Subject: high-level questions

From: Rand Clark <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 10:31:15 -0700

I have addressed some of these questions to James Kempf who has
graciously replied.  I am sending this to the whole group so as to
relieve the burden from him.  Thanks James.

I am exploring the viability of our application using SLP to register
itself as a service.  I am having trouble understanding the state of SLP
implementations in the real-world today.  I am interested in available
APIs for accessing SLP.

So far I know that Netware implements SLPv1.  Winsock 2 APIs can be used
on both Netware servers and Win32 clients.  Are there any other ways to
access SLP?

James indicated that other than Netware clients, there might not be any
other C interfaces available.   I know that support for the JNDI v1
provider was withdrawn.

So, where does that leave people who want to use SLP today?  We don't
want to implement any SLP pieces ourselves; we just want to use it.  Is
it too early for commercial use?  Will this change with v2?

Thanks for your input.

Rand Clark
B2 Systems, Inc.

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 12:00:15 -0700

>on both Netware servers and Win32 clients.  Are there any other ways to

...

>it too early for commercial use?  Will this change with v2?

Mac OS 8.5 includes an implementation of SLPv1, both UA and SA.  We're
using it commercially in our popular ShareWay IP product
(http://www.opendoor.com/ShareWay/), which implements AFP (Apple Filing
Protocol) over IP.  In other words, Macintosh file sharing over intranets
and the Internet.  The only thing missing was AppleTalk's ease of finding
services, most of which we were able to provide through SLP.

So yes, it's ready for commercial use in small and medium sized
environments.  Without commercially available DAs, however, it's probably
not quite ready for large organizations yet (IMHO of course).

+-----+
|     |   Alan Oppenheimer
|     |   Open Door Networks, Inc.
|o    |   Internet solutions as easy to use as the Macintosh itself
|     |   [email-masked]
|     |   http://www.opendoor.com
+-----+