On Nov 30, 2005, at 2:34 AM, Sylwester Pietrzyk wrote:
I think you're not entirely right. I have been using Mac computers
for about
12 years in advertising. And I think Rob was thinking about pre
Apple Talk
over TCP/IP protocol over Ethernet. As such, even implemented over
100 Mb/s
networks it was really slow. And it was until Apple implemented
AppleTalk
over TCP/IP protocol, which was at least 2x faster than plain, old
AppleTalk
working over Ethernet. These are not just numbers that I read
somewhere -
this is from my experience - the difference when we switched to
Apple Talk
over IP was huge, finally network communication was as fast as with
Windows
based PCs. I don't remember exactly, but I believe AppleTalk over
TCP/IP was
available from OS 8.x onwards - this means second half of nineties.
I've been using Macintosh since very late 1983, several months before
it was released to the publc (and about a decade before you...:-).
The work I was referring to came about in the time between 1986 and
1988 as that is when I was working for NASA at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.
AppleTalk over TCP/IP doesn't exist. You're referring to AppleTalk
over ethernet, and more specifically AppleShare/Personal FileShare
over ethernet.
Ethernet interfaces and adaption of other protocols became
commonplace amongst higher-end Macintosh users starting about the end
of 1986, about 7 years before you started using Macintosh in
advertising, but many many installations based on serial AppleTalk
were in place already before ethernet replaced them, because it was
very affordable despite being slow. AppleTalk serial protocols, was
supported and standard equipment by Apple in systems all the way up
to 2000 and, yes, it only had 384Kbps performance. That's the slow
connection you were originally using. Around 1993, most Apple
computers had an ethernet port built-in, at least as optional
equipment, and AppleTalk could be configured to function on either
the serial or ethernet port.
Godfrey
