Inside Macintosh: Networking /

Chapter 1 - Introduction to AppleTalk

This chapter provides an overview of the AppleTalk networking system and the AppleTalk Manager. AppleTalk is a communications network system interconnecting personal computer workstations, computers acting as file servers and print servers, printers, and shared modems allowing them to exchange information through a variety of types of communications hardware and software. The AppleTalk Manager consists of a set of programming interfaces to the various components of AppleTalk for applications and processes running on Macintosh computers.

This chapter introduces some of the AppleTalk terminology that is used throughout the rest of this book. Read this chapter if you want to gain an overview of the AppleTalk networking system and its component protocols. You should also read this chapter for suggestions on which AppleTalk protocols to use for various application requirements.

• This first section of this chapter, "About Networking on the Macintosh," provides an introduction to AppleTalk networking concepts and terminology, and then it discusses
  • the AppleTalk protocols and their functions
  • the AppleTalk Manager
  • the layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model and how the AppleTalk protocol stack relates to this model

• The second section of this chapter, "Deciding Which Protocol to Use," discusses
  how you can use each of the AppleTalk protocols that has an application program-
  ming interface.
• The third section of this chapter, "The AppleTalk Pascal Interface," describes the
  two modes in which you can execute the routines that make up the interfaces to
  the AppleTalk protocols. This information applies to each of the protocols covered individually throughout the chapters of this book. You should read this section
  before you use any of the programming interfaces to the AppleTalk protocols.

The chapters that make up the rest of this book describe how to use the AppleTalk Manager and the hardware device drivers. Because the AppleTalk network system includes both hardware and software--and because the software includes not only
the AppleTalk Manager but also file servers, print servers, internet routers, drivers for circuit cards, and so forth--the information in this book constitutes only a small part of the body of literature documenting AppleTalk.

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Chapter Contents

About Networking on the Macintosh

AppleTalk Networking

Basic AppleTalk Networking Concepts

Addressing and Data Delivery on AppleTalk Networks

AppleTalk Connectivity

AppleTalk Phase 2

The AppleTalk Protocol Stack

AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP)

Zone Information Protocol (ZIP)

AppleTalk Session Protocol (ASP)

AppleTalk Data Stream Protocol (ADSP)

AppleTalk Transaction Protocol (ATP)

AppleTalk Echo Protocol (AEP)

Name-Binding Protocol (NBP)

Routing Table Maintenance Protocol (RTMP)

Datagram Delivery Protocol (DDP)

Link-Access Protocols

Multivendor Architecture

Multinode Architecture

How the AppleTalk Protocols Are Implemented

The AppleTalk Manager

AppleTalk and the OSI Model

Application Layer

Presentation Layer

Session Layer

Transport Layer

Network Layer

Data-Link and Physical Layers

Deciding Which AppleTalk Protocol to Use

Making Your Application Available Throughout the Internet

Identifying Zones

Using a Session Protocol to Send and Receive Data

AppleTalk Data Stream Protocol

AppleTalk Session Protocol

Performing a Transaction

Sending and Receiving Data as Discrete Packets

Measuring Packet-Delivery Performance

Accessing AppleShare and Other File Servers

Receiving Packets Using a Virtual Node and Processing Them in a Custom Manner

The LAP Manager

Directly Accessing a Driver for a Network Type

The AppleTalk Pascal Interface

Executing Routines Synchronously or Asynchronously

Polling the Result Field

Using a Completion Routine