[Coco] Off-topic post -- but it has nothing to do with copyright infringement

[Joel Ewy]

Aaron Banerjee wrote:
> All,
>    Sorry for being a little off-topic, but I know that I'm not the only
> one here who does other old computers besides the coco.  I just inhereted
> a Macintosh LC II.  In order to connect it to my network, I need some sort
> of strange network card that probably doesn't exist any more but I'll
> look.
>    In the mean time, in order to transfer files to/from this computer, I
> need to find a way for any other computer (Linux/DOS/Windoze) to read a
> Mac LC II disk.  We've got Cocoutil for reading coco floppies on a PC,
> surely there must be some sort of equivalent.  Any help would be
> appreciated, with either figuring out how to read a Mac LC II disk, or
> obtaining the compatible network card (PDS I think).  Thanks.
>                         - Aaron
>
>
>   
Do you have Mac disks that you need to read on another computer, or are
you just looking for some kind of floppy-based file transfer?  In the
latter case, the Mac can read and write DOS FAT-formatted floppy disks,
though as Gene Heskett mentions, the PC cannot read Mac disks.  Even in
the former case, you should be able to read the data off the Mac disks
onto the LC II's hard drive, copy it to a DOS floppy, and then read it
on a PC.  There's an extension called (If I'm not mis-remembering)
"Foreign File Access" that needs to be present in the extensions folder
in order access DOS floppy disks on the Mac.

What you'll need to look for for networking is an ethernet card designed
to work in an LC PDS slot.  PDS stands for "Processor Direct Socket" (or
something along those lines) and is basically a local bus that brings
out most of the 68030's signals to an interface card.  If you open the
case you should see a white, 96-pin socket (labelled J20) along the
left-hand edge of the board, right next to the CPU.  There are ethernet
cards (and other expansion boards -- I've got one of these LC IIs with
an Apple ][e card) that plug into this LC PDS.  When installed they will
lay parallel to the main board, with the component side down and their
RJ-45 jacks accessible out the back of the machine.

If you can find an ethernet card, you can hook up to a LAN and use FTP
for file transfer.  I have an ancient RedHat box I use as a file server,
running both Samba and Netatalk.  Samba allows me to map shared network
file space to drive letters on MS-Windows (and also Linux) clients, and
Netatalk is an Open Source implementation of the AppleTalk network
protocol, so you can do the same thing with older Macs like the LC II. 
By sharing the same directories with both Samba and Netatalk, I can hook
up to the server with a Mac, copy files there, and then access them on a
PC running MS-Windows or Linux, or vice-versa.

JCE
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