WORKSHOPS

Adiós AppleTalk? Mac As A Full NetWare Client

by Robert J. Kohlhepp

The Apple Macintosh has been getting a bad rap in the corporate environmentlately, not the least of which comes from network administrators supportingmultiprotocol environments. AppleTalk is a great protocol for the end userwith an easy-to-use, point-and-click interface to network resources, butthis same protocol can create huge configuration and routing headaches foradministrators.

Router and network operating systems have placed AppleTalk in the back seatto TCP/IP and IPX/SPX. Specifically, the Macintosh has had few options whenconnecting to NetWare, and no options with NetWare 4.1 and NetWare DirectoryServices (NDS). To the rescue comes Novell's new Client for Macintosh 5.1.

Everything Old Is New Again Using this new client software, Macstake on a new life in Novell's world, from which NetWare volumes and printqueues can now be accessed over NetWare Core Protocols (NCP). Believe itor not, even remote console is available. Additional administrative utilities,such as NWadmin and PConsole, have been implied, but no commitment has beenmade by Novell. Administration of your network now becomes easier for youand your users. Logging into the network becomes more simplified as Macscan now play in the NetWare world as equals, even having access to permittedNDS objects. Printing, also over IPX/SPX, now occurs to NetWare print queues.

But all is not perfect. Although the functionality is there, user interfacesto resources--specifically, the Macintosh Cho oser replacement--could usea little work. The application used to browse the NDS tree is quite slowand poorly laid out. In addition, without any user administration tools,like PCONSOLE.EXE or NWAD MIN.EXE, administration of NetWare 4.1 serversand NDS information must still take place on a PC.

We've run Client for Macintosh on a variety of machines, including someolder desktops, PowerBooks and PowerMacs without any trouble. This releaseis little weak on the PowerMac platform. A release is planned that willhave more integration with Open Transport.

What Do You Get? Traditionally, supporting Macs and Mac serviceson your NetWare server eats up precious system resources. Valuable bandwidthis eaten up by chatty AppleTalk protocols. Memory is used on servers actingas an AppleShare server; and routers must route one more protocol. Mostimportant, end users are being denied access to NDS services and easy CD-ROMservice.

Upgrading your Mac clients will enable them to talk to NetWare servers usingthe same protocols as DOS/Windows clients. In a way, the Macintosh clienthas become more active as a NetWare client. Previously, NetWare serverswere required to "emulate" AppleSha re servers. In turn, the serverwould talk to itself (AppleShare to NCP server). Now, the Mac can talk directlyto the NCP server. This gives your users easy access to everything on theserver.

All Is Not Roses However, don't rush to pull the plug on AppleTalkyet. Converting your users will take some time and you can't customize thestandard installation. So, you'll either be building your own installationpackage or visiting each Macintosh. In addition, the interface is differentthan the Chooser--users will need to be trained.

Don't forget your mobile users either! If they are using SLIP or PPP simplyfor TCP/IP access, you are still in the clear. But, if they rely on PPPor Apple Remote Access to get to network resources, you are in trouble.There are currently no PPP clients for the Macintosh that support IPX/SPX.

Getting Started The client software is a collection of extensionsand control panels that can be downloaded from the usual Novell update sites(CompuServe, WWW, ftp and so on). RConsole is not installed by default,so you will need to do a custom install to add that.

Be sure to configure the MacIPX Control Panel to reflect your sites' NetWarenetwork. Double-click on the Ethernet icon to configure a Frame Type (802.2by default). Although autodetection is available, we suggest selecting itmanually to avoid confusion. Due to the update time on our large Universityof Wisconsin network, it helps to manually select the frame type. Thereis also a gateway for AppleTalk-only Macintoshes. Although the gateway doesgive access to NDS objects, it doesn't allow for the elimination of AppleTalk.

MacIPX also offers a variety of configurations for the advanced user. Outof the box, the defaults will suit most users. You have the ability to tweakperformance over different speed links; the default works well for Ethernet.

Next, using the NetWare Client control panel, configure your default loginparameters. These include NDS tree, context and login name. Clicking on "Options" brings up a configuration window for optimizing serverconnections. Parameters, such as Large Internet Packet (LIP) and checksum,can be toggled. In addition, packet signatures can be enabled or disabled.Packet signatures offer the security of authenticated information. RSA dataencryption is used in all transactions, so clear text passwords won't passover the wire.

Logging In and Using Services As you may have already noticed, a new iconis on the left side on the menu bar. It looks like a tree--sans the leaves.By clicking on it, a variety of selections are available, including login, log out and change password. Cleverly, the icon sprouts leaves, indicatingyou are logged into the NDS tree. Selecting "Manage Connections"lets you to log out of individual servers and volumes. Selecting "Login "presents a login window where you can select your NDS tree, context anduser name.

The NetWare Directory Browser offers a view of your NDS tree. By selectingonly certain o bjects, the display can be limited to only those of interest.We found browsing the large tree in our Wisconsin lab to be quite slow.

Using the NetWare Directory Browser, all of the objects in your tree canbe viewed. By simply double-clicking a volume on which you have rights,the browser launches a program, NetWare Volume Mounter, that mounts thevolume on the Desktop. The Browser supports drag-and-drop editing, so usersmay select items they use frequently, such as printers, and drag them totheir desktop. Then, users simply need to double-click on that icon to regainaccess to that resource.

Print queues are also available in the Browser. Selecting them launchesanother utility, NetWare Print Chooser, which connects to the queue andallows you to select a print driver. Valid print drivers are the standardLaserWriter and LaserWriter 8 that are supplied by Apple. LaserWriter GXdrivers are not yet supported. Additionally, Novell has added NetWare-specificconfigurations that you can think of as capture flags (from the DOS world).

We found one caveat with NCP printing. On PowerBooks, be sure the AssistantToolbox extension is disabled, or else the Mac will complain about AppleTalk'sinactivity. The problem is not critical, but rather annoying. Apple andNovell are now looking into the problem.

Currently, login scripts and other automated activities are not supported.To automate volume mounting, simply place aliases of your usual volumesinto the Startup Items folder.

The Final Word Future revisions of the Macintosh Client will be moretightly integrated with Apple's future network utilities. For now, you caneliminate AppleTalk for file and print services to NetWare. In fact, theChooser is now obsolete. And if you're really adventurous, AppleTalk canbe removed from your network.

Robert J. Kohlhepp ca n be reached at rkohlhepp@nwc.com.

April 15, 1996