Re: IBM Appletalk card

[Shawn Beattie <sbeattie@sparc5.augustana.edu>]

Mitchell Spector wrote:
> 
> In article "Ron McGowan" <ronmac@pacbell.net> writes...
> 
> >I have a card, made by Apple, designed to fit IBM style Box
> >Copyrighted 1985,
>
>     I have one of these too, they are similar in concept to the

I picked up one of these still shrinkwrapped at a local show 
recently. My hope was that it would be recognized by one of the
Appletalk servers that exist for the PCs.

> 
>     The PC card is somewhat rare,  probably in the same class
> as Apple II Workstation Cards so you may want to hang onto it

I would put them in the moderately rare category, although since
similar cards are still available on the market that makes them
less desirable.  I would trade mine for a II workstation card.

> >Does anyone know of drivers / stacks / ANYTHING
> 
>     My card included a pair of 5.25 (360K) MS-DOS diskettes, both
> intended for setting up your machine to share an Apple LaserWriter
> printer (no filing sharing network software in the box).

I believe mine included 5.25 and 3.5 inch disks for the PC.  It 
looks as if the included software is pretty near to useless, with 
a crummy DOS interface.
 
>     It can do both, but Apple only included software to let it
> share or use LaserWriters. I was browsing a store with used
> software packages and same an application (by Apple) that
> allows you to do file sharing using the AppleTalk PC Card.
> It was an old DOS program with text menus, I have no idea if
> Apple or anyone else rewrote it to work under Windows 95/NT.
> 
>     At least such software exists, meaning you could use the
> card to set up your IBM to share files with a Macintosh, Apple
> IIe and Apple IIgs (I doubt software was written to make the
> IBM a server, you probably need a Macintosh for that. It would
> be similar to AppleTalk on the IIgs and IIe).
> 

Check out http://www.copstalk.com.  They sell a server and 
localtalk cards for the PCs. (the cards are pricey) The nice 
thing is that they let you download a fully working server...
not crippled in any way, which lets you test it out.  If 
you've got a PC w/Ethernet and a Localtalk-to-Ethernet bridge 
or a PC with a Localtalk card (I'm still not sure if Copstalk
recognizes the Apple Localtalk PC card), you've got a potential 
to use a PC as a fileserver for a GS.  

Shawn