I have a question. I would like to be able to share a hard drive between
2 machines. 

   I have one in the basement using floppies and System 6.8, and of course
I have the main one in the upstairs using System 7. The reason I would like
to access my hard drive from the basement is that all of my printing is done
in the basement, simply because I don't have room for the printer upstairs.

   Is there a cable I can make that would allow this? 
   How can I make a network as cheaply as possible?
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated

26 responses total.

I have my two machines hooked up with a null modem ppp link in linux.  I
haven't tried to hook the dos side yet.  Depending on what level of fruit you
have there is some kind of appletalk network thing that uses phone wire.  I'm
sure you can connect them.  SOmeone here will know.  :)

Since they're both Macs, you could use localtalk.  It's somewhat slow, but
will work with some rather cheap hardware going through the printer cable.
You could even then put the printer on the network, if it's the right kind
of printer.

I have two Macs and an AppleTalk printer linked via AppleTalk and PhoneNet
adapters on the printer ports of the Macs. Standard 4-wire phone (RJ-11)
cable connects it all together. The adapters cost ca. $10. Its a 'breeze'
with Macs.

  The Printer is an Imagewriter II. Where is this hardware available?

For the ImageWriter to work on an AppleTalk network, it must have the
AppleTalk hardware option installed.  I got PhoneNet and AppleTalk
boxes at PD for $2.50 ea.  AppleTalk and PhoneNet cables for $1 ea.
(I had to make my own PhoneNet terminators [120 ohm])  I even have
PhoneNet and AppleTalk boxes intermixed in the same network.  AppleTalk
is eaiser because you don't have to worry about terminators: AppleTalk
boxes self-terminate.  PhoneNet is cheaper (Except at PD) but you need
to physicaly install terminators at each end.  I've never tried it, but
you may even be able to use your house telephone wiring for a PhoneNet
network since PhoneNet use only the outer (blk & yel) wires of the phone
line.

I thought AppleTalk was the protocol, and the hardware choices were
PhoneNet and LocalTalk, the latter essentially obsolete because of the
expensive cable connectors. I suppose Apple makes some of the adapters,
but I've never used those. Mine are a mix of off brands and 'no names'.
Obsolete Deskwriter inkjets have an AppleTlak interface, and are very
cheap. I really recommend getting a inkjet as it it vastly more versatile
than a dot-matrix like the Imagewriter. 

That makes sense about AppleTalk being the protocol.  The stuff from PD
doesn't come with manuals.  I have 5 antique Macs, an IW-II (For the kids
CAD scribbles and drafts) and an HP-DeskWriter 500 on an AppleTalk network.
The machines run OS 6.0.8, 7.1 & 7.5.  Works great, easy to set up and
maintain.  The cheapest net, however, is the trusty Sneaker Net.

(this is an old item, but still...) How does PhoneNet get by using only the
black and yellow wires of the phone cable? I would have thought you'd need
either 4 wires (two balanced pairs) or 3 wires (ground and two signals...)

I don't have the spec in front of me, but my guess is that Phone Net is like
ethernet -- a broadcast network in which only one computer can transmit at
a time.  With ehternet, if two devices transmit at the same time you get a
collision, in which case both packets are lost, and the ethernet cards back
off and try again.

Appletalk is a 56K serial protocol.  You only need two wires to connect.  With
more than two computers, you need to worry about terminaation.  With two
computers, it doesn't matter.  You can just connect them together with
standard phone cord.  If you don't have phone type connectors, you will need
an adapter.  Once the computers are connected, turn on sharing on the one you
want to be the server.

OK, next question (some have probably already seen this in the diy conf):
we have two pairs of phone wires in the house that are connected to the nij
panel but are dead (either just because we don't pay for them or because
they are disconnected on the phone co. side of the nij). Would it be wise to
disconnect them before running LocalTalk over them?

(re 10: you can also run AppleTalk between two machines using a standard
printer cable--at least, it seemed to work for me...)

Disconnect them! You don't need a radio (or lightning) antenna on your
netowrk. 

I'm going to connect mine.  Then will cross connect it with the neighbors such
that we can have "NeighborhoodAppleTalk"

I presume you will disconnect it from the line to the exchange? 

You don't want extra cable connected.  It will degrade the signal, especially
if you have not properly terminated the appletalk.  There is also a 1000 foot
limit on the total cable length.

I was pretty sure it would be best to disconnect them...the only other problem
is that we for some unexplained reason have *two* nij panels, the other of
which is up on the roof, curse it...
What's the terminating resistor value for AppleTalk?

Yea, I'd leave the exchange disconnected.  I think it's 240 ohms.

The ones I have are 120 ohms.

I think the terminator value depends on the configuration and the type of wire
used.  I don't have detailed information, but you won't do any damage by
experimenting.  As I said above, if you keep it to a small system and keep
the wire as short as possible, it probably doesn't matter.

I have seen 4 computers and two printers connected with out terminators, with
no problems.  I have also seen one computer and one printer comnnected that
would not work without the terminator.  I all depends on the equipment and
the situation.

I could well be 120 ohms.

brown, red, brown...

When I finally get around to doing this I'll probably try it first without
terminators, and add them if it doesn't work.

Unrelated question: is there a way to configure a modem so that it won't
disconnect when somebody picks up a phone on another extension?

There's often a setting in the S registersfor how long to wait if the carrier
is interrupted.  Dunno if you need both modems to have a high setting.

The book for the TelePort Gold modem says that register S10 is the delay in
tenths of a second between losing the carrier signal and hanging up, but I
don't know if that will help. It seems that I want a setting that gives it
time to recover from an interruption in the signal, rather than one that just
tells it to wait for a longer time before hanging up. But I may have
misinterpreted what the book said, so I may as well try it.

Then all you have to do is tell the modem on the other end to wait that long.

Right.  I used to do that with a customer I'd establish a direct link with
(then use LapLink!  Remember those days?).  Setting both modems to a long
timeout helped quite a lot.

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