This is the story, so far, about my recent experiences with a Compact Mac. I need some help (see questions at the end) but I also hope this will help someone out in the future.
Background: A month or so ago, they were cleaning out a storage closet at work. A pile of old equipment was wheeled past my desk on its way to the dump, and I noticed what looked like an original Mac down at the bottom. I made them stop and recovered a Mac that had been upgraded to a Mac Plus (1MB), and external 20MB hard drive, keyboard and mouse.
The Goal: Get this Mac on the Internet over my home LAN using the oldest (reasonable) O/S possible.
Preliminary Goal: Get some sort of file sharing working between it and my 12" Powerbook. This is important since I don't have an easy way to put things on 800K floppies.
The Story:
I took the Mac home and checked it out. After wiping the dust off of it, it turned out to be in great shape. Perhaps it was the Kensington fan unit on top. If you take that off, you can see where the sun had discolored the case slightly from original, but overall it was a good specimen to keep.
I had used a friend's Mac back in 1986, so I am familiar with these machines, and in the late 80s/early 90s I worked at a company that used Macs for their desktops, and was exposed to Mac IIs, SEs, etc. However, I am a complete newbie when it comes to classic Macintosh networking (I am very familiar with modern, i.e. TCP/IP and SMB networking, just not Appletalk).
So in order to get this system up and running, I first decided to Read The Fine Manual by hitting Google, which brought me to lowendmac.com and this list. Lurking here for awhile (and asking a few questions) resulted in the following decisions:
O/S: I decided on System 6.0.8. I was a choice between that and 7.0.1, but since I want to keep this machine as "classic" as possible, System 6 it was. From what I was able to read, I should be able to do everything I needed on it. I was able to create the four install floppies in an 800K format, I wiped the hard drive and the install went without a hitch.
Hardware: I also decided to upgrade to 4MB and replace the analog board. The already small screen was made smaller by analog board issues, and the 4MB would just make the system more fun to use. From this list I found Herb Johnson, who sent me 4 matched 1MB SIMMs and a new analog board for a reasonable price.
The upgrade was pretty simple. First, I needed the elusive T-15 with the 6 inch shaft. I checked at every auto parts and home improvement store I could find, but finally found it where the list said it would be - at Sears.
Second, I needed to get the case open. Remembering the screw beneath the battery cover, I removed all five screws. Instead of using a case separator (which will dent the case), I used the "hold it over the bed and shake it method" which worked just fine.
I cleaned the dust from the inside with canned air, and then following the instructions here (http://www.lowendmac.com/ram/plus.shtml) I upgraded the RAM. I did not have an R9 resistor, but clipping only the R8 seemed to work.
The analog board was a little more of a challenge, but by being careful not to hit the end of the CRT it went smoothly. The old board had a transformer that had leaked a little bit of "goo" which wasn't present on the new one, so I assumed that may have had something to do with the small screen. I might replace it in the future should I need a spare.
There are also four pots on the analog board that are labeled for horizontal and vertical size, brightness and "voltage". The screen was a little off center, and I was never able to perfectly fix it, but playing with the voltage seemed to get it to the proper size.
I then put the back cover on, taking a moment to read the names etched in it and also taking care not to hit the now charged CRT.
Network: So next came the issue of getting this thing on the network. It seems I had several options. One was to locate a SCSI to Ethernet conversion box, but they seemed flaky, expensive and hard to find. Another would be to simply use a serial connection and some sort of PPP over that, but I wanted a more "network" based solution. I came across a mention of an Asante Localtalk to Ethernet hub. It was about $100 shipped, but I said, what the heck, and ordered one.
It was back ordered 4-6 weeks, and I couldn't wait that long, so I cancelled it and went to eBay.
Now, for newbies like me, it is probably worth mentioning that "localtalk" is the physical layer protocol, similar to "ethernet" or "token ring". "Appletalk" is the networking protocol, similar to TCP/IP. So this hardware I was after would get the physical connections completed, but I would still need to get Appletalk working on top of that.
I settled on a Farallon EtherMac iPrint Adapter, new in box, for US$36. The seller was great and it made it across the country in two days. However, it was not true "localtalk" but "PhoneNet", which was an old network using RJ11 connectors and phone wire. So while I had a localtalk cable, it wouldn't work with this (Arrrrgh!).
Salvation came in the form of an acquaintance with a client who had a stash of old hardware. I found a PhoneNet adapter, and I dug around until I also found a terminating resistor (you never know). Armed with my new finds, I headed back home.
I hooked up the adapter and plugged the Ethernet connection into the Powerbook and the PhoneNet connection into the compact mac. I brought up Chooser and I could see the powerbook, so I knew the hardware worked. (Yea!)
However, when I tried to connect I got the error "incompatible version of the AFP protocol". I Googled that and the only clue seemed to suggest upgrading to Appleshare Client 3.7.4, but I don't think that works with System 6.0.8.
Back to the manual, and I found this site: http://www.euronet.nl/users/mvdk/osx.html
In the section "Connecting a System 6 Mac directly to Mac OS X 10.1" I installed AppleTalk 58.1.4 (it wasn't installed - so I am not sure why I could see the powerbook before) and AppleShare for Workstation 3.5.
I also enabled "use_appletalk" as discussed on that page.
Now I couldn't see *anything* on the network, but I did have a new "network" option in Control Panel. Arrrgh.
So then I went here: http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/system6a.html#s6
This mentioned the Appleshare File Server. Since I was looking for something like the Public folders on Panther, I decided to try it.
I can hear the laughter, you know.
Appleshare File Server will turn your Mac into a File Server, and nothing more. When you shut down the file server, the system shuts down. I can boot using a floppy, but this was not what I was looking for. The good news is that using Classic Chooser on the laptop I can see the Mac Plus and transfer files to it, so I know the hardware works.
And that brings the story up to date. I really need to get file sharing working because I have a limited ability to make 800K floppies (I use a G3 running OS 9 at a company adjacent to mine), then I can work on the TCP/IP stuff.
Questions:
1) Is there an easy way to remove Appleshare File Server?
2) What *is* the best way to share files between 6.0.8 and Panther? I would prefer to use Apple's file sharing protocol versus, say, FTP.
Thanks for all your help in the past as well as for any further assistance you can lend.
-T
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