Software AppleTalk router?

[CTB]

The PSU in my Cayman Gator box has just failed. I was using it for LocalTalk to Ethernet routing as well as MacIP serving. I had two zones set up, one called LocalTalk and one called Ethernet. Imaginative hey.

I have replaced it with a Farallon iPrint which does work (sort of) but it doesn’t define zones, all you get is an “*” for the zone name and a few things don’t make it across the bridge.

Is there a software product that would allow for zone creation? I know there are software solutions for the basic routing (LocalTalk Bridge) and MacIP (IPNetRouter) but I can’t seem to find anything that allows you to define zones.

Does anyone have any experience with this from back in the day?

 

[finkmac]

I believe AppleTalk Internet Router can do this... but, why not repair the power supply?

 

[NJRoadfan]

If you really need zones, netatalk's atalkd daemon can create them and assign network ranges. It won't help with the LocalTalk side though. I'd fix the power supply.

 

[CTB]

Hoping it is the PSU and don’t really have time for diagnostics, parts etc before Christmas. I was hoping for a simple software solution I could throw into a 6100 or something.

 

[robin-fo]

Netatalk, Apple Internet Router and any AppleTalk capable Mac OS X machine can seed zones and networks

I also have a portable AppleTalk (router) stack in preparation which also can support LocalTalk, but it‘s not yet ready for public release..

 

[CTB]

How would I used a Mac OS X machine to seed the zone info?

 

[cheesestraws]

I use Apple Internet Router on an LC II. Works fine. Been using it for about four years at this point, and it's only as annoying as any of the other options

 

[robin-fo]

appletalk -d # Shut down AppleTalk stack
appletalk -r … # Enable AppleTalk in router mode

This is just from memory.. Check the man page. You need to create a config file with the network and zone infos and pass is to appletalk -r

man page appletalk section 8

Shame this doesn‘t work with A/UX’ built-in appletalk command

 

[CTB]

I use Apple Internet Router on an LC II. Works fine. Been using it for about four years at this point, and it's only as annoying as any of the other options

Performance is fine with an LCII? After all it is LocalTalk, there isnt a great deal of data bandwidth anyway.

 

[cheesestraws]

Performance is fine with an LCII?

It's been fine for me - at least for what I use it for. I don't do MacIP, though, note.

 

[CTB]

I just got Apple Internet Router (nothing to do with "the" internet really) AND the Apple IP Gateway AND AppleShare 3 all working on an SE/30. I now have zones "Ethernet" and "LocalTalk" (very imaginative I know), an AppleShare file server and System 7 machines on LocalTalk connecting to the "real" internet.

 

[beachycove]

Apple Internet Router is very stable and, as I recall, runs on any 68020/30/40 with LocalTalk and Ethernet. Don’t know how stably it would run on a 6100, though, because I think you’d want to be running it on the back of System 7.1.

Just because I had nice examples that I wanted a use for, I ran it for some years on an LC475, and then on a PowerBook 520 from a RAM disk — something possible on the LC too, I suppose — to avoid stressing the hard drive. Never once crashed, running 24/7. It was a good use of the passive matrix screen on the PowerBook, too, since you don’t get burnin, along with the no turnin. Ho, ho.

I used to be able to mount a 500GB drive that I had in an 8600 ASIP server via LocalTalk on the likes of a PowerBook 160 and a Classic II, which impressed me at the time. Those were in the days when a 500GB spinner (IDE) was a high end thing.

These days, having moved house, almost all my gear is in storage so I have no use for a router. But one day I will get a shed!

 

[Phipli]

Don’t know how stably it would run on a 6100, though, because I think you’d want to be running it on the back of System 7.1.

A 6100 will run 7.1.2 though?

 

[cheesestraws]

To be honest, if you're using it for LT <-> Ethernet, running it on a PowerPC would be a waste of a PPC unless it's the only machine you have for it. A much slower machine will do fine.

 

[CTB]

The SE/30 seems to handle it well. Things slow down a lot when you are also running AppleShare 3 and copying to or from it over the network.