🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <B157017D96681CC305@0.0.0.0>, Simon Slavin writes:

> 
> If anyone has experience sharing IRIX drives with a Mac or 
vice-versa
> across a network, could you tell me how you did it ?
> 
> I currently intend to try the 'Columbia AppleTalk Package' but are
> very willing to listen to advice !
> 
> Simon.

Simon,

There are currently two free packages that will allow you to add 
AppleTalk services to UNIX hosts for free, and several that will cost 
you.

Of the free solutions I have installed and used both NetATalk and CAP 
(Columbia AppleTalk Package) sucessfully on both HP-UX and ULTRIX, but 
I have limited experience with IRIX.

The only problem you will find with both of the above solutions (and 
the majority of free UNIX software) is that the software is supplied 
as source code and you will have to compile the software yourself to 
get it working. The advantage here is that if you know your UNIX and C 
you can take the source and make it work on most UNIX platforms with 
modification (not for the weak hearted).

The building process varies from package to package, usually all you 
have to do is run a configure script and then run make, but I believe 
there were a few problems with the source I have which required some 
modifications to compile correctly.

Of the two packages NetATalk has the best performance due to the fact 
that the network services run in the Kernel, however this makes the 
compilation difficult or impossible if your UNIX vendor doesn't 
support re-building the Kernel at that level (as do HP-UX and I 
believe IRIX).

CAP is easier to build, but suffers from performance degredation due 
to the network services running as a listener process, not in the 
Kernel. I believe that a patch for CAP is available to allow it to 
work as an AppleShare IP server, thereby using TCP/IP services on the 
host which may provide better performance. Even running with a 
listener process I found the performance to be satisfactory providing 
the server wasn't too heavly loaded.

CAP can be found at http://www.cs.mu.OZ.AU/appletalk/cap.html
NetATalk can be found at http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/netatalk/

As to the DAVE solution, I don't expect this will present any 
problems, however you will have to purchase DAVE and install (or 
possibly compile) SAMBA. Using CAP or NetATalk will give superior 
performance as you are not going through as many protocol changes.

Samba can be found at http://lake.canberra.edu.au/pub/samba/

N.B. I no longer work for the company at which I installed the above 
software, so I am reciting this from memory without a systemm to make 
reference to.

Good Luck,

-- Kate