>After reinstalling the asun version, I can effectively use appleTalk 
>via TCP/IP on my OS X box, but the computer running mac OS 9 always 
>try to connect via TCP/IP.

I'm confused as to why you consider this a bad thing.

That behavior has nothing to do with the NetAtalk distribution. 
That's how Apple DESIGNED AppleShare-over-IP to work. TCP doesn't 
have a method to find servers via the chooser, so that part is done 
in AppleTalk mode. When you connect to the server, your computer asks 
the other computer if it supports AFP-over-IP, and if so, it switches 
to that protocol for the rest of the connection. This is because 
connecting via TCP is *MUCH* faster than connecting via AppleTalk, 
when you're using NetAtalk or AppleShareIP (or OSX Server). If the 
server is another MacOS 9 computer using Personal FileShare, then TCP 
is actually slower, but that's just because there's no "real" support 
for being a TCP server, it just uses an IP bridge extension to let 
you connect via IP. The reason for that is so that you can actually 
connect to servers over the Internet.

Also, it's not limited to OS9...OS8.1 and up should try to connect 
via TCP whenever the option is there :-).

Hope this helps,
Mike
Bikers don't *DO* taglines.