Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!bwdls61.bnr.ca!bnr.ca!bschmidt
From: bschmidt@bnr.ca (Ben Schmidt)
Subject: Re: MacTCP and FastPath 4
Message-ID: <1990Nov14.232423.1183@bwdls61.bnr.ca>
Sender: usenet@bwdls61.bnr.ca (Use Net)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research
References: <9011141828.AA02286@aquarium.ecn.purdue.edu>
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 90 23:24:23 GMT

In article <9011141828.AA02286@aquarium.ecn.purdue.edu> 
moyman@ECN.PURDUE.EDU (James M Moya) writes:
> >
> >From: ncar.ucar.edu!hpoppe@handies.ucar.edu  (Herb Poppe)
> >Organization: National Center for Atmospheric Research
> >Subject: MacTCP and FastPath 4
> >
> >I have not been successful in getting MacTCP on LocalTalk nodes to work 
> >with a FastPath 4 (4.1 ROMs) running the built-in "IP sub-sectioning"
> >code.

Yup, MacTCP does an NBP lookup for an IPGATEWAY.  But i don't think that FastPaths running the IP subnetting code in the firmware (I'm too old too learn that new-fangled word Shiva invented: sub-sectioning) don't register themselves as IPGATEWAYs.  So, upon failing to find an IPGATEWAY, MacTCP then closes itself!!?  Talk about giving up easily!  Whose fault?  I don't know.  Seems Apple could help out a litte, since they are only now writing (through John Vezaides' IETF group) the RFC for DDP/IP gateways.  



How about a bit more forgiveness for the old boxes?  Ah well, that's progress...   :^)

> >I called Shiva Tech Support and was told that this was possible, but 
> >required patching MacTCP with ResEdit. He claimed that they run 
> >FastPaths that way in house, but could not tell me how to make the patch.
>

sounds like some legal thing.  Apple's fine print probably says you're not 
allowed to modify system software or your hair colour or anything, and we're all legally in contravention of this restriction for ResEditing our Finder Trashcan icons into IBM logos!   :^)  :^)   So I figure maybe Shiva's lawyers  told their staff not to encourage people to do quasi-legal things?  sigh.  but I work for a big company and these types of legal abstractions happen all the time...  :^)  (maybe Momma was right, I shoulda' gone to law school)
 
> Wonderful, tech support saying you need to modify *MacTCP* to *fix* the
> problem.

Well, non-MacTCP telnets seem to have no problems finding FastPaths running IP subnetting code.  If you configure MacTCP to use a static address within the IP subnet administered by a FastPath running the firmware code, it seems plausible that MacTCP could have been written to work in this situation.

> > He also said that there was no one else there that could help me.
> 
> There never is...
> 
> >
> >If anyone in netland knows how to do this, I would sure like to know 
> >how.  If, in fact, it is not possible to make MacTCP work with "IP 
> >sub-sectioning", I would like to hear about that, too.
> 
> I would also like to know this *fix*
> 
> 
> I have also been getting intermittant problems with MacTCP with the new
> Shiva Boxes.  The Kinetics FP-4 running KSTAR 7.0 had no problems
> what-so-ever with MacTCP.  Since booting up several Shiva Boxes upgrades,
> with 7.0.1 and 8.0.1 the IP problems have started to pour in.  Nothing 
> like upgrading FastPath *1* that hasn't given me a lick of trouble in 3 
> years, to a Shiva 4 that has been complaining since I booted it up...they
> didn't tell me that was include in the upgrade.  The old FP was slow but
> hey, it worked flawlessly.  What a deal!
> 

Well you could just get an Ethernet card.  It works fine with MacTCP.  :^) 

> >Then I'll stop wasting time on this and use K-STAR 8.x.

I'm sure all KFPS users are waiting for K-Star 8.1.  Too many 
things seem to have changed with K-Star 7-8.0, what with NBP filtering, SNMP support, and ATP2 support.  I'm sure that there's a lot of lose ends that a 2nd pass, with no additional features added, just code refinement would address.  Hopefully Shiva has figured the code out by now, and we'll get K-Star 8.1 under our Xmas trees?!   :^)

> You may be wasting your time with KSTAR also...^^^

Are we having one of those days, Mike?    :^)

(PS. We've got 200 FPs on our internet, so i hope i'll be forgiven for my 
tongue in cheek remarks above. :^)

Ben Schmidt     Bell-Northern Research, Ltd.   Ph: (613) 763-3906
Information     P.O. Box 3511, Station C       FAX:(613) 763-3283
Technology      Ottawa Canada K1Y 4H7          bschmidt@bnr.ca
