🚀 go-pugleaf

We will soon have a couple of dozens of MacIntosh connected to some
AppleNets (or is it named AppleTalk?). Hopefully we will be able to connect
them to a Sun acting as a file server.

But aside from fileaccess we also want to have terminal access to the Sun
(or to any machine in the house). I do NOT want to lay out cables from every
Mac to the host or to any centralized switch. Every room will be passed by
an ethernetcable and an AppleNet. So the abvious solution is to connect the
Mac (or any common async terminal) to one of the nets.

But the black boxes that connect a asyncrounous terminal to ethernet is
rather expensive. I want to be able to use any kind of host at the other
end, i.e. the solution with Dec LAT and Decnet is not possible. Also I
want 1 (one) box to 1 (one) terminal it would be rather expensive.

So what about the other net, AppleNet? Low-speed and low-cost... Has anybody
made some kind of black box that takes the asyncounous bytes and packs them
into an AppleNet packet, send them away to an unpacker which presents the
bytes asyncrounously to some kind of host? Those boxes must be much cheaper
than Ethernetboxes, but how cheap?

Maybe some patching can be done in a Mac to steal the bytes to be output on
the ttyport and send them via the AppleNet (after some packaging of course).
Maybe the AppleNet to Multibus i/f I am looking for in an other article and
some smart driver in the Sun will make it.

Anybody in the same thoughts? Anybody done it? Anybody interested if we make
it?

I summarize any answers to the net of course.

Hans