A/UX 2.0 AT Phase 1 driver Summary (& Plea)

[Ben Schmidt BNR]

I posted for any help getting A/UX 2.0 machines speaking AT Phase 1, and 
got one reply from Apple saying no-can-do, and several replies from A/UX 
2.0 potential users asking me to let them know if I find a solution:  the 
lack of ATP1 drivers for A/UX 2.0 is preventing them from deploying A/UX.  
Rats!

In article <12219 at goofy.Apple.COM> abm at alan.aux.apple.com (Alan Mimms) 
writes:
> >>>>>> steps onto soapbox
> PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE people.  Don't assume that Apple is
> JUST a big money-grubbing don't-care kinda company.  MOST of us
> care a lot about getting your problems solved and making our stuff
> work for you.  I personally feel strongly that Apple can make the
> world a better place for people to do creative work -- that's nearly
> my sole reason for working here.  If our hardware and software don't
> work for you, and we can't find a way to fix it, then I have to quit.
> Like any big company, though, there are lots of ways for your complaint
> to get lost or fall on deaf ears.  KEEP TRYING.  You wouldn't
> give up easily in dealing with the Phone Company (the ultimate
> evil in the universe), would you?
> >>>>>> steps off soapbox with a heavy sigh and wipes brow

Alan, that was some eloquent reply!  I cut it out for my own use 'cause 
I'm in networking tech support/engineering in Bell-Northern Research and I 
could use the same comments in dealing with my own users!

By the bye, is there any chance in addition to an A/UX NFS guru sitting 
next to you that you alluded to, you might have an A/UX AppleTalk guru 
sitting on your other side?

Using your comments of if at first you don't succeed, try again:   Is it 
really impossible to generate AppleTalk Phase 1 protocols from an A/UX 2.0 
machine?   Can the A/UX 1.1 AppleTalk Phase 1 drivers be hacked?  

Like a lot of big sites, we've not yet ATP2 converted our 250 AT nets.  
(Our particular bottleneck is our dependence on cisco routers, which only 
recently started supporting ATP2, 
(and yup you guessed it, their first go at it doesn't work well enough to 
make it worthwhile upgrading 60+ routers yet)).  

Without ATP2 (or some way to make A/UX 2.0 speak ATP1) we 
*can't* use A/UX 2.0.   (And yah, I know I could deploy additional macs 
running Mac OS and the Internet Router s/w to transistion bridge, but with 
29 buildings and about 100 Ethernet backbones in this city alone, plus 5 
other cities to manage, I couldn't possible buy enough Macs to do that 
task.  And oh yah, I'd have to buy two macs for each backbone to satisfy 
our network reliability requirements.  I can't have a single point of 
failure on each backbone for ATP1/P2 conversion.)

best regards,

Ben Schmidt     Bell-Northern Research, Ltd.   Ph: (613) 763-3906
Information     P.O. Box 3511, Station C       FAX:(613) 763-3283
Technology      Ottawa Canada K1Y 4H7          bschmidt at bnr.ca