Re: WTB: Ethernet card for the IIgs.

[tdiaz@coyote.csusm.edu (Tony Diaz)]

> No, it was supposed to come out with 6.0.1.  6.0 included some
> redesigned AppleTalk protocol code which paved the way for the
> Ethernet card, but support for the card was not added until 6.0.1 (as
> far as I know).

Yes.. one of 6.0.1's major reasons for exhistance was the implementation
of Ethertalk so that the long range support needs of schools using networks
could be met and Apple could get away from Localtalk based networks. 

The problem? A predicted street price of something around $149-$189 combined
with the fact that a "friendly net" transceiver (Apple price $119 at the time)
would be needed made the reality of the AII Ethernet card that much further
away for most of the people it was targeted for. 

Of course, now you can get a thinnet transciever for $44.00. Twisted pair
a little more, AUII costs around $100 still. Thinnet works like a daisychain
so that makes it the most economical. Twisted pair requires a hub, those are
comming down in price too. 

> The rumour is that 6.0.1 was held back so they could remove what
> little Ethernet support was in there.  Probably more a case of removing
> all mention of it from the documentation and Installer scripts.

Little? It's fully implemented. The changes for the release version of 6.0.1
were removal of any reference to Ethertalk/Ethernet in any scripts, the 
ETalk driver and restoring the NETWORK CDEV to one like previous system disks.

The NETWORK CDEV also allowed you to choose your AppleTalk 'type', be it 
the built in port or the AII Ethernet card. 

Notice the newly added dialog to 6.0.1, "The selected Appletalk connection
can not be found". The key word is _selected_. 

...the speed improvement wasn't what I expected from experience with Mac
networks, however once I got AppleShare 3.0.1 installed on a IIci, it was
a little better, but then the Mac's accessing the server were also about
the same performance wise.. so maybe I'm remembering wrong.... it is a 
vast leap from LocalTalk though....

I did have one nice hardware conflict though... it seems any RAMFast
SCSI card with a a plastic term power diode would cause a visit to the
monitor apon powerup.  That took some time to figure out. I changed it 
to a 914 and it worked after that.

--
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