From: fuhrman@litsun.epfl.ch (Cris Fuhrman)
Newsgroups: vmsnet.networks.desktop.pathworks
Subject: Re: Installing Pathworks for VMS on Mac
Date: 21 Aug 92 10:09:59 GMT
Followup-To: vmsnet.networks.desktop.pathworks
Organization: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

In article <weissh.25.0@nextadm.cc.vt.edu>, weissh@nextadm.cc.vt.edu (Hugh
Weiss) wrote:
[...]
> 
> MacX which is part of the Pathworks software
> for the Mac can use either DECnet or TCP/IP to communicate with the
> VAX host.  (Of course this means that the VAX must be running TCP/IP
> software of some kind.)

MacX also uses ADSP (appletalk/decnet tool) which of course require that
the vax to which you wish to connect is running AppleTalk for VMS. If my
memory serves me, the AppleTalk/DECnet tool is used to launch a decnet
object which then starts an ADSP session to the mac.

[...]
> It depends on your setup.  If you have Macs only on Ethernet, then you will
> probably not need the AppleTalk-DECnet gateway (ADG).  The ADG is *only*
> useful if you have Macs on LocalTalk segments sitting behind AppleTalk
> Internet Routers.

Untrue. It *is* also useful if you have Macs on ethernet which are part of
an AppleTalk internet but don't get decnet routed to them (see comments
below). It can also be useful, especially if you don't want to run DECnet
on your Mac. 

>  You can ONLY talk AppleTalk across LocalTalk.  So in
> this case you talk AppleTalk across the LocalTalk segment, throught the
> AppleTalk Internet Router, across the Ethernet to the ADG on the VAX 
> where it is pulled off the wire, converted to DECnet and put back on the
> wire for transmission to the ultimate DECnet destination.  The ADG allows
> your LocalTalk connected Macs to talk to DECnet hosts even though they
> themselves cannot talk DECnet.  There is an AppleTalk-LAT gateway that
> functions the same way for communicating with DEC systems talking LAT.
> Again, the AppleTalk-LAT gateway is only useful if you have LocalTalk
> connected Macs that want to talk to DEC systems using LAT.

Again, this is very false. Take for example the case where you have a vax
that offers LAT services, and this VAX is on a certain ethernet segment
which is part of a larger AppleTalk internet. The AppleTalk-LAT gateway is
useful for ethernet macs when they are somewhere on this AppleTalk internet
but *not* on the same physical ethernet as the VAX. AppleTalk routers don't
route LAT, so Macs on ethernet which are on the other side of the AT
routers will not see the LAT services. Running the AppleTalk-LAT Gateway on
the same ethernet segment as the vax resolves this problem, as the macs
anywhere on the AppleTalk internet (ethernet and localtalk) can now get to
the LAT services.

[...]
> True, [PATHWORKS] doesn't provide the Telnet and FTP 
> applications, but it does give you MacTCP and it doesn't stop you from
> using those TCP/IP applications at the same time as the Pathworks 
> applications.

I recommend the latest copy of NCSA/BYU Telnet for the Mac (version 2.5).
It provides both FTP and Telnet, as well as some Tek terminal emulation.
It's kept up to date, and is System 7 compatible. The best thing is, it's
in the Public Domain, and is available via anonymous ftp from
sumex-aim.stanford.edu in the directory /info-mac/comm. (for those users
unfamiliar with anonymous ftp, it simply means you use ftp to connect to
the host, then use the name 'anonymous' as a username, and your e-mail
address as the password). You can then download things as usual via ftp.

---------------------------------------
 Cris FUHRMAN, fuhrman@litsun.epfl.ch
 Laboratoire d'informatique technique
 EPFL-LIT, EL Ecublens, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland