One of the really impressive features of the Macintosh computer was the networking. With the addition of a transceiver for each machine and some cabling, Macs could be networked together to share a printer and files.
They did this by running the AppleTalk protocol over LocalTalk or similar eg the Farallon Phonenet.
I have some LocalTalk transceivers, but many more Phonenet transceivers. The latter was popular because they could use low cost telephone cables and in some cases existing cabling infrastructure.
It takes close to zero effort to connect up a network of Macs.
I wanted to go a little further than that, though, by trying to bridge to a more modern file server. The first part of my plan was to serve out files, preferably in an extracted form, from a machine that could efficiently access sites like Macintosh Garden.
I also wanted to get TCP/IP networking going so that all the Macs could, ideally, browse the web (eg Protoweb), but failing that, access an FTP server or a bulletin board using telnet.
When i first set up the modernish server the only machine i could use as a Localtalk/Ethernet bridge was my original SE/30. It has a Localtalk port and an Ethernet port.
I used this brilliant resource to guide me:
http://www.applefool.com/se30/
My understanding was that System 7.5.5 with Appleshare 3.7.4 and Open Transport 1.3 would talk an Apple system as late as OSX 10.3. I happened to have OSX 10.3 on a PowerMac G5. The G5 also had OSX 10.5 on which i could run the TenFourFox browser (which was live at that time).
This setup worked, albeit through a somewhat “pass the parcel” technique:
- Download on G5 OSX 10.5
- Share from G5 OSX 10.3 using AppleShare on Ethernet
- Grab from G5 with SE/30 using AppleTalk on Ethernet
- Share from SE/30 with 7.5.5 to other old Mac using AppleShare on Localtalk/Phonenet
- Grab on old Mac with 6.0.8 using AppleTalk
Obviously, i wasn’t going to do this one file at a time!
I added the unsupported LocalTalk host software which allowed other machines running at least System 7 to also access the G5 OSX 10.3 shares. I could not get this to work with the SEs on 6.0.8, although others may have more success.
I later changed my modernish mac to a PowerMac G4 which ran MacOS 9.1 and OSX 10.4. I found that even the SEs running 6.0.8 were able to access the System 9 shares via the Localtalk Bridge.
A laserwriter was beyond me, but i was able to add an HP LaserJet 6MP and an ImageWriter II both by with LocalTalk interface. The LocalTalk interface card for the imagewriter was given to me by an Australian Vintage Computer Collectors member Scott H.
