MacLANConnect is a useful product for selling into environments, like OS/2
LAN Server EE and Banyan, where there is no AFP support at this time. We also
suspect this product will work in the IBM's mid-range family, although we have
not seen it work. They just released version 1.1, in January, which now
supports AppleTalk Phase II and works with AppleShare PC 2.0.1.
The basic concept is that you can take an IBM AT/XT/386 and use it as a gateway
from AFP to NetBIOS. The NetBIOS side is simply whatever software the server
offers. In the case of IBM, it would be the DOS requester of the PC/LAN
support software.
The network topology we saw was a single Token Ring network with:
- 1 Macintosh IIx, TokenTalk NB Card, System 6.0.3, AppleShare Client
- 1 PS/2 60, IBM 16/4MB Token Ring Card MCA, As MacLANConnect Gateway
- 1 PS/2 80, IBM 16/4MB Token Ring Card MCA, OS/2 EE 1.1, OS/2 LAN
Server 1.1 EE
- 1 PS/2 60, IBM 16/4MB Token Ring Card MCA, PC cc:Mail Client
What we did:
1) We loaded the MacLANConnect Gateway with the IBM LAN support 1.11 software.
2) We loaded AppleShare PC 2.0.1 on to the MacLANConnect Gateway as instructed
in AppleShare documentation.
3) We used the PC/LAN Support's DOS requester software to log on to the OS/2
LAN Server and mounted several network drives; that is, V: Y: N:.
4) We loaded MacLANConnect software, configured the software through panels
similar to AppleShare PC and started the sever process.
5) On the Macintosh side, we selected the Chooser and the MacLANConnect Server
appeared. We logged on to the server and mounted all published volumes as
Macintosh HFS volumes, similar to Novell's.
We were able to use cc:Mail on the Macintosh, access the post office residing
on the OS/2 LAN Server, and exchange mail with the PC on the ring loaded with
cc:Mail PC. We discovered when loading the protocol stacks that AppleTalk
stacks need to be loaded before NetBIOS.
Also, we found that MacLANConnect runs out of memory rather quickly,. We had
to adjust the maximum number of open files to accommodate this. We may need to
investigate moving the drivers to a higher memory location through a
third-party DOS extender.
For more details, search the Technical Info library under "Miramar Systems."