I'm the network manager for a school district in the process of upgrading five schools to ethernet, category-5 wiring, etc. We are not planning on supporting LocalTalk in our wiring closets at any of these sites, so if a device is to be on the network, it's going to have to have an ethernet card, transceiver, or LocalTalk bridge of some kind. Right now we plan to put cards and transceivers on all LC-class machines and above. That includes the original LC, II, III, 475, 520, 575, 5200, 5260, and 5300, in addition to other PowerMacs (we have a lot of 6100s).

Our dilemna is what to do with the older machines, and our printers. We have a lot of SEs and Classics (several hundred) that get heavily used, many of which are a teacher's primary e-mail source. These machines we *have* to put on the network. We also have a big investment in AppleTalk ImageWriters, HP DeskWriters, and LaserWriters.

What are the best ways to network these devices? One solution we are considering is clustering the machines and printers and put them on an EtherPrint device that connects up to 8 LocalTalk devices to ethernet. This would be more cost effective than putting a single device on each EtherPrint, as the premium to go from 1 to 8 ports is relatively small ($200 to $230 or so).

Can you recommend vendors for these devices? Who makes a good ethernet card for the SE, and is it worth it? Can an SE PDS card be used in a IIsi? Can an SE/30 PDS card be used in a IIsi or IIci? Are there any good external ethernet devices for the SE? We have used some Farallon EtherWave products, but that is expensive ($300+ per machine). We've seen SE ethernet cards for $130, is this reasonable? Does the card require System 7?
Are there any economical internal upgrades for LaserWriters to give them an ethernet port, or do they have to use a LocalTalk bridge device? Again, what are the best solutions for connecting older LaserWriters to ethernet?

Our solution:

We have purchased 150 SE ethernet cards, and a like number of Asante EN/SC adpaters and Asante MicroPrint adapters to put our SEs, Classics, and printers on ethernet. My boss remained adamant about allowing any LocalTalk at the new sites, so we opened our wallets for the hardware.

Suggestions:

• Apple Internet Router (3)
• Apple LaserWriter Bridge (5)
• Apple LocalTalk Bridge (6)
• Asante EN/SC (8)
• Asante MicroPrint (3)
• Asante SE/30 & IIsi NIC (3)
• Cayman Gatorbox (2)
• Compatible Systems EtherRoute (2)
• Dayna EtherPrint (3)
• Dayna Ether Ports (1)
• Dayna Pathfinder (1)
• Dayna SE/30 NIC (1)
• Farallon InterRoute/5 (1)
• Farallon MultiPrint Adapter (2)
• Farallon StarController (6)
• Focus NIC/external ethernet adpater (1)
• Focus Turbo Star (1)
• Shiva Fastpath (5)
• Sonic MicroBridge (1)
• Tribe Computer Works Tribestar (4)
• Used/Refurbished Ethernet NIC (2)

The answers validated our current LocalTalk network, which uses Farallon StarControllers (though people preferred the Shiva Fastpath over the Farallon I/5, which we use), and also our decision to purchase Asante ethernet NICs/adapters for our older machines. We recently installed close to 100 of the Asante SE cards, the only glitches being full hard drives and the System 6.0.8 requirement (we're upgrading to System 7.0.1).

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Mike Owen mowen@removme.shorelin.wednet.edu

Network Manager Shoreline School District