Getting the MacSE online: Asanté and LocalTalk/Ethernet and MacTCP and AppleTalk

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Getting the MacSE online: Asanté and LocalTalk/Ethernet and MacTCP and AppleTalk

I had a MacSE back in the day but back then I got online with a modem, and PPP. Now I want to integrate it into my LAN. I have an Asanté Micro AsantePrint and have used it to hook the device in, and I've enabled AppleTalk, but...

a) Although I have a PowerMac 7100 with file sharing enabled over the network, the Mac SE doesn't see it in AppleShare in the Chooser; and

b) I can't seem to get a valid IP address farmed out to the Mac SE. It's been a long time since I futzed with MacTCP control panel, and when I last did so it was for an LC that had an ethernet card in it.

Other relevant info: the serial port I'm using is the Printer Port. I don't see anywhere in the SE System 6 environment where I tell it that's the serial port for AppleTalk to use. Should I move it to the Modem Port, perhaps?

The router: I have a 'WallStreet' PowerBook on the network and I booted it into MacOS 9 and enabled AppleTalk over Ethernet and yep, I see the 7100 when I go to AppleShare. So the router isn't blocking the packets or anything like that.

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Re: Getting the MacSE online: Asanté and LocalTalk/Ethernet ...

Hi AHunter3,

I too use a Micro AsantePrint for my Mac Classic and IIgs and I can tell you from my experience, that it needs to be powered last, after all computers are up.
Although Asanté states that the Micro AsantePrint is only usable for printer sharing, I am pretty sure that I have accessed the shares from my Powerbook G4 before. Unfortunately the Zip-Drive I used to boot the Classic died last week, so I can't confirm that right now.
AFAIK, it is not possible to use TCP/IP over Localtalk right out of the box, but it can be done with a dedicated gateway: MacIPgw

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Re: Getting the MacSE online: Asanté and LocalTalk/Ethernet ...

>I too use a Micro AsantePrint for my Mac Classic and IIgs and I can tell you from my experience, that it needs to be powered last, after all computers are up.
Although Asanté states that the Micro AsantePrint is only usable for printer sharing, I am pretty sure that I have accessed the shares from my Powerbook G4 before. Unfortunately the Zip-Drive I used to boot the Classic died last week, so I can't confirm that right now.
AFAIK, it is not possible to use TCP/IP over Localtalk right out of the box, but it can be done with a dedicated gateway: MacIPgw<

a) MacTCP does show LocalTalk as an option: http://home.earthlink.net/~ahunter3/MoreStuff/LocalTalk%20as%20a%20MacTCP%20Option.JPG

b) If the AsantePrint only worked if it got powered up last, it would not have been very useful in Mac Labs, where students would come in, sit down at a Mac, turn it on, insert their floppy disk, and begin working. Now, maybe it isn't the combo of hardware and software that I was seeking but they used to use something back in the day that would let non-ethernet Macs join a network that was already up and running at the time that the non-ethernet mac booted up.

c ) Before trying to get TCP working over LocalTalk, I figured I'd work on getting plain old AppleTalk shares working. So far, they don't.

SE's chooser: http://home.earthlink.net/~ahunter3/MoreStuff/SE%20Chooser%20No%20Shares.JPG

PowerBook G3 / MacOS 9's chooser, same network (ethernet equipped, of course); http://home.earthlink.net/~ahunter3/MoreStuff/MacOS%209%20sees%20the%20share.jpg

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Re: Getting the MacSE online: Asanté and LocalTalk/Ethernet ...

More info: I have the Asanté administrative software installed on a 7100 that's on the ethernet side of the LAN and it "sees" the Asanté device.

http://home.earthlink.net/~ahunter3/MoreStuff/asante%20setup.jpg

Do I need to get a different LocalTalk / Ethernet bridge device if I want to put the SE on the LAN, or is there no such animal that does that and I need instead to find myself an ethernet PDS card for the SE?

The Applied Engineering accelerator has a "pass thru" port to allow the installation of other PDS cards... the manual says "such as an external monitor card" if I recall correctly... don't know if I could shoehorn in an ethernet card and have its ports poking out where they need to poke out without taking cutters to the case but if it would work at all it would be nice to just put it on the ethernet network. I didn't realize LocalTalk to Ethernet was so limited!

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Re: Getting the MacSE online: Asanté and LocalTalk/Ethernet ...

I got a Dayna SCSI-to-Ethernet adapter and it works nicely. Both AppleTalk and TCP/IP run over ethernet now, and I can make Timbuktu connections to my MacOS 8 PowerMac 7100. I can also connect to it from within Basilisk II / System 7.6 which has Timbuktu Pro 3.0 on it. The SCSI-to-Ethernet adapter leaves me with a functioning SCSI and I have an external drive hooked up as well. It's very snappy with the Applied Engineering TransWarp 40 Mhz '030 accelerator and 16 MB RAM in it.

This is a nearly-exact replica of the first Mac I ever owned, and with it restored my "computer museum" now has all the Macs I've ever owned in working order and set up as they were when they were my primary rig.

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