Re: [NTLK] Few questions about syncing w/ OSX & XP

From: Paul Guyot (pguyot_at_kallisys.net)
Date: Thu Sep 04 2003 - 00:41:07 PDT


Il me semble que le 3/09/03 à 14:54 -0400, Melvin Lasky nous racontait:
>2. Do you need a router when connecting your newton to your powerbook?
>Because I can't seem to get it connected when they are plugged directly
>into each other. I tried Escale and it doesn't work either with the
>router or directly plugged in? I have a 3com card that works fine, im
>able to use newthopper and simple mail and eveything. Any suggestion or
>websites for help with connecting my Powerbook 12" G4 to my Newton via
>ethernet? I also tried NewtSync and that program works perfect via
>router, but it doesn't install packages. Any suggestions? I also tried
>delivery, that doesnt work either.

Did you try a *recent* build of Escale?
http://www.kallisys.com/files/newton/DCL/nightlies/droopy/

The problem is that MacOS X will shut down the ethernet interface as
long as nothing is plugged in. It's even worse with the AppleTalk
interface because MacOS X AppleTalk stack is pathetic and will often
crash (with AFP) when the interface goes up and down. I have screen
shots and crash logs.

Still, I'm confident you can connect like this. Confident like I just
did it with my Farallon and my TiBook.

- In system preferences on the PowerBook, say you only want Ethernet.
In AppleTalk pane, select enable AppleTalk. Then Apply.
- Insert the Ethernet card in the Newton. Plug the Newton to your Mac
via the Ethernet cable. I used a cross-over cable, but as it was
mentioned, recent Macintoshes can automatically switch the
interfaces, a direct cable would do it as well.
- In Prefs on the Newton, make sure AppleTalk will use the Ethernet card.
- Fire up a recent build of Escale. Make sure AppleTalk is selected
in the preferences. Don't worry about the AppleTalk icon to be down.
This is MacOS X wonderful world (if you had a hub, it should go up).
- Fire up Dock on the Newton, choose AppleTalk then choose "Other
Computer". This will fire the Newton's ethernet interface looking for
a computer, MacOS X will notice this and fire its own ethernet
interface, load the AppleTalk stack and finally Escale that tries
every second will succeed in activating this stack. In a nutshell,
wait until the AppleTalk icon (the second one) in Escale goes black.
This should happen within 15 seconds.
- If the AppleTalk browser on your Newton shows your Mac, select it.
If it doesn't but Escale's AppleTalk is black, press the close box,
then retry (Connect->Other Computer). Hopefully, the Newton's
interface won't go down immediatly, hence the MacOS X AppleTalk stack
won't go down immediatly and you'll find your Mac. My TiBook appeared
in the browser, but I retried and it worked as well. The reason is
that I suspect that the Newton gives up looking for AppleTalk devices
after a while.
- Finally, select the name of your Mac on the browser on the Newton,
close hte browser and press the connect button. Do it quickly (I
mean, if the door bell rings, restart the process) because you need
to do it while the AppleTalk stack on the Mac is still up/didn't
crash yet.

The thing is much harder with NCU because NCU (a) works in Classic
(what is worse than AppleTalk in MacOS X? - probably AppleTalk in
Classic) and (b) NCU doesn't retry forever. To succeed, you need to
ask your Newton to look for AppleTalk devices and then iterate the
following until it succeeds:
- shut down AppleTalk in MacOS X
- fire up AppleTalk in MacOS X
- disable and re-enable AppleTalk in NCU preferences

You might need to restart Classic once or twice. I know it's a big
pain, but I did it successfully (still with my Farallon).

Peer-to-peer TCP/IP connections introduce other problems. Basically,
the Newton's TCP/IP stack doesn't have a local link fallback if no
DHCP server is present, and on the contrary to what the ZeroConf
specs say, it will only connect to your Mac if both are on the local
link (to give more details, surprisingly, the Mac will give its
manual IP if it gets a LL mDNS request). But when both sides are
properly configured, it works better than AppleTalk. It works as in
"I just did it, and I'm interested in any different experience.".

HTH,

Paul

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