Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!husc6!cmcl2!ccnysci!alexis
From: alexis@ccnysci.UUCP (Alexis Rosen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Dial-in to TOPS?
Message-ID: <1849@ccnysci.UUCP>
Date: 3 May 89 08:46:51 GMT
References: <127200060@inmet> <7908@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Reply-To: alexis@ccnysci.UUCP (Alexis Rosen)
Organization: City College of New York
Lines: 40

In article <7908@thorin.cs.unc.edu> markham@rho.cs.unc.edu
(Andrew Markham) writes:
>In article <127200060@inmet>, ian@inmet writes:
>> Is there a way to run TOPS over a phone line and hook into
>> a TOPS network from a remote Mac?  What hardware/software
>> is required?
>
>The only piece of harware/software that I have heard regarding this is the
>NetModem by Shiva(the 1200 is ~$359 and the 2400 is ~$439). The ads can be
>found in any of the usual macazines (i.e. MacUser, MacWorld, etc...).

I waited a while to answer, but nobody has listed the other solution...

Liason will do this very nicely with any modem hooked to any Mac on the net.
The total price is comparable to a NetModem 2400, for 2400 bps access, but
that's incredibly slow. With Liason, you can use any modem up to at least
19.2kbps. This makes a BIG BIG difference. The drawback is that it may
slow down the host mac on the net a bit, depending on what kind of load
you place on it.

You can also get the Shiva NetSerial, which also allows net access to faster
modems. Which one you get would probably depend on what other uses you might
have for the half-bridge: The NetModem/NetSerial allow dial-out to any
number, while Liason only allows connections to pre-specified locations.
On the other hand, Liason has all sorts of nifty and useful bridging functions
and more complete security.

Liason will support dial-out to any number in the not-too-distant future, also.

Either of these solutions is okay, but if you thought regular appletalk runs
slowly, wait until you see it at 2400bps...

Also, if you're just doing this for file transfer, this is the WRONG WAY. It's
much much slower than a telecomm program would be. Consider Farallon's
Timbuktu Remote instead of TOPS.

---
Alexis Rosen
alexis@ccnysci.{uucp,bitnet}
alexis@rascal.ics.utexas.edu  (last resort)