What does it do?
Appletalk is built in to the Macintosh operating system, along with a physical Localtalk port on the back of the machine. This makes it very easy to establish a peer-to-peer network, by simply connecting the machines using a Localtalk or LocalTalk/PhoneNet cable. Appletalk networks can be combined into interanets and zones. Appletalk network nodes have a physical node address, as well as logical addresses called an internet socket address. These socket addresses can also be identified by character string names, with a portion of the protocol dedicated to providing translations between the names and socket addresses.

Appletalk provides some routing capability between networks in an internet. Other parts of Appletalk provide file transfer capability, printer access, and a transaction protocol that allows one node to request a process to be executed by another.

How is it used?
While Appletalk is used primarily in Macintosh environments, it may also be run on DOS or Windows machines after installing the approriate software drivers. AppleTalk can also be run over Ethernet and Token Ring media (Apple refers to this as EtherTalk and TokenTalk respectively).

Since a LocalTalk connector is built into every Macintosh ever sold, setting up a network using Macintosh computers and peripherials is truly plug and play by using inexpensive LocalTalk or PhoneNet connectors and cables. For high performance networks it is recommended that you consider running AppleTalk over Ethernet to take advantage of its higher throughput (10 Mbits/sec) vs. LocalTalk (230 Kbits/sec).

To insure proper connectivity, make sure that any routers on your network are able to route AppleTalk packets. If your existing routers will not pass AppleTalk, consider Tunneling AppleTalk through TCP/IP or IPX .

Where do I get more information?
Contact your local CBV Office.