ClassicStack

ClassicStack is an AppleTalk router and classic LAN services stack that bridges legacy Macintosh and DOS networking into modern environments. Always in beta.

What it does

• AppleTalk Phase 2 routing across EtherTalk and LocalTalk transports.
• AFP file server over both classic DDP and modern TCP transports.
• MacIP gateway for IP-over-AppleTalk clients.
• MacIPX gateway for IPX-over-AppleTalk clients.
• Optional IPX, NetBEUI, NetBIOS, and SMB1 services (build-tag gated).
• Shared raw-link bridge settings for EtherTalk, MacIP, IPX, and NetBEUI.

Releases

Grab the latest release from Github Releases releases.

Screenshots

The web interface.

Doom running over MacIPX over AppleTalk over LtOUDP through Snow, back to IPX on 86box.

Build

Requirements:

• Go 1.23+
• Npcap on Windows for pcap mode: https://npcap.com/#download
• libpcap on Linux/macOS for pcap mode

Build default binary (all optional protocol hooks enabled):

go build -tags all -o classicstack ./cmd/classicstack

Build with a custom protocol tag set:

go build -tags "ipx netbeui netbios smb" -o classicstack ./cmd/classicstack

or:

go build -tags all -o classicstack ./cmd/classicstack

Build router-only variant (no optional build-tag services):

go build -o classicstack ./cmd/classicstack

Run tests:

go test ./...

Quick start

1. Copy server.toml.example to server.toml.
2. Edit bridge/device/network values.
3. Run with no flags (auto-loads server.toml) or pass -config.

Examples:

./classicstack -config server.toml

.\classicstack.exe -config server.toml

Config loading rules:

• -config cannot be combined with other flags.
• When no flags are passed, server.toml is loaded automatically if present.

Shared bridge model

Bridge defaults live in [Bridge] and are reused by EtherTalk, MacIP, IPX, and NetBEUI.

Key	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	pcap	Raw-link backend: pcap, tap, tun.
device	string	(empty)	Interface/device name used by shared raw-link consumers.
hw_address	string	DE:AD:BE:EF:CA:FE	Shared host MAC identity.
bridge_mode	string	auto	Frame adaptation mode: auto, ethernet, wifi.

Important: legacy bridge keys under [EtherTalk] are no longer accepted in config files. Use [Bridge] only.

Per-protocol pcap filter overrides:

• [EtherTalk].filter
• [MacIP].filter
• [IPX].filter
• [NetBEUI].filter

These filters apply only in pcap mode.

Transport and service sections

[Router]

Declares which transports the AppleTalk router binds to. An enabled transport that is not bound runs standalone: it still comes up and receives frames (and can be captured), but it is not part of the AppleTalk router — no RTMP/ZIP and no inter-port forwarding. This lets you run, say, TashTalk on its own segment without it joining the router.

Key	Default	Notes
ports	(empty)	Transport section names the router binds to ("LToUdp", "TashTalk", "EtherTalk"). Empty (or section omitted) binds every enabled transport; a non-empty list binds only those named, so any enabled-but-unlisted transport runs standalone.

[Router]
ports = ["LToUdp", "EtherTalk"]   # TashTalk, if enabled, runs standalone

The dashboard shows each port's routed: on/off so you can see at a glance which transports are part of the router. The same allow-list is editable from the web UI via the "Attach to AppleTalk router" checkbox on each transport.

[LToUdp]

Key	Default	Notes
enabled	true	Enables LocalTalk-over-UDP port.
interface	0.0.0.0	Local IPv4 bind/join interface.
seed_network	1	Seed network ID for this segment.
seed_zone	LToUDP Network	Seed zone name.

[TashTalk]

Key	Default	Notes
port	(empty)	Serial device path/name; empty disables.
seed_network	2	Seed network ID for this segment.
seed_zone	TashTalk Network	Seed zone name.

[EtherTalk]

Key	Default	Notes
bridge_host_mac	(empty)	Optional host adapter MAC for wifi bridge shim.
filter	(protocol default)	Optional BPF override in pcap mode.
seed_network_min	3	Seed network range start.
seed_network_max	5	Seed network range end.
seed_zone	EtherTalk Network	Seed zone name.

[MacIP]

Key	Default	Notes
enabled	false	Enables MacIP gateway.
mode	pcap	pcap or nat.
zone	(empty)	Registration zone override.
nat_subnet	192.168.100.0/24	Subnet/pool for NAT mode.
nat_gw	(empty)	Gateway address advertised in NAT mode.
lease_file	(empty)	Optional lease persistence file.
ip_gateway	(empty)	Upstream gateway address.
dhcp_relay	false	Translate/relay DHCP for clients.
nameserver	(empty)	DNS server for clients.
filter	(protocol default)	Optional BPF override in pcap mode.

[IPX]

IPX is optional and requires build tag ipx or all.

Key	Default	Notes
enabled	false	Enables IPX router services.
interface	(empty)	Raw-link interface; empty reuses bridge device.
framing	ethernet_ii	One of ethernet_ii, raw_802_3, llc, snap.
internal_network	(empty)	8 hex digits; empty falls back to default network.
filter	ipx (internal default)	Optional BPF override in pcap mode.

[NetBEUI]

NetBEUI is optional and requires build tag netbeui or all.

Key	Default	Notes
enabled	false	Enables NetBEUI raw-link port.
interface	(empty)	Raw-link interface; empty reuses bridge device.
filter	llc (internal default)	Optional BPF override in pcap mode.

[NetBIOS]

NetBIOS is optional and requires build tag netbios or all.

