🚀 go-pugleaf

I recently asked the net for info about networking for the Mac SE, and
recieved many helpful responses.

There seem to be only two systems that let plain old Mac programs transparantly 
access files on a remote Unix fileserver:

1. TOPS, a proprietary network file system developed independantly 
   and later purchased by Sun; this has been available for some time.
   The only Unix box that TOPS currently runs on is the Sun-3.
   Either LocalTalk or Ethernet may be used to connect the Macs to the Sun.
   TOPS phone number is (800) 445-8677 or (415) 769-8700.
   System cost:
    Software:
     TOPS server on Sun ($900 for 1-4 clients, $1600 for 1-16 clients)
     TOPS client on Mac ($250 per client)
    Hardware:
     using LocalTalk: $50 per client + $2000 for the Kinetics Fastpath bridge
     using EtherTalk: $600 per client

2. Cayman Systems' Gatorbox, an NFS (Ethernet) to AFP (LocalTalk) bridge; 
   the box and software sell for $3495, and takes about 6 weeks to get.
   The Unix box must be running NFS (and most can; many are shipped with it).
   It links up to 32 Macs running Apple's network (AFP on LocalTalk) to 
   a standard Ethernet network.
   Cayman Systems' phone number is (617) 494-1999.
   System cost:
	$50 per client (for LocalTalk cable) + $3500 for the Gatorbox bridge

Other NFS systems, rumored but not currently available, are
3. University of Michgan had a client version of NFS for the Mac at last 
   years Sun Connectathon.  Don't think they ever fielded it.

4. Peter Honeyman (one of the authors of HoneyDanBer uucp?) led a project 
   that put tcp/ip and NFS on Macs, under contract to Apple.
   Apple has the software now; it's unclear when if ever they will release it.

LocalTalk is Apple's 200 kilobit/sec serial networking hardware, which
is quite slow compared with the 10 Megabit/sec Ethernet;
one might therefore expect to be able to connect up only five or ten Macs
per LocalTalk bus before seeing degradation, as opposed to fifty or so on an 
Ethernet bus.  (I've never tried it, so I dunno.)


There are also systems available that let TCP/IP aware programs communicate
with other machines on an Ethernet; this isn't as nice as transparant file
access, but it can be pretty darn useful.

1. Kinetics sells Ethernet boards for all versions of the Macintosh; it
   also sells a TCP/IP (Ethernet) to TCP/IP (Appletalk) bridge.

2. NCSA maintains a professional-looking TELNET package for the PC and the Mac
   which supports remote login, multiple VT102 emulation, Tek 4014 emulation,
   subnetting, and dynamic IP address assignment via RARP.
   I think this is shipped with Kinetics equipment.
   It is available for anonymous FTP over the Darpanet from 
   ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu   (128.174.20.50).   Contacts listed on their blurb:
       Tim Krauskopf                timk@ncsa.uiuc.edu (ARPA)
       Gaige B. Paulsen             gaige@ncsa.uiuc.edu
       National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
       University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

3. Either Stanford or Columbia maintain something called KIP and CAP
   which seems to be another TCP/IP package; NCSA would know more about it.

4. Phil Karn's KA9Q package is another (public-domain?) TCP/IP implementation.

Thanks to everybody who replied.  I'm still looking for something that
supports NFS over Ethernet right to the Mac...
-- 
  Dan Kegel   "We had to get it passed before the columnists attacked!"
  srs!dan@cs.rochester.edu  rochester!srs!dan dan%srs.uucp@harvard.harvard.edu