Bridging MAC LocalTalk and PC Ethernet Networks - How to setup internet access?

[Stealth1024]

I have an 8 port linksys switch and five PC's, 4 with network cards, and one notebook running Wireless. One PC is setup with internet connection sharing and as a print server. I also three MAC's (LC475, PPC5200, PPC5500).

Only one MAC has an ethernet card. It has been able to access the internet via the internet sharing PC. Well now I've connected all three mac's with LocalTalk over telephone wire and I am trying to figure out how to bridge the two networks.

I have downloading the LocalTalk Ethernet Bridge software from apple, installed it on the machine with both ethernet and local talk, specified that machine's IP as the router in netscape on the other MAC's, but I still can't access the internet from those other machines.

I am still tinkering with things here, and although this is just for fun (trying to do something useful with all this junk), I would like to get it to work.

Better yet is there some software that would run on the Internet Sharing PC that would let me share files with the MAC? If I could print it would be even better! Both of my macs don't always see each other over the chooser let alone a PC... lol

 

[gaidin123]

Well you have a few options here...You can go out and buy a localtalk->ethernet bridge piece of hardware. I know Asante makes them and they work pretty well. This will allow those older macs to have ethernet access through the bridge. After that if you want them to access your internet connection you just have to configure them the same way you configure your PCs (except that for the macs' networking you will use localtalk).

Your other option is to use some software like IPNetRouter (great piece of shareware) and use the mac that has both an ethernet port and a localtalk/serial port as your localtalk to ethernet bridge. In that case you just set up your mac w/ethernet to use your net connection and then configure the other 2 macs to use that mac as their gateway. You're basically doing Windows internet connection sharing but in this case the mac will be a bridge and a NAT box.

For tinkering and "for fun" purposes I'd try out ipnetrouter since it has a free 15 day demo. If you're serious about getting those macs constant internet access it *may* be worth the $100 or so that the localtalk to ethernet bridge will cost you but it all depends on what you need to do with them. After all macs those macs are getting pretty old.

The localtalk to ethernet bridge software from Apple may work for what you want to do but I believe that that software was originally intended to allow local devices such as printers and scanners to be shared over an ethernet network. Also I believe that the bridge software stopped working properly after OS 8.6 though I could be wrong (I've used that thing on soooo many macs to share local laser printers ).

If your PC printer is mac compatible (ie there are mac drivers for it) then you have several options. If the printer has appletalk capabilities then you just need to configure it and get your macs hooked into it via localtalk (if it has a mac DB9 serial port) or ethernet. If it doesn't, then you might be out of luck. On the PC side of things look into a program called PCMacLan. It installs onto a Windows based PC and lets the PC appear as a mac on a network. You can share files and printers (I think) with it.

Good luck!
Gaidin

 

[Stealth1024]

Thank you.

As you mentioned, those macs are getting pretty old so I was hoping to make do with free "stuff".

I'm running MAC OS 7.6.1 but I wish I could find a free copy of 8.x somewhere for the fastest Mac. Since its as outdated as Win95 I figured it shouldn't be too hard.

 

[Stealth1024]

But there may be a much easier alternative...

If I can find two dirt cheap MAC network cards I'll be in luck. The newest mac takes PCI (will any standard "PC" PCI NIC work here?), one already has a network card, and the oldest takes some sort of proprietary card I'm not familiar with.

 

[Tallgeese]

Early PCI implementations on Macs were not normally directly compatible with just any PCI card, even beyond simple issues like driver availability. The other Mac either has a NuBus, PDS, or CS slot.

You might try a dealer of second hand Mac parts, like Sun Remarketing. They list a PCI card, plus NuBus, PDS, and CS cards.

It may end up being cheaper to go the hardware bridge route, rather than NICs or software. We absolutely depended on bridges like those to hook up our lab LaserWriters (which did not have Ethernet support) to our PowerMacs (which did have Ethernet) back in 96-97.

The freebie LocalTalk bridge software will not route IP traffic between networks. It was licensed by Apple from a third-party and only offered functionality to allow an Ethernet-connected Mac to print to a printer directly connected via LocalTalk cabling. Saw that mistake made WAY too many times back when I actually had to support Macs (has that REALLY been over 5 years ago?)

 

[gaidin123]

Ok, yeah I didn't think the localtalk bridge control panel would do the bridging. I remember there being a couple versions of it in the archive that Apple distributed and figured that maybe one of them did that but I guess not.

In modern macs you can go down to the store and pick up some ethernet cards (I know that Realtek based cards work great on macs) for them. Of course you should check driver support before buying...I'm not sure about PCI compatibility with older ones. You can probably download a program like Mactracker or GURU or check Apple's spec database and see if you can get some better info on that issue.

Buying IPNetRouter will be almost as expensive as a hardware bridge in this case..I believe it was around $90 though don't quote me on that.

I know my old work threw out a bunch of old Nubus ethernet cards. I bet you will be able to find one cheaply somewhere if you look around (ebay might be a good place).

Gaidin

 

[Stealth1024]

geesh.. this old mac second hand used PCI network card is expensive

I'll wait till my school throws a few more in the dumpster and go check the computers for network cards... lol