Re: Newbie's Big Adventure with IIgs

[noprivatereplies@please.it (Morel)]

John King <joki@eskimo.com> wrote:

> -------------------
> 
> What's involved with connecting a Mac and IIgs using AppleTalk? How fast is
> the connection? Is this a feasible way to back up a partition? (never used
> AppleTalk)

Hardware: you need appletalk adapters to plug in the Mac and GS serial
ports, and an Appletalk cable to connect them. Farallon Phonenet
adapters are a good alternative (they use standard phone cable for
connection). I don't know where you can get those now that ethernet
rules, but Alltech seems a good place to try.

Software: the Mac must have System 7 or later to function as a mini
AppleShare server. 

Backing up partitions via AppleShare is feasible, but I expect it would
be somewhat slow (say, 15-20 minutes for a 32 MByte partition). If you
already have the Mac and  back up while you aren't working on the GS, it
is a very cost-effective way to back up your data.
> 
> Then when it's done, can I see the Mac's drive or desktop on the IIgs (like
> if I had an MSDOS disk mounted in the Mac?)?

 The Mac drives and folders that have been enabled for shared access
will come up on the GS desktop and can be accessed the same way as local
folders. In fact AppleShare access is MORE powerful than standard PRODOS
access since it gives you more control (read-only folders, write-only
folders, access to some folders restricted to some users only, different
privileges for differnt users...)
The only limitation the GS has is it cannnot be an Appleshare server,
i.e. GS drives and folders cannot be accesed from the Mac.

CAVEAT: I have only used Mac-only Appletalk networks myself, but I read
on a very reliable source (Tom Weishaar's Open-Apple/A2-Central) that a
GS can indeed be used this way.
-- 
Morel