CompuServe Messages

Do you have LANtastic for Macintosh? That allows you to set up a small PC (say, a 386SX with 2MB RAM — you don't need a lot of speed here) as a dedicated "gateway" between LANtastic and Ethernet AppleTalk. The Macs need an Ethernet port (the PowerMacs all come with them), and the PC needs both a standard Ethernet card (the NodeRunner will do) plus an AppleTalk Ethernet card (3com makes the one we use). The gateway will support an entire AppleTalk network chain (it can have multiple Macs, PostScript printers, etc.) and makes the whole chain look like a single LANtastic node. Once set up, any of the Macs can access any of the drives on any of the servers at will. It even supports file extension/type mapping, so that, say, files ending in ".PCT" on the PC become PICTs on the Mac. It works well for us.