30 Apr
2002
30 Apr
'02
3:02 p.m.
What's the "right" way to add networking to the MAC? I'm not inclined
to buy
into standard Ethernet, since I've got 100Mbps and am looking to move to the
bleeding edge for educational purposes. Is there any >10Gbps stuff one can
add? How about just the 100 Mbps?
I'm also looking for a recommendation for a decent but not too rare or
expensive 56K dialup modem that's also fax-capable. I'm sure I can find a
reasonable MAC for a few dollars, but the real question with the MAC is the
peripherals. I've noticed that there's software out there for doing
long-distance jibberjabber between computers on the internet. If I equip one
of these babies with that and send it to my S.O's sister in Portland, they can
yack without running up the long distance bills. That's easily going to pay
for an older MAC in a week or so.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris" <mythtech(a)mac.com>
To: "Classic Computers" <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 6:32 PM
Subject: Re: APPLEVISION Monitor
10
We'd best
just agree to disagree about Apple Computer Co product quality.
I'm sure not aiming to start another flame war :-)
>My position is based on what I saw in '81-'82 with then ][ and ][+, where
complete data
losses per hour were the rule rather than the exception.
Ironically, you might have missed the best Apple days when it comes to
hardware reliability. (I can't say for sure, but I have been hearing the
rumors growing that QC on the new flat panel iMac isn't all that great,
and I know QC on the iceBook isn't less than wonderful)
One thing that I've wondered is how one gets
an old MAC to talk on the
Ethernet when it's a mixed environment with Netware and Windows NT
servers. I
know Netware has a provision for MAC namespace, but I've only seen one
ethernet-capable MAC, which leaves me wondering how folks who use MACs
install
an ethernet interface.
What do you know about that?
Most Macs, since sometime in the early 90's have come with ethernet on
board. The exceptions were the home targeted models (like the Performa
series), where ethernet was an optional add on. Every mac since the G3
comes with ethernet standard (basically, with the death of the performa
line came the death of optional ethernet... it was just included with
everything from then on out)
Every mac with an expansion slot can have ethernet added. Every mac with
at least SCSI can have ethernet added. If you have a pre-scsi mac
(128-512), then it gets a touch harder, but then, if you have one of
those, and don't know what you can and can't do with it... I'll take it
from you for cost of shipping.
That pretty much means, every mac from the Plus on can support ethernet.
For your Performa 630, you can add either an LC PDS ethernet card, or a
Comm Slot 1 ethernet card. The LC card will probably be the easier to
find.
Beyond that, you just have protocol issues. The Mac doesn't natively use
anything other than AppleTalk for file and print sharing (up thru OS 9...
OS X is a whole different ballgame). If you are in a network that
supports AppleTalk, great, everything will work fine (NT 4 and 2k support
it, as well as I believe later versions of Netware, and there are some
*nix packages out there as well).
If you can't get AppleTalk supported, then you will have to add things to
the Mac to access the servers. There are 3rd party apps out there to
enable the Mac to speak to a number of different systems. If this is
something you want to do, I will be happy to discuss it with you, but it
is going to get off topic really fast, so we are better off taking it off
list.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>