Color Classic / Color classic II - Total mac newbie questions

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lbc
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Color Classic / Color classic II - Total mac newbie questions

Hi All,
First off, I'm totally "in the dark" when it comes to Mac's, never used one before today.
Here goes:

We have a program that needs to be run on either a Color Classic or Color Classic II system (or the Performa equivilants, 250 / 275 from memory) and have started a search to find one of these systems. We tried to run the app on an almost-current Mac notebook, which told us to run it on one of the beforementioned systems...

There is a lot of info around on modifying them to be found on the net, however performance mods won't be an issue as the app was written to run on a standard machine. What we need to know is at a much more basic level.

1) Can these things hook up to a standard ethernet network (10/100 type, TCP/IP protocol)?
We don't need to print, just read and write to network drives. We have two small network drives, one for Linux and PC-DOS machines (2GB FAT16) and one for the windoze machines (74GB NTFS). We'd only need access to the 2GB one from the Mac.

2) Can these things handle basic internet funtions, such as web and email (through the LAN connection)? Obviously, given their age, they are not going to be a speed demon here on graphic-heavy sites - however, we are only dealing with very basic sites, almost only text based. If so, does the operating system have a browser and email client built in a la Linux and Windows?

3) On the apple site, there is a downloadable operating system upgrade to System 7.5.3.
Is this phesible and/or worth the download?

4) One of the ones we are looking at is in good condition, working except for the hard drive.
On the DOS, Win, and Linux boxes, this is an easy fix - put in replacement drive, boot from floppy disk, format hard drive, reinstall OS and apps [don't worry about old data files, as they are on the network drives].
Is the Mac proceedure much the same, and if so, where could a suitiable boot disk be obtained? We have a few 20GB and 40GB 3.5" SCSI drives (unpartitioned) that are in working order...

Thanks in advance anyone that can point me in the right direction(s)!

Laurence Collins,
lbc@ausi.com

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Re: Color Classic / Color classic II - Total mac newbie question

1) There are network cards available for the Color Classic. The same cards are compatible with older LC II - LC 475 Macs, so they're readily available. If you find a Color Classic, you may be lucky enough to get one with the ethernet card already installed.

2) Yes. Email should have no problems, and minimal web browsing is possible, but keep in mind with a stock CC you've only got 10MB RAM to work with (with a stock Colour CLassic I, that is). A variety of software for older Macs can be found here.

3) It's a bit trickier to set up TCP/IP, but I'd recommend System 7.1 i if you can find it (try a Google search for Gamba Macintosh for some assistance). You can use 7.5.3, though. There's a network boot floppy available from Apple - again you'll find that at Gamba - that will give your CC network new OS installation. Saves having to transfer it all to floppies or an external drive.

4) You're very lucky to have SCSI drives like that just sitting around :). That size might be overkill for the CC, and you might have issues with cable adapters, as I suspect those drives won't be 50-pin. It's fairly easy to replace drives in the CC, and you can probably work out the process yourself once you get one: back panel off, pull out logic board, lift tab holding hard drive in and pull towards you - that part can be tricky if you don't have small hands.

lbc
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Thanks for the reply. 1) How

Thanks for the reply.
1) How are these cards installed? Are they "in a slot" similar to the ISA/PCI cards found in Wintel systems, or they like an adapter lead like the USB to RS-232 ones that give a serial port to modern notebooks that don't have serial ports?

2) The "web sites" are very minimalist, so the 10MB shouldn't be an issue (hopefully). Text and links only.

3) Just briefly, could you tell us the main differences between 7.1 and 7.5.3? Searching the web for this info resulted in a lot of noise and misinformation...

4) The drive size was a typo (one gets used to typing "GB"!). They are 20, 40, and 60 _MB_ drives Smile They are standard 3.5" SCSI drives with a 50 pin data connector - these are ex NC (Numeric control, largish machines that cut metal, found in mid-large factories) machine drives. SCSI is still preferred there, as the cost is less of an issue and reliability is more of one...

Thanks again for the reply.

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Further answers

1. Ethernet Cards for s standard CC should be 'LC PDS type' - they fit in the multi-way connector on the logic board. One warning; as standard, Macs of that generation network using AppleTalk, not TCP/IP, and this would appear to be an issue that needs further exploration.

2. 7.1 is a lot faster on a standard CC. But some things, not least some networking, needs either 7.5.x or some additions to a standard 7.1 install.

3. Small SCSI drives are easily sourced on eBay - look for ones pulled from Macs to ensure they're 'Apple ROM-ed' and hence should work with less hassle.

It strikes me that you have a hardware-cheap but very time-expensive job here! Sad

Best wishes,

Stuart

lbc
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Total mac newbie questions

1) Thanks, I've made a note of the type code. Appletalk is no use here though, as it needs to talk to a Linux (and Win, if possible) server. I can't see Red Hat and Windows supporting Appletalk (correct me if I've assumed wrong).

2) 7.1 it is then, unless I need 7.5.x for TCP/IP.

The hardware we are looking for is cheap enough (a ten year old computer has very little value) but will save us a LOT of time if we can get this thing up and running - our other option is to reverse-engineer the thing it connects to (an NC machine logic/interface PCB).

Reverse engineering a board (4 layer, many components faded and unrecognisable, no drawings) and hexediting the NVRAM directly is going to be a lot more "time expensive" than our other option - getting a Mac CC up and running, loading app, use it to configure the NC machine logic board, upload data, disconnect, start NC machine.
And as an added bonus, we can save the data and re-upload it the next time the NVRAM gets corrupted again...

Thanks again,
Laurence

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Open Transport in 7.1

Hey,

Go here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/71more.html

Check out the 7.1 additions. You can install Open Transport into 7.1 and lessen your network headaches.

Jon
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk

Unixiod:
http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/ and http://freshmeat.net/projects/netatalk/
http://www.anders.com/projects/netatalk/

Win2k has Services for Macintosh, and there is also the product called Dave.

Don't confuse AppleTalk with just LocalTalk. AppleTalk over ethernet is called EtherTalk.

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