Should we target some MACs for recruiting?

[JonB]

Eug, I used to run RC5 on a Mac (until the big herd died at work). To install the client, we dial-up connected to the internet and downloaded directly to the Mac. Diskettes from the PCs just didn't seem to work. Once cracking, it did OK, but it wasn't a G3, just a PowerPC something or other.

To load and unload blocks, we connected it to a PC with a crossover CAT5 cable. The PC had an FTP server running, so the Mac just accessed buff-in and buff-out files by using FTP Fetch. Also, there were times I sneakernetted buff-in.rc5 files to it and it worked just fine.

/edit - the reason I used FTP is that then, I don't have to enable any kind of file sharing. The PC FTP server took care of all the directory work.

You can use 'em , but it doesn't mean you have to like 'em.

 

[ElFenix]

the g3 and g4 are power pcs. power pc 750 and 7500 i think. the 604s had better fpu than the 750 (g3) but the backside cache was so much better on the 750 that apple decided to make those the high end part. the g4 is faster clock for clock than the g3, but ibm got the g3 to so many more mhz that faster g3s can be had, but apple keeps going with the g4's and motorola's crappy fab.

 

[GSmith]

Eug,
If there is an ethernet network with an internet connection already in place, and your Macs have ethernet hardware in them, setup for networking is fairly simple. In the apple menu, go to the control panels. The first one you need to go to is "AppleTalk" and set it to use the proper ethernet connection. Next go to the "TCP/IP" control panel and enter an IP, subnet mask, and your DNS servers. For the Router Address (I think it may be "Gateway address" on some versions of the Mac OS) enter the IP of your router or proxy server.

The setup for the dnet client, once installed, is basically the same as the win client. Since there is no right mouse button, the menus you'd get by R-clicking in win are available in the menu bar instead. On my home network, I specify the IP of my pproxy instead of the name due to Mac/PC file sharing problems. At work, the 1 Mac I currently have cracking is set to flush to teamanandtech.dhs.org until I have more than it and my PC laptop cracking and convince the boss to let me setup a pproxy in the server room. For an internet pproxy, just specify the name.

Seems simple enough to me

I needed to download Stuffit Expander 5.5 to extract the file I downloaded BTW. To make the client start automatically, make an alias for either the client or the "faceless" client (to run it hidden) and copy the alias (shortcut) to the startup directory.

Any questions? Hope this helps.

 

[Wellcky]

Actually they are UMAX PowerPC Macs, they are the POS comps at school!

 

[gib]

A couple thoughts and suggestions: If you are cracking RC5 on a pre-G4 Mac, you may want to consider going back to an older version of the client. The new client doesn't have very good yielding code, and as a result is slower than the old clients. (Yes, I know the idea of yielding code is pretty disgusting, but with anything prior to Mac OS X, it's an unfortunate reality). The only reason for using the new clients, as far as I can tell, is if you have a G4 or want to particitpate in the OGR contests. I have a 604e based Power Mac running the .412d version of the client. I tried the most recent .462 version, but it was significantly slower. 15% slower comes to mind, but don't quote me on that.

Also, if you hook a Mac up to a network, you do not need to set AppleTalk to the ethernet port unless you will be using an AppleTalk network. Just to get on the internet, AppleTalk is not necessary. In fact, if you go into the Chooser and disable AppleTalk altogether, you will gain a few Kkeys/sec in cracking rate.

And yes, Umax (also known as SuperMac) did make Mac clones. The low end models were only mediocre, but their high end models (j700 and s900) were some of the better Power Macs of the time (about 5 years ago). 4 or 6 PCI slots, 8 or 12 DIMM slots, upgradeable to dual or quad 604e processors or a G3 or single or dual G4, onboard 10baseT networking, dual SCSI buses, etc. All things considered, they are pretty solid machines even today.