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Welcome to the Netatalk wiki - Open Source file sharing for the Apple Macintosh since 1990! Here you can find and contribute to collaborative articles covering topics regarding Netatalk features as well as Mac and Apple II file sharing and networking.

What is Netatalk?

Netatalk is a cross-platform open source implementation of AFP (Apple Filing Protocol), the protocol used for file sharing on Apple II, Classic Mac OS, and Mac OS X. At the time of writing, AFP is one of several file sharing protocols with client support in macOS.

Architecture

Netatalk 3.x is an implementation of AFP over TCP. DSI is a session layer used to carry AFP over TCP. The complete stack looks like this:

          AFP
           |
          DSI
           |
           | (port:548)
           |
   -+---------------------------+- (kernel boundary)
    |         Socket            |
    +------------+--------------+
    |     TCP    |    UDP       |
    +------------+--------------+
    |       IP v4 or v6         |
    +---------------------------+
    |     Network Interface     |
    +---------------------------+

Netatalk 2.x also supports the AppleTalk Protocol Suite for legacy Macs, Lisas and Apple IIs via the atalkd daemon. The current release contains support for EtherTalk Phase I and II, DDP, RTMP, NBP, ZIP, AEP, ATP, PAP, ASP, AFP and DSI protocols. The complete stack looks like this:

    AFP                          AFP
     |                            |
    ASP    PAP                   DSI
      \   /                       |
       ATP RTMP NBP ZIP AEP       | (port:548)
        |    |   |   |   |        |
   -+---------------------------------------------------+- (kernel boundary)
    |                    Socket                         |
    +-----------------------+------------+--------------+
    |                       |     TCP    |    UDP       |
    |          DDP          +------------+--------------+
    |                       |           IP              |
    +-----------------------+---------------------------+
    |                Network Interface                  |
    +---------------------------------------------------+

Additionally, AppleTalk support brings the convenience of automatic service discovery on Classic Mac OS, a print server papd which can act as a two-way bridge for using modern printers on old Macs, a time server timelord, and an Apple II netboot server a2boot.

Netatalk Logo

The Netatalk logo depicts a stylized BSD Daemon on top of an AppleShare serving tray, hooked up to a daisy-chained LocalTalk network.

It evolved from an early Netatalk AFP volume icon encoded in the project's source code.

By the early 2000s, a colorized version was featured on the project website.

The present design was introduced in 2005 following the release of Netatalk 2.0.

External Links

See Netatalk Links