Setting up Internet Networking on a BlueSCSI v2 Pico W External Plugged into a PoweMac 6500/300 with Mac OS 9.1

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GerrySch

New Tinkerer
Mar 2, 2025
22
5
3
Whew, long title. But is scopes out the issue. I bought a refurbished PowerMac 6500/300 at the VCF Southwest here in Dallas. It has installed on it MacOS 9.1 and runs great. Of course, it doesn't have any networking capabilities so I was thinking of using an external 25-pin BlueSCSI v2 with a Pico W. The 6500 has internal IDE drives but there is an external SCSI port which handles BlueSCSI HD images. It has Open Transport installed and active but I'm getting hung up installing the DaynaPort 7.5.3 drivers. It's asking for a DaynaPORT disk but this question didn't come up when I installed these drivers on my SE/30. I don't want to screw up the OS 9.1 install so I thought I should ask. Also looking through the BlueSCSI website, I don't see any reference how to install it in OS 9.1 . So what drivers do I need to get the BlueSCSI to connect this Mac to my local network? My long term goals are to be able to move files around my network using FTP from the 6500 to my SE/30, Apple IIGSes, LC475s, M1 MBP and Dell Laptop. Any feedback is deeply appreciated.

P.S. The 6500 is a great bridge machine between the classic and modern Macs.

Thank you for your help and time,
Gerry
 
M

Mk.558

New Tinkerer
Nov 11, 2023
76
23
8
You should get a PCI Ethernet card. Fortunately, they're cheap, plentiful and many should work right out of the box. Ideally you'll hunt for one that is supported by 7.5.5/7.6.1 if you want to use those, but also Mac OS 9.

wiki.preterhuman.net

Farallon 10/100 PCI NIC

Should be compatible with both Macintosh and PC systems. 10/100Mbit Ethernet adapter for PCI bus. Farallon part number 8960155-00-01.
wiki.preterhuman.net wiki.preterhuman.net

There's a handful for about 40 bones in the US on ebay. This has a couple of benefits: A) 10BASE-T and 100BASE-T compatibility, B) wired, so more reliable than wireless, C) Could be faster than wireless, and D) AFP will work. Although not specific to your machine, see the link in my signature for more.

TIL you could get a machine in 1997 with no Ethernet...what in the tarnation? We had Ethernet in 1991 onboard with the Q700...
 
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