Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!super!udel!princeton!njin!rutgers!mailrus!ames!amdahl!pacbell!varian!kinetics!minshall
From: minshall@kinetics.UUCP (Greg Minshall)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: KIP/K-Star
Message-ID: <630@kinetics.UUCP>
Date: 26 Sep 88 16:58:23 GMT
References: <858@hub.ucsb.edu>
Sender: uucp@super.ORG
Organization: Kintics, Inc., Walnut Creek, CA
Lines: 34

From article <858@hub.ucsb.edu>, by aks@hydra.ucsb.edu ( ):
> I would like to understand why (apparently both) KIP and K-Star do not
> support the ability to treat the Localtalk network as an IP subnet AND
> provide the directed, encapsulated IP feature?  It seems that you can
> treat the Localtalk network as an IP subnet, while not having the
> capability of encapsulating Localtalk packets and directing them to
> another Kbox across a router, *or* you can treat the Localtalk network
> as an extension of the SAME subnet on which the Kbox resides (with
> either static or dynamic, serialized IP address assignment), while
> obtaining encapsulated Localtalk packets.  Is this a correct assesment? 

It is true that with K-STAR (and KIP), one uses up IP address space from
the ethernet side of the FastPath in order to provide IP addresses for
Macs on the LocalTalk side.

This is somewhat of a problem in certain cases (such as yours).

The thing that makes it hard to do what you want in the FastPath 4 (and
this problem essentially correlates to engineering hours) is that K-STAR
does not provide all the functions of an IP router.  In particular, K-STAR
does not have any means of sharing with other hosts and routers that it
is a path to IP subnet "X".  (If K-STAR were to do this, it would probably
use RIP, the protocol which Berkeley 4.x machines speak [as well as a
substantial number of other entities including most "real" IP routers].)
Since we don't tell anyone how to get to IP subnet "X", an installation
need to set up default routes (or at least one) to IP subnet "X".

This capability IS on a list of things to do to the K-STAR code, but there
is no specific date or time associated with it.  Your best bet is to inform
your sales rep at Kinetics (or the dealer you purchase through) about your
needs.

Greg Minshall
...ucbvax!unisoft!kinetics!minshall		(415)947-0998