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From: brad@gcc-milo.UUCP.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: re: kbox/kip
Message-ID: <8703262002.AA21223@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Thu, 26-Mar-87 09:57:36 EST
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Posted: Thu Mar 26 09:57:36 1987
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croft@russell.stanford.EDU (Bill Croft):
> I would like to hear of any other Interbridge problems.  Brad Parker of
> General Computer seems to be using it with his Hayes boxes ok.  Have you
> verified that the latest release still has Hayes problems?

Er, uh, huh? My ears are burning!

We have a net with two appletalk bridges and one kbox gateway. I think
were still running the 10/86 code with some minor updates (It's been
a long time since I reloaded it - over a month) and I use it many times
a day to upload cross-compiled applications from our vax.

I run *very* heavy duty file system exercisors on top of our remote
file system (HyperNet 2.0 - coming to a dealer near you) which literaly
flood the network with packets. This will always (yes, always) cause the
hayes bridge to lock up but the kbox code never falls down (thanks Bill).

I suspect that the hayes code has some small "windows" which can cause it
to hang up (you remember - atomicity!). These windows are small enough not
to be exercised in normal traffic. If, however, you send as many packets 
as you can stuff on the network for 12 hours, you will hit the window.
(Having written lots of background appletalk code and having written
code for the kbox, I've run into this before)

The symptom is that the bridge appears to be alive (responds to NBP) but
refuses to forward packets (wow - I'd love to fire up an emulator to 
see what's going on. hi ho.)

Anyway, for what it's worth, the kbox code appears to be solid. The
hayes code, however, needs an update...

-brad