Re: [NTLK] Network Protocols: EtherTalk, AppleTalk and EtherNet

From: Martin Joseph (martyNT_at_barknaturalpet.com)
Date: Wed Feb 05 2003 - 12:27:19 PST


<snip>
> Hmmm,
>
> Can someone give us a run down on the differences between AppleTalk and
> LocalTalk, EtherTalk and Ethernet?
Appletalk was the original name for the built in serial networking
protocol on every mac ever shipped up to the removal of the serial port
(including mac XL).

Basically this use little transformer boxes which plugged into the
serial port (usually the printer port) and used it for a LAN. This was
especially slick when the original LaserWriter came out as workgroups
could super easily share this beast.

As time went forward, Appletalk (as it was known) became too slow for
the larger resources and bigger files people wanted to move around.
So....

Apple seperated the protocol of Appletalk from the wiring, renaming
the old wiring "Localtalk" and offering the Appletalk network protocol
over both the old serial (now localtalk) wiring as well as over the
much faster and more standard Ethernet wire.

So, Appletalk nowadays could be either over ethernet or over the
serial wire or over ethernet. Ethertalk is another way to talk about
Appletalk over ethernet...
>
> Are AppleTalk and EtherTalk protocols that run on top of LocalTalk and
> EtherNet, which are hardware standards?
Yes pretty much, although the serial standard RS422 which Apple used
for localtalk is most often used for point to point rather then the way
Apple used it, So I don't know how "standard" that is.
>
> Is EtherTalk a protocol like TCP/IP?
I believe Appletalk actually uses TCP/IP to transfer Appletalk packets.
>
> So on top of Ethernet, Macs can use EtherTalk, or TCP/IP. Right?
Yes, both at the same time (as much as computers can ever do anything
at the same time) over the same wire.
>
> Is EtherTalk an encapsualization of AppleTalk?
I think that is exactly right.

Marty

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