AsanteTalk Bridge Workaround for Apple II

Rusty

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Jul 3, 2007, 10:18:06 AM7/3/07

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Greetings,

In a thread on this group from some time ago, someone was saying that
they had been unable to get their Apple IIGS to work with their
AsanteTalk localtalk-to-ethernet bridge. I have been experimenting
with an AsanteTalk bridge, and I may have found a solution to the
problem this person was experiencing.

Prior to purchasing the AsanteTalk, I had been using my roommate's
GatorBox which "just worked" with the IIGS. Unfortunately, the
GatorBox died, and all I could find was an AsanteTalk box. When I
first hooked it up, it didn't seem to work at all. The Apple IIGS did
not see any file servers on the network.

At the time, I was using netatalk 2.0.3 as the afp server for my
network. Through a process of trial and error, I was able to get my
IIGS to work through the AsanteTalk bridge if and only if I did _both
of_ the following two things on my netatalk server:

-Configured atalkd into "router" mode through the use of the -router
flag in atalkd.conf

-Configured atalkd to advertise a zone name into the AppleTalk network
in atalkd.conf

The name of the Ethernet interface in my atalk machine is "vge0", so
when I was using the gatorbox, I had my configuration line in
atalkd.conf set to simply:

vge0

Now that I am using the AsanteTalk, I've got it set to:

vge0 -router -phase 2 -addr 1.6 -net 1-1 -zone "RustyTel ATalk"

And it works fine. I don't think there is any significance to the
network number "1" or the address "6"; they are just values that I
chose. Of course, you can pick whatever zone name you want as well.

I have a couple ideas as to exactly what is going on and why it only
works with this configuration, but I have not looked into the
situation enough to know for sure. If/when I find out, I will make
another post here in case the info might be of use or interest to
anyone.

Rusty

Polymorph

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Jul 3, 2007, 7:37:54 PM7/3/07

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Thanks for posting this information!

I have been toying with the idea of purchasing one of these AsanteTalk
boxes for this exact purpose, but I was turned off trying when I had
heard of other people's failures with this particular unit. The
AsanteTalk boxes appear regularly on eBay, however, the other boxes
reported to work appear much less frequently and generally attract a
higher sale price.

I don't know when I'll get around to trying it, but it is good to know
that it at least can be made to work.

This would be something good for the A2 FAQ perhaps?

Thanks again,
-p

mdj

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Jul 4, 2007, 12:44:48 AM7/4/07

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Thanks for this... Are you referring to those small green oddly shapen
AsanteTalk boxes? I used to get around this by having a Mac on the
network as well (which was kinda pointless since then I could just use
the LocalTalk bridge).

Time to find myself an 802.11 bridge and try to get the IIe chatting
to upstairs wirelessly :-)

Matt

Polymorph

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Jul 4, 2007, 2:50:44 AM7/4/07

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Matt,

All the ones I've come across are beige and look like the following:

http://www.asante.com/products/CardsAdapters/AsanteTalk.asp

cheers,
-p

Steven Hirsch

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Jul 4, 2007, 8:45:50 AM7/4/07

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Wow.. You got one of _those_ things to work? Nice going!

roughana

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Jul 4, 2007, 8:47:11 PM7/4/07

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On Jul 4, 12:18 am, Rusty <rdek...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Unfortunately, the GatorBox died

When you say 'died', are you sure that it's totally dead or could it
just be in a coma?
It would be a shame to see it get trashed if it is at all recoverable.

Cheers,
Andrew

mdj

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Jul 4, 2007, 9:32:29 PM7/4/07

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On Jul 4, 4:50 pm, Polymorph <polymorp...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Matt,
>
> All the ones I've come across are beige and look like the following:
>
> http://www.asante.com/products/CardsAdapters/AsanteTalk.asp

Ah sorry, my mistake, small brain contortion. The box I have is a
Farallon EtherWave - similar but not the same...

Matt

Kirk Mitchell

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Jul 5, 2007, 1:01:48 AM7/5/07

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Yeah... worth a total reset of everything...

Mine is underused, but still feeds MacTCP/IP to several machines...

If he can get a serial connect, he should be able to get it working.

Kirk

Rusty

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Jul 5, 2007, 4:31:07 PM7/5/07

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Well, I tried hooking it up to a serial terminal (9600, 8N1), but I do
not get any output shown on the terminal when I power the Gatorbox on.
I tried setting the network interface switch on the back of the
gatorbox to the "test" position (I think that's what it was called;
it's the setting that is neither BNC nor AUI), but I didn't get
anything on the terminal that way either.

I did try hitting enter several times on the terminal after the
Gatorbox had been running for a while, but that did not provoke any
output either.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd be happy to try them!

Rusty

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Jul 5, 2007, 4:32:09 PM7/5/07

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> Well, I tried hooking it up to a serial terminal (9600, 8N1), but I do
> not get any output shown on the terminal when I power the Gatorbox on.
> I tried setting the network interface switch on the back of the
> gatorbox to the "test" position (I think that's what it was called;
> it's the setting that is neither BNC nor AUI), but I didn't get
> anything on the terminal that way either.
>
> I did try hitting enter several times on the terminal after the
> Gatorbox had been running for a while, but that did not provoke any
> output either.
>
> If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd be happy to try them!
>
> Rusty

I forgot to mention that I tried this with and without the use of a
null modem adapter on the serial cable between the gatorbox and the
terminal.

glen herrmannsfeldt

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Aug 23, 2007, 12:40:30 PM8/23/07

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Rusty wrote:
(snip)

> Prior to purchasing the AsanteTalk, I had been using my roommate's
> GatorBox which "just worked" with the IIGS. Unfortunately, the
> GatorBox died, and all I could find was an AsanteTalk box. When I
> first hooked it up, it didn't seem to work at all. The Apple IIGS did
> not see any file servers on the network.

> At the time, I was using netatalk 2.0.3 as the afp server for my
> network. Through a process of trial and error, I was able to get my
> IIGS to work through the AsanteTalk bridge if and only if I did _both
> of_ the following two things on my netatalk server:

> -Configured atalkd into "router" mode through the use of the -router
> flag in atalkd.conf

> -Configured atalkd to advertise a zone name into the AppleTalk network
> in atalkd.conf

As you say AsanteTalk is a bridge, not a router. With a router like
the GatorBox, the localtalk net has a different network number
from the ethertalk side.

The AsanteTalk bridge allows one (maybe more than one) device from
the localtalk side to connect through to ethertalk. It does not
use the net number to separate them. As some point it has to
propagate the net number from ethertalk to localtalk so that the
localtalk device gets assigned the right net and host.

It has been a while since I used one (I still have some), but
it does make sense that there should be at least one router
advertising a network number so that it can be propagated.

-- glen