>
>Next up, I've got my Mac Q610 connected to the SE/30 via a serial line, and
>I use SLiRP to talk. This setup generally works, except that I can't
>successfully ftp into my NetBSD box, which is a pain, and I can't ftp into
>many outside sites unless I set my client to "passive" mode, whatever that
>is. ftping out from the NetBSD machine works fine, however - it's just
>ftping over SLiRP that gives me problems. From my understanding, the way
>SLiRP works is much the same as the way IP-NAT works. Am I likely to see
>any benefit from switching to SLIP/IP-NAT? I'd almost rather use PPP, but I
>use that to connect to the outside world, and I haven't figured out how to
>do more than one PPP connection at a time.
>

hmm, slirp runs over telnetd which uses getty. last time i tried this, i
got lots and lots of packet loss and lots of ring overruns messages in
syslog (esp while downloading/uploading). setting it up as a second ppp
connection might not get you all the packet loss (i tried it once
unsuccessfully, though, so i wouldn't know), but it probably would get you
ring overruns on console.  Also, i foresee the SE/30 as being unusably slow
while the Q10 is sending or receiving data to the net via the SE/30, which
is connected by its other serial port to a ppp connection (internet
provider), since the machine (as you might have noticed) slows down just
downloading stuff directly to the SE/30.

the difference seems to be that slirp uses telnetd and getty which might be
causing the problems. pppd talks to /dev/tty00 and /dev/tty01, which is
intended for bandwidth. i'm not sure how ip-nat works (haven't tried it
yet).

other options: ethernet between your machines, and the SE/30 (gateway
machine) for ppp to the net

>Lastly, I've heard rumours of freeware Mac-side software that serves X.
>Does anyone have any information this way? What I *think* I'm looking for
>is something akin to eXodus or MacX. Another, related question: Would
>running an X connection over a 19200 baud SLIP connection be too painful to
>consider? Or would it be okay?
>

eXodus comes with a free 30-day trial or something. i think the web page
URL is http://www.whitepine.com or something to that effect.

the place where i work uses eXodus, and even if the xserver (eXodus) is on
a 68k, the usability speed is very, very good.  i do recall that eXodus
comes with the needed files for a sun system to put in your homedir, but i
don't know if it has stuff regarding other operating systems. maybe a quick
hack will work, i never tried.

anyone: feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, i'm a semi-newbie too :-)

good luck,

  - a

 Armen Babikyan - armenb@moof.ai.mit.edu
    ----<insert lame quote here>----