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tevion5

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
1,967
1,603
Ireland
I thought I would share some of the infrastructure I have set up to have my macs communicate with each other. Almost all of the Mac's you can see in my signature are able to access each other files.

I currently use:

  • x3 Apple LocalTalk Adapter + Cables
  • x1 D-Link Ethernet Switch
  • x1 Assanté LocalTalk-Ethernet Adapter
  • x1 Apple Airport Snow
  • x1 Apple Airport Express (2nd Gen)
  • Various Ethernet Cables

Here is a video where I very briefly demonstrate some of this equipment in action:


The 512Ke and Classic II are connected via LocalTalk, the Power Macintosh 8600 is connected via Ethernet and the iMac G4 is connected via WiFi. Yet, everything can communicate flawlessly.

assante.JPG

Assanté 'AssantéTalk' LocalTalk- Ethernet Adapter


routers.JPG

Apple Airport Snow and Airport Express


512kdesktop.JPG

The AppleShare server list of my 512Ke, with the connected servers also visible on the desktop.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think I will upload some more videos later and make a whole channel out of it. I have achieved quite a few interesting feats with all this stuff, especially forwarding the 512K and it's HD20 over FTP onto the internet. I'll post more over christmas!
 
Last edited:

DZ/015

macrumors 6502a
Mar 23, 2003
875
26
New England
Nice setup, thanks for sharing your work. Really neat to see all of this equipment talking to each other. I did something similar to this a few years back in my basement.

Your pronunciation of ethernet was interesting to me. Everywhere I have been in the US the first E is long instead of short (as in read instead of lead). But I noticed you are from Ireland so I assume English is your second language.















I'm joking of course. :)
 

bse5150

macrumors 6502
Jan 12, 2014
276
121
I have an Asantetalk adapter kicking around as well, albeit without a power supply. It's just as well; I don't have a computer to use it with.
 

tevion5

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
1,967
1,603
Ireland
I have an Asantetalk adapter kicking around as well, albeit without a power supply. It's just as well; I don't have a computer to use it with.

I was surprised by how effortless it was to set up. Its a super little box. I just plugged it in and powered it up. Suddenly all my LocalTalk machines could see the ones on WiFi!

Tricky to find for a decent price these days however, especially one that includes the power supply. I had been keeping an eye on eBay for almost a year before I got mine at a price I could justify.
 

bse5150

macrumors 6502
Jan 12, 2014
276
121
Tricky to find for a decent price these days however, especially one that includes the power supply. I had been keeping an eye on eBay for almost a year before I got mine at a price I could justify.

I'm looking for a Classic II to use with mine. My Quadras all use ethernet.
 

tevion5

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
1,967
1,603
Ireland
I'm looking for a Classic II to use with mine. My Quadras all use ethernet.

I need to get around to replacing the Caps on my Classic II. I cleaned the board of acid, but it still takes more than 10 minutes to warm up before it boots...
 

tevion5

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
1,967
1,603
Ireland
If you're desperate, don't forget Apple released the originally commercial product "LocalTalk Bridge" for free.

You could use a machine with Ethernet and Din8 serial ports as a bridge.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1258

I thought about using this on my 8600 for a while, but i decided against it because it would mean having to run system 7, always leaving it on when networking and a general waste of electricity. It's a great tool if you have an appropriate mac, but I think it's easier and more cost effective to get a hardware bridge.

The same with any type of bridging, such as PPPoE and Modems. A hardware solution is always more reliable than a software one. Less headaches from garbage Chinese software.
 

MacTech68

macrumors 68020
Mar 16, 2008
2,393
211
Australia, Perth
I thought about using this on my 8600 for a while, but i decided against it because it would mean having to run system 7, always leaving it on when networking and a general waste of electricity. It's a great tool if you have an appropriate mac, but I think it's easier and more cost effective to get a hardware bridge.

The same with any type of bridging, such as PPPoE and Modems. A hardware solution is always more reliable than a software one. Less headaches from garbage Chinese software.

I totally agree. I used it in the workshop with a 20foot serial cable so I could get updates off the server for client machines that lacked ethernet. It's not the best, but it did work with MacOS 8.1 on a G3 Desktop.
 

Mk.558

macrumors newbie
Nov 10, 2014
8
0
re: LocalTalk Bridge

I thought about using this on my 8600 for a while, but i decided against it because it would mean having to run system 7, always leaving it on when networking and a general waste of electricity.

LocalTalk Bridge will work perfectly fine in later Mac OSs. I have used it in OS 9 with AppleShare IP 6.3 because AppleShare IP cannot provide shares via the serial port.

May I inquire what you use to share out the HD20 to the outside world? NCSA Telnet? Rumpus 3.5?
 

tevion5

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
1,967
1,603
Ireland
LocalTalk Bridge will work perfectly fine in later Mac OSs. I have used it in OS 9 with AppleShare IP 6.3 because AppleShare IP cannot provide shares via the serial port.

May I inquire what you use to share out the HD20 to the outside world? NCSA Telnet? Rumpus 3.5?

I believe I answered this exact question somewhere before. I was guilty of double posting so the mods deleted a mountain of my posts in both of those threads recently. Knocked me back a whole rank xD.

Anyway, I use EasyShare on the 512Ke to mount an AppleShare share on the PM8600, then I share that share using the FTP client Rumpus. This is then publicly accessible on the Internet.
 

Mk.558

macrumors newbie
Nov 10, 2014
8
0
Oh okay so just the same thing that "napabar" has talked about on 68kmla and his site. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't some new combo or trick I haven't heard about yet. :)
 

tevion5

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
1,967
1,603
Ireland
Oh okay so just the same thing that "napabar" has talked about on 68kmla and his site. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't some new combo or trick I haven't heard about yet. :)

Like I said in the end of my video, this is Niles Mitchell's (napabar) method for getting the 512Ke online.
 
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