remote access from MacOS to A/UX over Appletalk?

[Herb Weiner]

--------
In article <18256 at hydra.gatech.EDU> ken at dali.gatech.edu (Ken Seefried iii) asks
> The MacOS people would like to be able to read mail on the A/UX box
> over Appletalk.

I asked a roughly similar question approximately a week ago.  The question
(and several replies) may still be on your system.  Look for the subject
"I can get news from around the world, but not to the next room".

The emailed and posted suggestions fell into the following categories:
1. Use the serial port.  (Sorry, I can't.  The printer port is used by
   AppleTalk.  The modem port is required for my modem.  Besides, I
   can't easily get a serial cable from here to there.)
2. Use some sort of news server (e.g. NNTP news server with NetNews stack).
   Unless I'm missing something, these require either a serial connection
   or an AppleTalk to Ethernet gateway, neither of which is available.
3. Use MacTCP, TopsTerm, or ADSP to log in.  Sorry.  As far as I know,
   none of these will allow me to log in to A/UX over AppleTalk.
4. Use NRC Software Router.  Sorry, according to NRC, they don't have
   drivers for A/UX.

One solution that will definitely work (but it's not cheap) is to
purchase a hardware AppleTalk to Ethernet gateway, such as the Kinetics
Fastpath, the Cayman Gatorbox, or others.  (Which would be the best choice?)

The other alternative is to put everyone on Ethernet.  This, of course,
assumes that you can easily get an Ethernet cable from here to there;
this is not always a valid assumption.  (What is a good choice of Ethernet
cards (with drivers for A/UX) for a Mac IIfx?)

A solution that ought to work, but probably will not, is to write a software
router that runs under A/UX.  However, I'm reluctant to spend money on the
required documentation, only to find out that it can't be done.  I've been
told that ADSP is NOT supported for A/UX applications (such as a Daemon).
The A/UX Toolbox: Macintosh ROM Interface manual (page 5-5) states "Apple
network calls are available at the program level [what DOES this mean?],
but not fully supported at the network level: there is no session protocol
or data stream."

As far as I can determine (Apple, please correct me if I am wrong), there
is a brick wall between A/UX programs (like Daemons) and AppleTalk.  They
can NOT access the Communication Toolbox.  They can not access the AppleTalk
drivers.  The ONLY thing they can do is print over AppleTalk.

Herb Weiner (herbw at wiskit.pdx.com)