Traditionally, Apple's MacTCP driver was not initialized at startup. Instead, it loaded into memory and waited for the first MacTCP application to be launched before initializing. If you "ping" a Macintosh before it loads the MacTCP driver, you would not get a response.
MacTCP was designed so a user could change its parameters before launching a MacTCP application and not be required to reboot the Macintosh to use the new parameters.
With System 7.5, MacTCP does not initialize at startup as described above. Confusion might arise if the TCP/IP Connection for Macintosh product is installed which include SNMP agents. With SNMP present, the MacTCP driver is initialized at startup, and you can "ping" this Macintosh without other MacTCP applications being started.
Article Change History:
10 Feb 1995 - Added SNMP information and corrected System 7.5 information.
20 Dec 1994 - Noted that TCP is active at system start under System 7.5.
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