Re: Connecting a MAC to a SOHO Router

[salfter@salfter.dyndns.org (Scott Alfter)]

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In article <TFyg9.419200$me6.48682@sccrnsc01>,
Terry & Utahna Olsen <tolsen64@nospam.boycot.dns2go.com> wrote:
>I just picked up a Mac Quadra 610 from a thrift store.  It has System 7.6.1
>on it.  It also has an ethernet transceiver, which I hooked up to my router.
>I'm trying to see if I can get it on the network, and the internet.
>
>Anyway, I went into the TCP/IP control panel, tried DHCP, nothing.  I tried
>Manually configuring...still nothing...
>
>Does anyone know how, or if it's possible to get this Mac on the
>internet????

Strictly speaking, this is offtopic...but since I originally bought mine
with the intent of using it as a LocalTalk bridge between my IIGS and my
Linux server (running netatalk), I'll go ahead and answer.

Configuring Internet access on a Mac is a royal PITA, but it is possible. 
MacTCP only knows about the old class A/B/C networks and their associated
subnets, so you can't use CIDR.  (This could be a problem with some
broadband services, since they often use CIDR subnets carved out of what
were originally class A subnets.)  Instead of entering your IP address as a
dotted quad, you have to convert the network part of your address (for class
C, the first three numbers) into a single number.  Here's an example of how
mine is set up at 192.168.100.4:

select class C (255.255.255.0 automatically set as subnet mask)
net=192*65536+168*256+100=12626020
subnet=0
node=4

You can use dotted quads to specify the gateway and DNS servers...why you
can't do this with your address, I don't know.  I've not tried DHCP since
all my machines are behind a firewall.

Hmm...on second thought, maybe CIDR would still work as long as your subnet
mask is 255.0.0.0, 255.255.0.0, or 255.255.255.0.  If it's something else
(I've had to use 255.255.255.224 with some SDSL providers), you could be
SOL.

It also doesn't help that the Mac lacks a number of command-line tools (such
as ping and traceroute) that are helpful in determining if your machine is
set up right.  If you have a Linux/Win32/etc. box elsewhere on your network,
you can try pinging your Mac from it.

Finding decent software that works on older Macs is troublesome.  Neither of
the SSH clients I've found have been satisfactory...NiftyTelnet SSH doesn't
support SSH2, and MacSSH always locks up the machine hard when the
connection is closed.  The web-browser situation isn't much better.  Most
current browsers only run on PPC Macs, not 68K.  The only browser that seems
to be in current development for 68K Macs is iCab, but I start up my Mac so
infrequently that the version I have has usually expired between runs. 
Since it's also in beta, it tends to freeze.

http://www.icab.de/download.html

The last version of Internet Explorer for 68K Macs was 4.01...it's somewhat
behind the times, but its HTML and CSS support is complete enough to handle
most websites.  While it tends to be more stable than iCab, it is somewhat
slower.  There are also the potential security issues associated with most
Microsoft software, but these can be mitigated by keeping your machine
firewalled.

http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/iebuild/ie401_mac/en/ie401_mac.htm

The last version of Navigator was also 4.something...for that reason, I
can't recommend it.  Its CSS support is so badly broken as to be unusable. 
AFAIK, Mozilla hasn't been backported to 68K Macs...if it had, I would've
recommended that as it's what I've been running lately under Win2K.

  _/_
 / v \  Scott Alfter (salfter@salfter.dyndns.org)
(IIGS(  http://salfter.dyndns.org
 \_^_/  rm -rf /bin/laden

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