Mac SE/30 networking

Mk.558

Tinkerer
Nov 11, 2023
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I mean networking can be a lot simpler than you think. In System 7, you can create an alias of the server, and add it to your Startup Items folder. Let's say you run a Netatalk 4 server on your primary machine, which happens to run Linux. Perfect - you can literally have a direct connection from your Mac to your modern machine thanks to the wonderful work that the maintainers did for Netatalk 4. Every time you boot up your Mac it's automatically added to the desktop.

You use Windows or OS X? not a problem. Use VirtualBox to run a Linux VM instance to run a Netatalk server.
 
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iantm

New Tinkerer
Sep 8, 2025
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Michigan
I mean networking can be a lot simpler than you think. In System 7, you can create an alias of the server, and add it to your Startup Items folder. Let's say you run a Netatalk 4 server on your primary machine, which happens to run Linux. Perfect - you can literally have a direct connection from your Mac to your modern machine thanks to the wonderful work that the maintainers did for Netatalk 4. Every time you boot up your Mac it's automatically added to the desktop.

You use Windows or OS X? not a problem. Use VirtualBox to run a Linux VM instance to run a Netatalk server.
I've got plenty of options and… quite a bit of research to do (but that's the fun!)
 

iantm

New Tinkerer
Sep 8, 2025
27
10
3
Michigan
I wouldn't do that. The WiFi functionality has a spotty track record, and for every one that I hear that it works well, I get at least one that has issues with it. I've never used it on any of mine, mostly because I don't use WiFi and I don't have a reason to need it.

Also AppleTalk over WiFi is a slightly complicated situation, and will not be as fast as a 030 PDS card.

The MacCon is going to be a better choice. The DP83902 family of chipsets works with NSI software right out of the box, works with System 7's installer without even doing anything, works with A/UX, and just plain works.

Based on those two images, the left one (DaynaPORT) will not work in a SE/30, the bus interconnect is different. The one on the right should work perfectly fine, if you remove the FPU though. Bet the 20MHz oscillator is about ready to clock out though. For the 30Video card, it should work fine, but remember any kind of external video like that puts a noticeable performance penalty on a poor 16MHz '030.

See the link below for more, and even more.
Now I get it. It didn’t sink in until I started reading the documentation. I’ll pry out that socketed 68882 do before I install.
 

YMK

Active Tinkerer
Nov 8, 2021
403
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For the 30Video card, it should work fine, but remember any kind of external video like that puts a noticeable performance penalty on a poor 16MHz '030.

The onboard video has an 8-bit path to the CPU, so it's hard to do worse.

A 32-bit PDS card can move 31.33MB/s.