Localtalk and Appletalk

APPLETALK - Apple's proprietary networking protocol. Used on a multitude of network architectures. Intro to it HERE: http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/Networking/Networking-15.html LOCALTALK - One of many networking topologies on which to deploy Appletalk. Localtalk is one of Apple's proprietary ones. You connect machines via Localtalk cables or something like PhoneNET, which translates Localtalk to run over normal POTS phone lines (on the outside pair (usually black and yellow)). There is also TokenTalk (Tokenring), FDDITalk (FDDI), and others. Appletalk can run over Ethernet fine (EtherTALK), you just have to get it there. (Through a bridge if you have a LocalTalk network, or if you have an Ethernet card in a Mac, it'll just talk Appletalk over Ethernet). Appletalk traffic can also be routed if it's encapsulated inside IP, using Appletalk-IP-encapsulation (the Linux kernel supports encap and decap of this). But normally you don't have to do this, as most Macs can speak TCP/IP (which does all your Internet stuffs) and for sharing files with other Macs uses Appletalk. Netatalk, the linux software package, lets Linux talk Appletalk and do file sharing for Macs (similar to how Samba does filesharing for Windows on Linux). Quite sexy. Pralle 210