MacIP

MacIP refers to encapsulating Internet Protocol (IP) packets within the AppleTalk DDP protocol.

MacIP was part of the solution to the problem of how to provide computers that have native LocalTalk networking capabilities with access to TCP/IP based network services. Software implementing MacIP (such as MacTCP or Open Transport) was installed on the computer and a MacIP Gateway was placed elsewhere on the network. Applications that communicate with TCP/IP (such as Telnet) have their IP packets encapsulated in DDP for transmission across the LocalTalk network to the MacIP Gateway. The MacIP Gateway strips off the DDP encapsulation and forwards the IP packet on the IP network.

History

The practice of encapsulating IP packets within DDP was originally developed at Stanford University [ [http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/07/1555239&mode=thread MacWorld 2004 Keynote: A History Of Macintosh Networking - reported notes - See "Macs and the Internet: a long digression"] ] [ [http://www.opendoor.com/nethistory/MacWorld2004/pages/slide45.html MacWorld 2004 Keynote: A History Of Macintosh Networking - relevant slide] ] as theStanford Ethernet - AppleTalk Gateway (SEAGATE) by Bill Croft in 1984 and 1985 [ [http://securitydigest.org/tcp-ip/archive/1985/02 Bill Croft announces SEAGATE in TCP-IP list - See "000007"] ] .

SEAGATE was commercialised by Kinetics as the [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetics_Internet_Protocol Kinetics Internet Protocol] (KIP) for use with their FastPath LocalTalk-to-Ethernet bridge [ [http://groups.google.com/group/net.micro.mac/browse_frm/thread/9defdc53193b85e5/f084989e3da699cb?lnk=gst&q=seagate+appletalk&rnum=2#f084989e3da699cb Bill Croft declares in net.micro.mac that Kinetics are using a modified version of the SEAGATE code] ] . Apple Computer adopted the usage of KIP and refer to it as MacIP.

One of the mandates for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) "IP over AppleTalk" working group was to document existing MacIP implementations and to develop a specification for MacIP that could be proposed as a standard [ [http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/95jul/charters/appleip-charter.html IP Over AppleTalk Working Group Charter] ] . A draft document was submitted, however it was not accepted as a standard and has subsequently expired [ [https://datatracker.ietf.org/public/idindex.cgi?command=id_detail&id=210 Internet-Drafts Database entry] ] [ [http://www.faqs.org/ftp/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-appleip-MacIP-03.txt Latest draft document with content removed] ] .

See also

* LocalTalk-to-Ethernet bridge

References

External links

* [http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-ietf-appleip-MacIP-02.txt MacIP Internet Draft]
* [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=4200 TCP/IP Packets: How AppleTalk Encapsulation Works]
* [http://www.vintagemacworld.com/apple_software.html Page describing software required to connect vintage Apple computers to networks]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3649/is_199503/ai_n8727169 Network World article "Apple IP Gateway spurs ANF on MacIP standard"]