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Re: Using Appletalk on the GS (What works best?)

nyder wrote:

I have a bunch of various old macs.

I have an Apple II GS

I also have a bunch of various cards for old macs, like ethernet and
whatever they used before that (name slips me, token ring?).

So, I know I can hook up the GS to a Mac thru Appletalk, and I can
hook up the mac to a network of some sort.

Anyways, you have the idea.

What I'm wondering is, what OS is best to use on the mac?  Which mac's
work best for this?

I have:
LCIII
IIcx
IIsi
Centrix 660AV
couple of various towers, think they are both OS 8.6 68040 cpu's
(just to finish the list, Mac Plus, Mac SE, Mac Classic, and a empty
MacintoshTV case, lol)

I have a whole bunch of various internal cards and even weird external
stuff also (external SCSI to Ethernet adaptor, and a external SCSI
video color card), so I can pimp out any of those computers with
probably whatever is needed.

In fact, I have a big bin full of refurbished motherboards also.  I'm
not even a mac person and I have probably as much mac stuff as all my
other computers.  lol

Anyways, I'd like to use like the LCIII because it's the smallest, but
that limits the cards that can go into it.   While I do have the RGB
12" monitor that goes with the LCIII, i'd really like to keep it a
headless solution.   You know, just boot it up and maybe have it play
a beep or tune after it's all loaded up.

My goal is to get a computer I can use for storage and accessing crap
for my various old computers.   What I'd love, is to be able to have 1
computer that I can hook up any of my old computers to, however.  Like
the C64's could use the Xcable, same for my older amiga's (parnet).
I have a pair of DD 360k drives that I will be using for making
floppies for whatever systems I can with them (still trying to get a
cheap older catweasel).

I know that last part is off topic of my subject, but I wanted to give
you an idea of what i wanted to do in the long run.

Hooking up an Apple IIx (x stands for which ever model, lol)  using
like ciderpress/adt pro is a simple solution, thankfully.  lol   But I
have a TRS80 Mod 4 portable, and making floppies for that is a
different matter.  =)

oh, I do have the microIDE in my IIgs if that matters for anything.

thanks for any suggestions or comments.  I know this is an apple II
newsgroup, and even though my question is related, I find that there
are more peeps in this channel that know about the older macs then in
the mac channel.  guess that shouldn't be a surprise...


I'll let Mac-Apple II networking gurus handle your main question, but
a few clarifications regarding 5.25" disks for older systems may help.

Apple and C=64 5.25" disks are "special", and require native controllers
to read or write.  For the Apple II, this means that an actual Apple II
is required to write 5.25" disks.  For the C=64, the controller is in
the drive, so only the drive, plus a special cable, is needed.

Most other machines, like your TRS80, use "standard" single- or double-
density drives, and can be read or written using older PC hardware,
given the right software.  Check at:

http://www.vavasour.ca/jeff/trs80.html

for more info and the software.

-michael

NadaNet 3.0 for Apple II parallel computing!
Home page:  http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."