Physical Mac Plus + Mini vmac communication

[Andrew]

Hello,

I would appreciate your input on getting this to work. I have purchased an asante microprint bridge and would like to use mini vmac to effortlessly transfer data.

The way I understand it is that mini vmac (special build) speaks LToUDP, and the asante microprint speaks Ethetalk.
@cheesestraws I know you have some experience with (sfiera's) multitalk, do you know if it would make mini vmac speak with ethertalk?

In multitalk debug output, I see communication from both (virtual and physical) macs. However they do not seem to communicate to each other.

Other tests I've performed:
a) mini vmac <-> mini vmac - OK
b) Physical Mac <-> macipgw device - OK
c) Physical Mac <-> Cockatrice III - OK
d) Mini vmac <-> multitalk <-> mini vmac - NOT OK
e) Mini vmac <-> multitalk <-> macipgw - NOT OK

 

[sfiera]

I haven’t yet gotten that sort of setup working; the working theory is that it’s related to AppleTalk’s network number. I assume that the bridge somehow provides a network number to the Plus, but nothing in multitalk instructs Mini vMac that it is running on an extended network.

 

[Andrew]

I haven’t yet gotten that sort of setup working; the working theory is that it’s related to AppleTalk’s network number. I assume that the bridge somehow provides a network number to the Plus, but nothing in multitalk instructs Mini vMac that it is running on an extended network.

Thanks for your answer. I hadn't realised you were on the forum. Let me know if I can help somehow. E.g. do some tests, some wireshark etc.

 

[sfiera]

You said you see traffic in the debug output from both Macs, right? Is there a mismatch in the network numbers? Are you able to set a network number on the bridge?

I don’t have a hardware bridge, but I have (unsuccessfully) used a Mac with LocalTalk Bridge. I would be interested in knowing if there are any differences between that setup and yours, but I don’t know what questions to ask to determine that.

 

[Andrew]

Sorry, I hadn't seen your reply. I will capture the output and send it here. I am sure you will make more sense out of it

 

[Andrew]

By the way, does anyone know why packets from the asante bridge do not get forwarded over wifi? The bridge is supposed to convert localtalk to ethernet. My mikrotik access point is bridging ethernet to 802.11. Why wouldn't these packets get forwarded? I have seen through wireshark (wired connections) that the packets arriving from the assante bridge are essentially broadcast packets. Aren't these supposed to propagate through wifi?

 

[cheesestraws]

By the way, does anyone know why packets from the asante bridge do not get forwarded over wifi?

There's an extremely long and complicated story about AppleTalk and WiFi, which in this case is going to be made worse by the fact that the Asanté tries to guess what version of EtherTalk it should be speaking based on what activity it sees on its Ethernet port. Since you have wireshark, can you check whether the Asanté is talking Phase 1 or Phase 2 EtherTalk?

Do other AppleTalk speakers fail to speak to each other over the WiFi? Some, especially consumer, WiFi APs don't really like passing anything that isn't IP, but I'd be surprised if that was the case for the Mikrotik.

 

[Andrew]

I am having a closer look at it. In case you are interested please find attached the traffic generated by the asante bridge (filtered by its mac address) while the classic mac was actively querying for network shares. I think it may not be broadcasting after all...

 

[Andrew]

This is another packet capture while trying to ping 192.168.88.1 (having configured with mactcp and using macping)

 

[cheesestraws]

That is in fact speaking Phase 2 so there's no reason it can't go over WiFi... I can only assume the mikrotik kit is not passing it. You might want to check that the mikrotik stuff isn't ACLing/firewalling anything that isn't IP... I don't know much about the mikrotik wireless kit I'm afraid, I only use it for wired routing.