The talk program shipped with SunOS uses a machine dependent protocol
(actually a case of the big-endian vs little-endian problem for those
who care about such things).  Berkeley wrote a new version of the talk
protocol that solves these problems.  Unfortunately, Sun doesn't ship
an implementation of this protocol with SunOS.

This is an implementation of the new talk protocol for Sun machines.
Basically, it is just a (trivial) port of the 4.3bsd talk to SunOS
4.1.1 with some name modifications to suit SunOS naming conventions
(/usr/etc/in.ntalkd instead of /etc/talkd for instance).

This software will not interfere with the existing talk programs on
your system.  It will be installed as in.ntalkd (to complement the
existing in.talkd for the old protocol) and ntalk (to complement the
existing talk).

To compile, cd to ntalk and run make and make install (the default
installation directory is /usr/local/bin, change this in Makefile
if you want it elsewhere).  Then cd to ntalkd and run make and
make install (the target here is /usr/etc/in.ntalkd).

Next, you need to edit /etc/services (only on the NIS master if you
run NIS).  Add an entry for ntalk/udp at port 518 (one higher than
the old talk port number...you can just copy that entry and add one).
If you are running NIS rebuild and push the yp maps.

Now, on each workstation, edit /etc/inetd.conf.  Copy the line for
talk and change every occurence of talk to ntalk on the new line
(if you elected to install in.ntalkd somewhere else you'll need 
to change the path in that line as well).  Save and kill -HUP the
inetd process to make it reread the table.

Thats it.  You should now be able to talk to other machines running
the new protocol with ntalk.  And you can still talk to Suns running
the old protocol with talk.

If you have problems let me know.  

Frank Peters
Mississippi State University
fwp1@CC.MsState.Edu
