*BSD News Article 95748


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From: Kent Boortz <kent@erlang.ericsson.se>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: CAP and hardware requirements....
Date: 19 May 1997 14:49:25 +0200
Organization: Ericsson Software Technology AB, Erlang Systems
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> I know I've posted a similar article once...but I got no responses that
> solved/answered my questions...

Sorry that my answer didn't suite you ;-)

> I've got a PC running FreeBSD 2.1.5.
> I'm going to install an EtherNet card in it soon.
> Probably NE2000 based.
> 
> I also have a Mac 512. Old I know..
> I'd like to put the Mac to use as a terminal hooked up to the FBSD box.
> Can I hook the Mac up to the FreeBSD box using a RJ45 crossover cable to
> the AppleTalk port/connector on the Mac ?
> 
> Will TCP/IP work over such a connection ?

Ok, terminal emulation it is, forget network, AppleTalk, TCP/IP.

You can run multiple terminals in the Mac side with MacLayers.
It is a client program for the Mac and some software to compile
on your Unix box for serving multiple terminals over the same
serial line. I worked with this setup (over a modem from home)
for several years and it worked very well. In fact I didn't miss 
X or a PPP/SLIP connection at all because most of my programming 
was text based, my mail client and news client was text based.

You need a serial cable. The Mac 512 has a very different pin
configuration than the PC 9 pin serial connectors (in fact it
is RS-422/485 something). If you don't want to solder one yourself
you could take a Mac to modem cable and a "null modem" adapter.

If you *want* TCP/IP:

You can't connect an ethernet card to a localtalk connector. This
is a totally different medium. I think your only option is to
use SLIP or PPP from the serial port on the Mac to the serial port
on your FreeBSD box. So the question is how to set up direct
SLIP or PPP connectin from the FreeBSD side and the MacOS side.

For the Mac side I think you should ask in "comp.sys.mac.comm"
about how to set up a Mac 512 with XXX RAM and system YYY to
do direct connected (no modem) SLIP or PPP to a Unix box.
I know there are old versions of MacPPP that can run on old
systems.

I think this will be more trouble than it is worth. You will
have problems to run anything on the resulting setup, too
little memory and CPU power. No WWW prowser will work (there is
a MacLynx on its way that may work). You may be able to do Telnet
and FTP.

I hope I answered part of your question at least,

/kgb