Re: IIgs and OS X filesharing solutions

["pilgrimer" <no@no.no>]

"Wiley Wiggins" <weevil@wileywiggins.com> wrote in message
news:2004022223024816807%weevil@wileywigginscom...
> I'm looking for hardware/software solutions for bringing an Apple IIGS
> into an OS X LAN.
> I've read about the LANceGS ethernet card but found the 145 dollar
> price tag to be absurd for what is basically an experiment in novelty.
>
I have a LANceGS. It is an  Amazing piece of engineering.
I admire Mr. Lange's ingenuity.  Do you folks realize that other then the 5
or 6 seeded cards from  Apple that got out "in the wild"  way back in the
day, this is the ONLY ethernet option for the Apple II that has come out in
the last 12 years?  I repeat:  ONLY ONE!

 You folks who have read my musings know I have done a weee bit of
investigating into the network side of the Apple II world.  I have tried
Workstation Cards, Parallel, Serial, Game Port, Assante EN/SC SCSI , IDE
...YOU NAME IT approaches.  I have watched all sorts of vapor solutions come
and go...

Joachim Lange's card is the 1st and ONLY Ethernet card that has broken the
vapor barrier and come to the real world.  Me hat is off  to  him!

 The Lance is a TCP only ethernet card in that  it does some cheats in terms
of the hardware layer to get along with GS/OS.  I hear there is now a ProDOS
driver for it too for 8 bit use.  At least a program stub of such.  see
www.a2central.com for news on that.
Now for OTHER uses, such as Appletalk..NETBIOS or IPX  (yeah yeah I know,
who would want such?) ...well.. it is not quite ready for Prime Time...I
personally use the LC 475 and a Localtalk bridge over a Localtalk link to
the Printer port on my ROM3  for file transfers and printing. I then use the
Lance for web access, FTP and mostly for telnet via Spectrum, Kim Howe's
Telnet or similar apps.  I also use it with Ninjaforce's Samurai IRC client.

  And in terms of OS X humm ... lets see... I have... a couple of
Powerbase(s) on 10.1, a Powertower Pro on 10.1 server, a Umax S900/Sonnet
450 on 10.2.8, a G3 Beige/366 on 10.2.8, a Wind-tunnel dual 867 on 10.2.8...
Also A 6500 on 9.1, a 8100 on 8.1 a LC 475 on 7.5.5  (that one is my LT
Bridge), IIci on NetBSD,  a few antique Powerbooks... PCs on everything from
Linux (Debian),  BeOS, to various windowz (running either
OPSTALK  -recommended- or for XP boxes: PCMacLAN;  both for Appletalk
compatibility).

Now, as to the OS X system and GS/OS .....Aye...there's the rub...  They do
NOT work and play well together.  I have not been able to signon to a OS X
box and share.  OS X does some weirdness with signons that gets in the way.
Also, when it came to OS X, Apple re-assigned the ProDOS file type so,
ProDOS files are not at all recognized on a OS X box.  I have played with
KEGS, Bernie and  the like in OS X and getting files to them I found
somewhat a problem.  Oh and getting a USB floppy drive working in an
emulator...THAT was a trip!.
For any real GS or IIe use on a OS X net I recomend keeping a 68k Mac on the
network This box  can then act as a File Server and pass things back and
forth.

-Bart
Keeper of the Network From Heck