IP over FireWire™ Beta Developer Release

[Mr. Dibbs]

Apparently, the apple developer website has, for free download, a kernel extension for Mac OS !0.2.2 which allows for TCP/IP to be run over a FireWire™ connection, between Macs and any other FireWire™ Device. According to the quoted news article, once installed, you will see FireWire as a network connection option. The connection is supposed to support Rendezvous, as well as HTTP, AFP, and SSH. The link to the news article is here, but it will be archived in a few days.

Apple's Developer Connection (ADC) Web site is now offering an IP over FireWire Preview Release -- technology that enables Macs and other devices to communicate using TCP/IP through FireWire instead of Ethernet or other common networking media.

FireWire offers distinct advantages over Ethernet networking because of its incredibly high speed -- up to 400mb/second, compared to 10 or 100mb/second for most networks. Newer Power Macs and PowerBooks sport Gigabit Ethernet connections, however, which ups the speed to 1000mb/sec. As a result, said Apple, IP over FireWire makes Macs suitable for networking and clustering solutions.

In fact, FireWire-based Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions are not a new idea -- several third-party manufacturers produce such systems. This is the first time that Apple has publicly released software to help TCP/IP-based Macs and other devices to communicate with each other over FireWire. TCP/IP is the lingua franca of the Internet, and using this software, Macs can communicate with other Macs and other devices that support IP over FireWire, through commonly used protocols like AFP, HTTP, FTP and SSH. This also enables Rendezvous -- Apple's zero-configuration networking technology -- to work as well, according to the information on Apple's Web site.

IP over FireWire Preview Release adds a new Kernel Extension to Mac OS X that supports the existing network services architecture. Once the software is installed, you should be able to add FireWire as your IP network node in the Network Preferences Pane. If you have two FireWire Macs nearby, you can then use IP over FireWire to exchange data with each other -- you can also use this technology to connect two Macs to the Internet through Internet Sharing as well, according to the documentation.

System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.2.2 and a Mac with built-in FireWire.

Please bear in mind that although this is a publicly available download, this ADC preview release is being offered as beta software -- users are encouraged to back up their important data before installing and using the software.

To throw fuel on the fire, does anyone think this might have to do with some of the trademarks and FCC stuff registered recently by apple, such as GigaWire for instance? This new IP over FireWire implementation takes a lot of the argument that it could not be firewire because of the communications aspect of it. -Dibbs

 

[Macette]

This is cool - I find connecting my ibook and g3 tower via ethernet a bit frustrating, and it would be good to be able to use firewire instead. maybe it will work better?! anyway, i'm going to give it a shot.

 

[iJon]

Re: IP over FireWire™ Beta Developer Release

Originally posted by Mr. Dibbs
Apparently, the apple developer website has, for free download, a kernel extension for Mac OS !0.2.2 which allows for TCP/IP to be run over a FireWire™ connection, between Macs and any other FireWire™ Device. According to the quoted news article, once installed, you will see FireWire as a network connection option. The connection is supposed to support Rendezvous, as well as HTTP, AFP, and SSH. The link to the news article is here, but it will be archived in a few days.



To throw fuel on the fire, does anyone think this might have to do with some of the trademarks and FCC stuff registered recently by apple, such as GigaWire for instance? This new IP over FireWire implementation takes a lot of the argument that it could not be firewire because of the communications aspect of it. -Dibbs

This is nothing new you guys. Windows 2000 and XP(dont think 98) have had this for almost 2 years now and maybe even longer. I use it when i play games with people because this faster than 10/100 because most people dont have gigabit ethernet.

iJon