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Osiris010898

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MAC->NT4->VAX 6000

Currently we have a NT4 Server with a Vax 6000 connected. The Pc's on the network run Reflections 6.0 to access the Vax. Is there a way to allow the MACS to access the VAX going thru NT. MACS are connected to NT by TCP/IP-DHCP. Macs are 0S8.1/PPC.
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weed
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shoot....what i CAN tell you is that it CAN be done...weve got it set up at work but from what ive seen it looks like a telnet client....so dont give up thinking it cant be done!
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TheHub

Why not maintain some level of uniformity with the Macs and use Reflections 6.0?

VirtualPC runs very well and lets you install either Win95 or Win3.11 on DOS 6.x. It is possible to use the same copy of VPC on all Macs by using unique registration strings at install. You can also reduce your install times by installing the VPC c:drive partition on the first Mac and copying it to all other Macs via fileshareing. You must purchase one copy per Mac with SoftWindows, but copying the c:drive partition still works.

There are also DOS cards that can be purchased for faster performance, but the price/performance is questionable.

Good Luck, TheHub
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Funny you bring that suggestion up... Actually we have Virtual PC 1.01(Win95), and we installed it on one of our Macs, which networks to the NT4 smoothly, then we installed Reflections 6.0 on the Mac/Virtual PC. Reflections starts-up fine in VirtualPC/Win95 except for one thing- it cannot receive any HOST broadcasts from the server, There are no "HOSTS Services available" is the message we always get. We've tried everything in the Win 95 Networks Control Panel, but to no avail, we even talked to the Techs at WBQ(Reflections) but they were stumped. It seems to me that the Reflections LAT Protocal can't bind to the VirtPC emulated ethernet adapter. Maybe the new Virtual PC 2.0 might help, I dont know, but we've given up on this option, unless anyone has any suggestions about this configuration.
      
      It would be nice to buy DOS or Pentium cards for all the macs, but our budget won't allow for it, maybe when these cards come down in price, we will look into it.

      Luckily we will be getting rid of the damn VAX but this won't be for another 13 months or so, till then we do need to connect to this ass-backward set-up!

 thanx for your suggestions tho
Adjusted points to 64
If I had more I'd increase the points...but I'm broke!!!
That was my next suggestion...ditch the VAX.
Adjusted points to 85
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birchallr

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Oops,

It looks like you would be more interested in:
  Reflection® 2+ for Macintosh
  http://www.wrq.com/products/dsheets/r2mac.htm

This subject came up on the Mac Managers mailing list a little while back.  Here is the summary from that:

================
Thanks as usual to all the helpful people on this list...  i didn't get
a ton of response but then again not many people out there are still
using lat to connect to their vaxes...

the overall consensus was to get the vax on IP and then telnet to the
vax from your mac... this is obviously where i want to go, but for short
term I need Lat to work...

WRQ provided the answer to me... they have a beta version of LAT for
specifically G3's... their current version of LAT is fully 8.1
compatible (there were a few on the list saying LAT does not work on
8.1, that is incorrect)...and this beta version works fine on my G3 (so
far anyways!!!)...anyone who is interested in this let me know and i'll
email it to ya...

Bill Jankowski  <JankowskiB@RAVENS.NFL.com>
================

Regards,

Richard
Well, we checked out WRQ website and looked up the specs for Reflections 2 for Mac, it seems like it will do the job, (support for LAT). We will be receiving a demo of the software and see how it goes from there. Funny though, our MIS have been corresponding with the guys from WRQ for awhile (for support for the PC Reflections 6.0) and the question has been raised before (about three months ago!) whether or not WRQ  supports MACs, and the the answer has always been no, even when we recently requested the demo for the Mac Reflections, the rep stated that they had no such software, we had to read off the information we aquired from their own website, about their own software, that they didn't know existed! Boneheads!
Anyways, another bit of info concerning Connectix Virtual PC, is that when Connectix made the emulated ethernet adapter that comes with VPC, they didn't write in support for LAT connections and they don't plan on doing so in the future.

Well, thanks for the help and suggestion Richard, I think we found what we need. We'll try out Reflections 2 for Mac and see how it performs.
Well,we tried Reflections 2 and it aint compatible with OS8+, "communications toolbox error" I guess well have to try to get the beta version for LAT for G3's, even though they don't advertise that they have this (WRQ).
Happy to say we finally managed to connect to the vax, Reflections 2 works, but you need to upgrade the Lat Tools/extensions. They have a beta version out now that replaces the old LAT extension and works fine with our PPC/8.1 and with the new G3's.
They are:
WRQ SPLAT Tool.1
WRQ SPLAT Lib.1
just drop them in the extensions folder and take out the old LAT extension.
Works great.