Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!midway!ellis.uchicago.edu!dwal From: dwal@ellis.uchicago.edu (David Walton) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: Networking two Macintoshes: what do I need? Message-ID: <1991Jan17.222344.8000@midway.uchicago.edu> Date: 17 Jan 91 22:23:44 GMT References: <19076@shlump.nac.dec.com> Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator) Organization: University of Chicago, Academic and Public Computing Lines: 73 In article <19076@shlump.nac.dec.com> long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com (Rich Long) writes: > I'd like to network a IIci and an SE. They are in close proximity to each > other. > > Appletalk is fine, as high transmission speeds are not a priority, and I'd > like to trade off hassle vs. cost. [Stuff deleted] > > What products do I need to accomplish this? I know there's a shareware thingy > called Public Folder--will this do what I need? How about hardware to connect > the two machines? What are these PhoneNet things? The "PhoneNet things" are an alternative to Apple's LocalTalk cabling. The only difference is the kind of wiring and jacks; the Macintoshes don't care whether you use PhoneNet or LocalTalk. PhoneNet's big advantage is that it can utilitize existing phone wiring that isn't being used, so if you're wiring an entire building, you may not have to lay new cable for the network. If you're only hooking up a couple of nodes in a single room, there's probably not much difference. I will say that Farallon's documentation is excellent (far superior to Apple's, which has only the most basic and limited information). Now for software. Public Folder won't do exactly what you want. PF lets you transfer files from one network station to another, but it's not file serving software: you can't use it to share a disk continuously between two networked Macintoshes as you want to do. Given your requirements, here are what I see as your best options. Others with more familiarity may have better suggestions. * TOPS. TOPS is a distributed fileserver, which lets any Macintosh "publish" part or all of its disk to the rest of the network, or mount a disk that's been published by another machine. You need a separate copy of TOPS for each machine that will be either publishing or mounting disks. Disadvantages: as I recall, TOPS was rather expensive (though maybe not for just a couple of machines). Expanding the number of TOPS stations on a network can be costly. * SingleShare. This is software based on a client-server model: one Macintosh runs server software which publishes part (or all) of its disk, while the other machines run client software to mount it. On the client side, SingleShare can use AppleShare workstation, which is part of Apple's System software (version 6.0.3 and above). Clients cannot publish their own disks; they can only mount the server's. SingleShare is a an alternative to Apple's AppleShare File Server, which requires a dedicated machine to act as a server; SingleShare runs in the background on a workstation. Disadvantages: the pre-release version I saw a while ago was kind of buggy. I imagine that the author has released new versions which are more stable, but I haven't seen them, so I can't say. * Macintosh System 7.0. Apple's major revision of its System software will have "FileShare," a workstation version of AppleShare File Server, built in to the System. This basically takes the place of TOPS for file sharing. It's free, and since it's part of the System, it will be better integrated into the system than TOPS. The beta version that I've seen seems to work alright. Disadvantages: you may have to wait some time before before System 7.0 comes out. The deadline has been continually pushed back for some time now. Just to give some unsolicited advice: if you can make do with Public Folder for a while, I'd use that and wait for System 7.0. Both SingleShare and TOPS cost money. > Thanks for any help, I'm new to this! Good luck. -- David Walton Internet: dwal@midway.uchicago.edu University of Chicago { Any opinions found herein are mine, not } Computing Organizations { those of my employers (or anybody else). }