Connecting Suns and Macs

[Randy Zagar]

The simplest thing I can think of is to get a Kinetics FastPath-4.  We
have about 30-40 Dec & Sun machines on ethernet and around 50 Macs on
localtalk.  Have been running both TOPS and Pacer software simultaneously
across the FastPath w/o problems.

Some particularly nice things you can do with a fastpath are:

1) NCSA Telnet for the Mac _can_ connect to TCP nodes thru the fastpath.
   This means telnet sessions to anywhere from a mac w/o an ethernet card.

2) MIT TechMail gives ALL your macs access to the same internet e-mail as
   your Suns.  Very slick program!  MIT is using this program as the mac
   interface for its campus e-mail system.  It too can work thru a
   fastpath-4.

3) PacerShare and TOPS are both compatible with the fastpath-4 so you can
   use a workstation as a remote disk for the Macs.

NCSA Telnet and MIT TechMail are FREE and available via anonymous ftp from
NET-DIST.MIT.EDU and ZAPHOD.NCSA.UIUC.EDU respectively.  To take advantage
of TechMail you also need a POP-3 mail server program on a UNIX box
somewhere on your network.  The one I'm currently using is also free and
you can pick it up at LILAC.BERKELEY.EDU (it's called popper).  Only one
other thing, you need to be running at least system 6.0.3, and you also
need version 1.1 of MacTCP (available from APDA).  I'm mentioning this
because I KNOW all of the above actually works!!  I've been using
PacerShare, TOPS, and Telnet for months without problems and I've been
testing TechMail for almost a month now.

Randy Zagar
Nat'l Center for Physical Acoustics
P.O. Box 847
University, MS 38677

p.s. As a graduate student, my claims (even though they're true) do not
     represent the policies and/or opinions of NCPA.