Key	Default	Notes
enabled	false	Enables NetBIOS service.
transports	["tcp"]	Allowed values: tcp, netbeui, ipx.
scope_id	(empty)	Optional NetBIOS scope ID.

NetBIOS server/workgroup identity is derived from SMB server/workgroup values.

[SMB]

SMB is optional and requires build tag smb or all.

Key	Default	Notes
enabled	false	Enables SMB server.
nbt_binding	:139	NetBIOS-over-TCP listener.
direct_binding	(empty)	Optional direct SMB listener (for example :445).
guest_ok	false	Allows guest sessions.
server_name	CLASSICSTACK	Computer/server name.
workgroup	WORKGROUP	Workgroup/domain label.

SMB shares are configured as [SMB.Volumes.] sections.

Example:

[SMB]
enabled = true
nbt_binding = ":139"
guest_ok = true
server_name = "CLASSICSTACK"
workgroup = "WORKGROUP"

[SMB.Volumes.Public]
name = "Public"
path = "./public"
fs_type = "local_fs"
read_only = false

[AFP]

AFP runs over ddp, tcp, or both.

Key	Default	Notes
enabled	true	Enables AFP service.
name	ClassicStack (example)	Advertised AFP server name.
zone	(empty)	Registration zone override.
protocols	ddp,tcp	AFP transports.
binding	:548	DSI listener.
extension_map	(empty)	Extension map file path.
cnid_backend	sqlite	sqlite or memory.
use_decomposed_names	true	Reserved-character mapping behavior.
appledouble_mode	modern	modern or legacy sidecar layout.

AFP volumes are configured as [AFP.Volumes.] sections.

Logging and capture

[Logging]:

• level: debug, info, warn
• parse_packets: protocol decode logging
• parse_output: file target for parsed logs
• log_traffic: raw traffic logging

[Capture]:

• localtalk, ethertalk, ipx capture output paths
• snaplen for capture truncation length

Web UI

A management web UI is available in builds that include -tags webui (which -tags all does). It serves a dashboard showing per-service status, bindings, and live (SSE-streamed) statistics, plus a configuration editor, read-only diagnostics (zone/network enumeration), and a live log viewer.

[WebUI]:

• enabled: turn the listener on (default off)
• bind: IP:PORT to listen on (default 127.0.0.1:8080, loopback)
• tls: serve HTTPS (default true); a self-signed certificate is generated at startup when cert_pem/key_pem are blank
• cert_pem / key_pem: paths to a PEM certificate and key (supply both, or leave both blank for the self-signed certificate)

Equivalent flags: -webui-enabled, -webui-bind, -webui-tls, -webui-cert-pem, -webui-key-pem.

From the dashboard you can start, stop, and restart the standalone services (IPX, NetBEUI, NetBIOS, SMB) live; stops are dependency-aware (stopping NetBIOS also stops SMB). The configuration editor can edit scalar settings, add / update / remove AFP volumes and SMB shares, and toggle packet-dump and pcap capture options (parse-packets, traffic logging, and per-transport capture file paths). The Logs tab streams the server's log output live (recent history is replayed on open, then new lines append) with a client-side level filter. Edits stage in memory; Apply re-wires the running stack (the web UI server is preserved across the rebuild), Save writes server.toml (backing up the prior file to server.toml.NNNN and dropping comments), and Download backup exports the current config. The same operations are exposed by the transport-agnostic pkg/control API, so a future text/telnet UI can reuse them.

Running as a service / daemon

ClassicStack ships a wrapper binary so it can run in the background and start automatically. It shares the same runtime as classicstack, so the config and behaviour are identical — it just manages the process lifecycle. The wrapper is a different command per platform:

Windows service — classicstack-svc.exe

Run from an elevated (Administrator) prompt:

# Register the service (auto-start at boot) pointing at a config file:
.\classicstack-svc.exe install -config C:\ProgramData\ClassicStack\server.toml

.\classicstack-svc.exe start      # start it now
.\classicstack-svc.exe status     # query the state
.\classicstack-svc.exe stop       # stop it
.\classicstack-svc.exe uninstall  # remove it

The service is named ClassicStack (visible in services.msc and Get-Service ClassicStack) and writes start/stop entries to the Application event log. classicstack-svc.exe run -config ... runs the stack in the current console for debugging.

Linux / macOS daemon — classicstackd

classicstackd self-daemonizes — it needs no systemd or other init system:

# Start detached in the background (writes a PID file and logs to a file):
classicstackd start -config /etc/classicstack/server.toml \
  -pidfile /var/run/classicstack.pid -log /var/log/classicstack.log

classicstackd status   # report whether it is running
classicstackd stop     # stop it gracefully (SIGTERM)
classicstackd run -config /etc/classicstack/server.toml   # foreground (Ctrl-C to stop)

-pidfile and -log default to /var/run/classicstack.pid and /var/log/classicstack.log. For boot persistence, point your init system's ExecStart at classicstackd run -config <path>.

On macOS, install/uninstall additionally manage a LaunchAgent so the daemon runs as a login item (headless):

classicstackd install -config ~/Library/Application\ Support/ClassicStack/server.toml
# writes ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.obsoletemadness.classicstack.plist and loads it
classicstackd uninstall   # unload + remove the LaunchAgent

Useful commands

List pcap devices:

.\classicstack.exe -list-pcap-devices

Print version:

./classicstack -version

Status and attribution

Warning: this project is pragmatic and evolving. Validate behavior in your environment before production use.

AppleTalk routing was originally inspired by tashrouter: https://github.com/lampmerchant/tashrouter

License

GPL-3.0.

Additional docs

• High-level runtime map: ARCHITECTURE.md
• Protocol notes: spec