--- Forwarded Message from David Herren <[log in to unmask]> ---
>Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 15:03:19 -0400
>From: David Herren <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #6101 Apple OSX
------------------
By "connect to NT4 servers" I assume that you mean make an appletalk/share
connection to an NT4 box as a file server? If so, you are correct, OSX
will not connect to NT4. This is not an OSX issue, it's an NT4 issue. NT4
appletalk support has always been limited to Appletalk Phase I, which hasn'
t been an active protocol for 5 years or more. (Ironically, all the
complaints from sysadmins about Appletalk being a very "chatty" protocol
were all in reference to Phase I, but Apple hasn't made a server product
that used phase I for years. Thus, the ONLY phase I server products out
there were NT4 and some very old unix appletalk clones. Thus the problem
wasn't apple's protocol, but rather Microsoft's poor implementation of the
protocol...)
As Otmar points out in an earlier message, Win2K appletalk support
includes Appletalk Phase II (which was implemented with system 6 on the
mac side, I believe...) Incidentally, OSX as an appleshare file server
doesn't even use Appletalk Phase II for transport--it uses TCP/IP. Phase
II support is only used for resource discovery in the chooser in older
clients (older, as in any version of the MacOS prior to X). The actual
transport is done over IP (as long as the older client supports appleshare
over IP). Future versions of MacOSX server are purported to not even use
Phase II for resource discovery, favoring other technologies instead,
marking the end of appletalk support altogether in favor of TCP/IP.
With respect to the routers, the problem is again not with OSX, but rather
with the router being capable of only Phase I (or misconfigured to route
only phase I).
Complaining about no phase I support is a little like complaining about
the lack of MUMPS support...
By the way, an OSX box running samba will outperform NT4 file serving even
to windows clients in almost every case. I run an OSXServer box that is a
file server for ONLY windows clients and the clients (machines and humans)
don't didn't notice the change except that the performance suddenly
improved... In this particular case, ALL data lives on the server. User
directories & profiles, applications, all shared resources, etc. The only
thing local on the windows boxes is the Win2K operating system.
On Tuesday, May 1, 2001, at 05:02 PM, LLTI-Editor wrote:
> So, has anyone else noticed that OSX does not talk to NT4 servers? Or
> that it doesn't allow connection through Apple Talk to printers given
> certain types of routers?
>
> Our OIT went so far as to pull OSX from the campus store and refuse
> to support it until such time as those problems are solved.
/david
--
david herren | In an Internet without walls,
shoreham, vt | who needs Windows or Gates?
|