"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of news -- and chips -- and Gopher hacks, Of Babbage's -- and pings."
Apologies to Lewis Carroll, but the time has come to talk of many things, all of them dependent on Apple's MacTCP. I'm going to start by discussing MacTCP itself, which Hayden licensed from Apple to put on the disk that comes with this book. I also take a quick look at Open Transport, MacTCP's successor, which is currently in testing and may be out before the next edition of this book. With those preliminaries out of the way, let's check out MacTCP 2.0.6.
Roughly speaking, MacTCP is a translator. It enables the Macintosh to speak the language of the Internet, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Normally, of course, Macs speak AppleTalk to one another, over Macintosh networks. You must have the MacTCP control panel installed and configured properly, in order for the MacTCP-based programs such as Fetch and Netscape to work, although MacTCP does not make the connection itself. Think of MacTCP as the Babel Fish from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pop it in your Mac's ear (the Control Panel folder, actually), and your Mac understands the Internet noise that flows in and out. The metaphor of speaking and languages isn't quite accurate because TCP/IP is actually a transport protocol. But the idea of MacTCP as a Babel Fish that translates Internet gibberish into a language the Mac can understand seems to be the most understandable metaphor. Luckily, everything that MacTCP does happens at such a low level that you never notice. In fact, after you set up MacTCP correctly, you should never notice that it's present.
Once your Mac is connected to the Internet with MacTCP and a network, SLIP, PPP, or Apple Remote Access (ARA), it is essentially the same as any other Internet machine and has its own IP number. This means that you can connect to other Internet machines directly, without going through an intermediate machine. You can also, if you want, run server software to turn your Mac into an FTP, Gopher, or Web server, although that really requires a permanent Internet connection.
Note: Because the Internet is based on the TCP/IP protocols, the only way for a Mac to enjoy a full Internet connection is to use MacTCP. If you do not have MacTCP installed and a MacTCP-based connection using PPP, SLIP, ARA, or a Internet-connected network, you cannot use the MacTCP-based programs. Period.
Apple and other companies have thought in the past that MacTCP is a program that only large organizations want to buy, install, and configure. Accordingly, most of the documentation I've seen makes this assumption, too. It's a poor assumption these days, because individuals using PPP or SLIP can easily gain access to the Internet, and PPP and SLIP require MacTCP. However, if you work at a university or business that provides your Internet connection, it's a good bet that you have a network administrator who knows a great deal about MacTCP, and who has probably preconfigured it for your convenience.
Note: Evidence that this view of MacTCP is changing comes from Apple's inclusion of MacTCP in System 7.5. If you have System 7.5, even if you've never tried to connect to the Internet, you very well may have MacTCP already installed (but not configured).
In fact, a system administrator can preconfigure and then lock MacTCP (using another control panel called AdminTCP) so you can't change any of this information. I'm assuming that you want to use the version of MacTCP that I include on the disk, though, and that version enables anyone to configure it.
Because those of you with network administrators can ask them for help, I concentrate on details of interest to the individual who has no local network administrator and must rely solely on this book and the system administrator at a public provider.
Along with the help text that's built into my installer for you to save or print (and I strongly recommend you do this), you may want to browse through a document about MacTCP written by Eric Behr. It's available at: