comm.ham.packet.tcp-ip newsgroup?, Mac IPs

[Ralph.Hyre%ius3.ius.cs.cmu.edu@Sdsc.BITnet]

{Sorry about the length, this article brings up several questions and I
thought the context would be helpful:

0) shall we try for a feed from tcp-group to comm.ham.packet.protocols.tcp-ip
It would make it easier to share conversations with the TCP/IP and vendor
specific groups, and provide for a wider audience.

1) Is it worth looking at the code for the NCSA telnet drivers for the PC
   and Mac?
                                        - Ralph N3FGW
}
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Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip,comp.procotols.appletalk
Subject: Mac TCP/IP (KA9Q vs. NCSA vs. SU-MacIP)
Summary: SU-MacIP has nicer interface
Keywords:
Distribution:
Followup-to:comp.protocols.appletalk
References: <8804021615.AA18966@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI

[not sure if followup to comp.protocols.appletalk is completely appropriate,
but as long as we're machine-specific we might as well.]

In article <8804021615.AA18966@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> michel@CCT.BBN.COM (Tony Mic
hel) writes:
>Well, Thanks!...
>My Mac is a real host on the Internet!
>
>This system works very well, and is shockingly cheap.
>
>Having said something nice, now let me grumble.  The correct solution to
>my previous query would be to have the NCSA software support  User FTP, and
>I'm not sure why it does not.  Perhaps they have plans?  Anyway, for
>something FREE, it's great.
SU-MacIP is another implementation from Stanford which supports multiple
TELNET, FTP, and Finger stuff, using as much of the Mac Interface as the
implementors though of.  User FTP is most impressive, since it looks
like a standard file dialog for copying from disk to disk.

There's also a free (to non-commercial, presumably, since it's Mikel
Matthews' port of Phil Karn's 'KA9Q' TCP/IP stuff), but it's definitely
non-Mac interface at this point. [In fact my version crashes when you use
the mouse, due to interrupt problems.]  It also purports to support TCP over
Appletalk, but since I wasn't able to understand the documentation well
enough to configure it I was never able to try telnetting to something
else via our Apple LocalTalk<->Kinetics<->Ethernet connection.

I believe SuU-MacCIP is available for a small amount of money, small being
relative to who you are [University vs. Commercial.]  (Yes, there was some
grumbling on info-appletalk [aka comp.protocols.appletalk] about the licensing
policy when it was announced over a year ago, since people at commercial places
[BBN in particular] helped out with early guts of the code, then were getting
screwed on the licensing fee)

Possible Disclaimer: The ITC here was stress testing 2 early implementations of
these last fall, and NCSA was so flakey as to be unusable, so it was hard to
get experience with it versus the much more stable SU-MacIP.  I don't recall
version numbers, but I'm fairly certain that they were both pre-release.
Neither version dealt with the Kinetics box crashing very well.  (That's
the weak link that I see in this Mac networking stuff)

Hopefully someone will write an IP router for a Mac II that uses the Apple
EtherTalk card to link some Apple LocalTalk nets together.  (Can A/UX do this,
or did Apple have time to rip the TCP/IP stuff out and put DECnet in?:-()