Legacy Document

Inside Macintosh: Networking /

Chapter 1 - Introduction to AppleTalk / Deciding Which AppleTalk Protocol to Use

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

Your application can use the AppleTalk multinode architecture to acquire node IDs that are in addition to the standard user node ID assigned to the system. You can use these virtual node IDs, called multinodes, to receive all broadcast packets and all AppleTalk packets addressed to the multinode. You can then process the packets in a custom manner. A multinode ID is not connected to the AppleTalk protocol stack above the data-link layer; this means that an application that uses a multinode is not connected
to the AppleTalk protocol above the data-link level, and it cannot use their services. For example, Apple Remote Access (ARA) uses this multinode capability to implement remote access. The chapter "Multinode Architecture" describes how to acquire a multi-
node ID and send and receive packets using the multinodes.