Running Mac OS X Tiger

AppleTalk

When the Mac was developed in the early 1980s, an easy-to-use networking protocol called AppleTalk allowed multiple users to share files and devices, such as printers and scanners. AppleTalk went through several changes, including the ability to route AppleTalk packets between networks (called Zones in AppleTalk parlance) and run AppleTalk over Ethernet. Because AppleTalk has been around since the introduction of the Mac, large numbers of networks still support AppleTalk, and many AppleTalk-only devices still exist.

Mac OS X continues to support AppleTalk even though IP is its primary networking protocol. When you have an Ethernet or AirPort connection, AppleTalk is automatically running by default so any available AppleTalk devices on the network can be used. You can control whether AppleTalk is active for a network connection by using the Network preference panel.

From the command line, you can check the status of AppleTalk on your machine by running the appletalk -s command, as shown in Example 11-8.

Example 11-8. Getting the status of AppleTalk

$ appletalk -s AppleTalk interface.............. en1 Network Number .................. 65420 (0xff8c) Node ID ......................... 122 (0x7a) Current Zone .................... * Bridge net ...................... 0 (0x0) Bridge number ................... 0 (0x0) DDP statistics: Packets Transmitted ............. 64 Bytes Transmitted ............... 2751 Best Router Cache used (pkts) ... 0 Packets Received ................ ...