Network from Hell: The Sequel

["Christopher D. Heer" <chris-heer.nospam@home.com.nospam>]

Consider a garage!

The location of this garage is not important, in and of itself.  The
contents of this garage are far more important.

"Convergence," you see, is a popular buzzword tossed around by PR hacks.
Yet I understand the true meaning of it now, because the thing I am about to
create is surely the result of convergence.

Convergence of what, you ask?

    [A] An incredible effort from a newsgroup member
        to build an eccentric home network

    [B] My occupation as a networking professional

    [C] A garage full of Apple equipment

    [D] My inability to stop blowing free time on
        goofy projects

I've decided it's time to do some serious architecting.

Now, I already have a small home network.  Cat5e cable run throughout the
house, a 10/100 switch, and six PCs networked together, along with a Linksys
Cable/DSL router and a cable modem connection.  Now, however, it's time to
get funky.

Stage one involves tossing Novell Netware into the mix.  (I picked up a copy
of Netware 3.11 at a liquidation sale some time back, along with Netware for
Macintosh.)  I want to do this for a couple reasons:

    [1] Print queue management.  Microsoft print
        queue management sucks dead camels through a
        straw, in so many ways.

    [2] Faster file server.  It's still hard to beat
        Netware's performance.

    [3] Netware/MAC support.  I'll get to that in a
        bit.

A Toshiba 3200sx laptop (and I use that term advisedly; this thing is huge)
will run as the initial file server.  Attached will be an HP Laserjet 4L for
general-purpose printing.  An old 486 will likely get resurrected and
transformed into the main fileserver; the 3200 will probably become a
dedicated print server at that point.

Stage two involves easing Apples into the network.  I was originally
considering adding a Localtalk card to the Netware server, but I think
instead I will buy an old Cayman GatorBox.  These used to be frightfully
expensive but they're cheap on eBay now.  :) The GatorBox serves two
functions: it connects EtherTalk to LocalTalk, thus acting as an AppleTalk
router, and it enables IP on the LocalTalk segments.  I doubt I will use
that portion of it, but you never know.

The Netware server, using Netware for Macintosh, will appear as an
Appleshare server.  Additionally, I will acquire an inexpensive LaserWriter,
add it to the LocalTalk segment, and use Netware for Macintosh to make it
available to non-Macs via a print queue.

An Apple //e will be added via a LocalTalk card.  If I don't have one in my
garage -- and I don't think I do -- I will have to track one down.

An Apple IIgs (prolly ROM3) will initially be added via LocalTalk, but I
will eventually get one of those Ethernet cards for IP.  It'll have to
remain dual-cabled, I suppose.  At that point it will be able to surf.

Later, I will take a Mac IIci that's in the garage and put Appleshare on it
so that the Apples can remote boot.

Finally, my wife may be in the market for a G4.  That should plug right in.

Stage three is where things start to get wacky.  Thanks to the Netware
server I can exchange files between, say, a PC and a //e.  Now, however, I'd
like to bring in other stuff.  For example, I'd like to toss CP/M in the mix
here somewhere, because I have a certain fondness for it.  This could easily
be another Apple with a Z80 card.  I would also want some way to get an
Apple //c in the mix.  I'd even like to toss in a TRS-80, because they too
played a formative (though lesser) role in my Nerd Development.  Of course,
these machines don't network, right?

Well.

This begs the question, what do I want out of the network?  Obviously it
does little good to hook up older computers to the Internet, if they don't
run TCP/IP.  So really all I need is file sharing and/or transferring, and
possibly printing.  CP/M actually had a networking setup called CP/NET, but
it was very primitive and only worked with other CP/M machines.

For the time being, printing is out of scope.  I will instead concentrate on
 file transfers.  I am going to code some utilities (command-line where
possible) to automate serial transfers from a variety of 8-bit platforms.
I'll take an old PC, stuff a gaggle of serial ports in it, and use it as the
back end.  Heck, it can do most of the work.  Then utilities on the
8-bitters can automate transferring files back and forth, getting remote
directories, etc.  It won't be pretty, particularly as I am not a hard-core
coder, and it'll probably be slower than hell.  But if I get clever with
drive mappings and the like, I think I can make it happen.

If anyone is interested, I'll toss a site together with some diagrams, this
text, etc., and add to it as I move along.  Obviously there is stuff I need
to get, and I am ABSOLUTELY WILLING TO TRADE HARDWARE!  I have oodles and
boodles, so if you've got a //e workstation card or other hardware lying
around that you'd like to trade me for, drop me a note and we'll negotiate.
--
  Christopher D. Heer -- chris-heer.nospam@nospam.home.com
  Please remove "nospam" before you email me
  Parlez-vous d�sir?