over A$1,000 ($US650) - he was embarrased, but 
>	   that's how much Apple wanted for it.
>
>							gary@fairlight.oz
>							Gary Evesson

Appltalk is, in fact, build in to every Macintosh ever made. The
connector that plugs into the serial port is an isolation transformer
that protects the internal circuitry from bad things coming across the
network wire. This costs somewhere between US$35 and US$50, mostly
because it has to cost something otherwise all those high-overhead
computer dealers wouldn't carry it. The network wire is hideously
expensive because it is teflon insulated so as to conform to US fire
codes. The Farralon cabling system, electrically compatible with
Appletalk, may be substituted. It uses very inexpensive telephone
wires and, at least in the US, can often run on the often unused
yellow and black pair or wires found in existing phone wires. If fact,
the network connection to the modem I am dialed out on shares the
telephone 4-conductor cable the modem is connected to.

-Zigurd