Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!kwe
From: kwe@bu-cs.BU.EDU (kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent W. England))
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: AppleTalk in large diverse networks
Summary: Apple may be going to IP
Message-ID: <22769@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 20 May 88 20:26:11 GMT
References: <88.05.14.1202.740@pescadero.stanford.edu> <Added.IWXv_2y00UkTEHWk9u@andrew.cmu.edu> <685@cernvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: kwe@buit13.bu.edu (Kent England)
Followup-To: comp.protocols.appletalk
Organization: Boston Univ. Information Tech. Dept.
Lines: 46

In article <685@cernvax.UUCP> jmg@cernvax.UUCP () writes:
>
>If I am not mistaken, there are plenty of people inside Apple who
>read this newsgroup. How come none of them have commented, if only to
>say that they are aware of the problems? A guy came here from Cupertino
>to talk about communications futures from Apple, and he claimed not to
>know about any dissatisfaction with EtherTalk!!!
>
>Come on, Apple, get your act together and tell us which way you are
>heading and when you might get there.
>
	It could be that Apple isn't quite ready to talk about where
they are going with large networking.  I don't think it's with an
extended AppleTalk.  Why reinvent the wheel?

	Apple has TCP/IP for EtherTalk and LocalTalk in development
under contract.  (Please note that I have no special inside contacts
for this, just inferences from elsewhere.)  Apple will soon have the
option for supporting TCP/IP, with the usual telnet/ftp/smtp utilities
within the native MacOS on both LocalTalk and EtherTalk.  If Apple
doesn't go for IP, then the developer will bring it out.  You almost
certainly will have the option of going native IP if you want.  But
will it be enough for you?

	What about all those nifty self-configuring features of the
current Apple protocols?  They just might be the cost of going to
large networks, I don't know.  Certainly, TCP/IP doesn't solve the
e-mail PC/server problem.  Maybe Apple will figure out a way to extend
the TCP/IP suite in a clean way or layer the Apple protocols on top of
IP. 

	Do you want to link Macs with IBM-PCs, but you don't want
TOPS?  You might see NETBIOS SMB filer server capability on Macs.
This makes sense if you want to integrate into PC server/LANs.  I
don't think it's the way to go for TCP/IP networks with NFS, et al but
I bet Apple is eyeing the corporate network environment.

	I think Apple is grappling with the "large Mac network"
problem, but they probably aren't thinking "Mac IP network" but "how
do we get into the corporate PC environment" network.  Maybe that will
be an IP network with Netbios on top, as well as AFP/etc from the
current Apple protocol family.

	I wouldn't talk yet either, if I was Apple.

	Kent England, Boston University