Eircom Hi-speed FAQ and Macs...

timod

Hi all,

We've gotten the hi-speed sales brochure thingy several times at home, and this question always perplexed me....

Right up in the FAQ (5 questions) there says:

Q. What do I need to send data from one Apple Mac to another?

A. Mac to Mac transfer of images, artwork etc requires specific hardware and software.
Please contact Bandwidth Telecommunications Limited, phone... 01 xxxxxxx

First off, this is hardly a "frequently" asked question
and
Secondly, what the hell are they on about?

Tim

Dustaz

i have absolutly no idea. Is this IP to IP transfers they are talking about?

Gordon

Is it not the appletalk/fileshare thing that apple users don't need outside software for

timod

I dunno...

Even if they are talking about appletalk, (which is seperate to TCP/IP), it can still runs over an IP network no problem.

I've connected Macs to Macs over the Internet, a Lan, crossover ethernet, using both TCP/IP and appletalk, and I don't have any magic software or hardware.

Does an ISDN modem hinder macs in someway? Anybody here on a Mac and hi-speed?

Boston

there talkign crap basically

root

I concur.
They are just outsourcing what they see as an "issue" because they don't know enough about the topic.

timod

I got more on this from ie.comp

They're not exaclty talking crap, but it's completly out of context and irrelevant to isdn....

I basically asked the same question.... got three decent replies:

not sure about the specifics but some graphics & printing companies do
use ISDN to send large images to each each other and it does use
specialised software (ie, they are making a direct connection between
the 2 Macs, not using the internet)

I suggested that that was just apple probably Appleshare over IP, and it was all built into the OS.

then....

The Irish Times use it - saw it there when I got to do work expereince -
for all their photos.

and then....

Nah, it's nothing to do with standard network type things. As far as I know
it's more like the old days of bulletin boards, direct dial up PC to PC and
zmodem file transfers. There are a number of application packages that work
with more or less defacto standards. One of the biggest I believe is
http://www.four-sight.co.uk/products/prod_overview.lasso

This stuff is old, it's been around since before IP and network was standard
in macs. The pre-press and graphics folk came up with a solution to the
file transfer problem that worked for them and didn't worry about wether it
was elegant or standards based, they just wanted a way to send stuff to one
another as quickly as possible....

Learn something new everyday....

Well, I still think the idea of including it in the FAQ is misleading, and suggests that Macs are in some way limited in their abilities.

Tim

Gordon

Ahh, whatever, if you have a Mac then you know it's not a problem and if you don't then it makes the Mac sound more complicated and... cool! (which is true of course, the cool bit)

Dustaz

*cough cough*

Originally posted by Dustaz
Is this IP to IP transfers they are talking about?

We have 2 of those ISDN lines in work. One we dont use any more (superceded by an NTL leased line), but one is still used by the Audio boys for remote voiceovers.
It allows a voiceover artist to sit in a booth in LA and record a VO here. Its a direct IP to IP connection and is not internet based at all. Its a bit like a lower rent version of TVOIP with isdn instead of dsl.