Connecting a Vintage Mac to the Internet

Chris,

Thanks for your suggestion.  I'll take a look at the router configuration (NetGear N300) and see if I can exclude an IP address.  I'll post here again if I run into snags.

Marty

How are you going to connect ethernet to a Mac II? Are you using some kind of adapter? I found this page which may be useful; http://www.applefool.com/se30/

Mardeec said:

Chris,

Thanks for your suggestion.  I'll take a look at the router configuration (NetGear N300) and see if I can exclude an IP address.  I'll post here again if I run into snags.

Marty

In your Netgear router there should be a LAN IP setup screen.  Under the DHCP server section you have starting and ending IP address settings.  I believe the default is 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254.  Just change the starting address to say 192.168.0.20, that will give you 192.168.0.2 to ,19 for static addresses (192.168.0.1 is the address of the router LAN port).

Thanks for the link.  I have an Asante Mini EN/SC ethernet adater which plugs into the Mac's SCSI port and gives me an ethernet connection to the router.

ChrisL said:
@Mardeec

You could try assigning a static IP within the same scope that your router's DHCP server is issuing and exclude that IP address from the router's DHCP server lease pool and see if that works. 

When I logged into the router manager for my Netgear N300 router, I found a LAN Port configuration page.  This page displays the range of IPs assigned by the DHCP server and allows "reserving" a specific IP for a specific device.  From the documentation:  

Address Reservation

When you specify a reserved IP address for a PC on the LAN, that PC will always receive the same IP address each time it accesses the DHCP server. Reserved IP addresses should be assigned to servers that require permanent IP settings.

To reserve an IP address:

1. Click the Add button.
2. Select the radio button of the computer you wish to add from the Address Reservation Table.
3. If the computer is not on the Address Reservation Table, enter the IP address, MAC address, and device name of the computer you wish to add.
4. Click the Add button when finished.

Chris, I can't thank you enough for your suggestion!  I don't know how many web sites I've visited for information on networking old Macs, and no one has mentioned this approach.  Most of the networking information is as old as the computer and talks about SLIP, PPP, etc.  I still have to install the ethernet adapter drivers and MacTCP, but I'll let you know if this works.

Marty

AllenP said:

Mardeec said:

Chris,

Thanks for your suggestion.  I'll take a look at the router configuration (NetGear N300) and see if I can exclude an IP address.  I'll post here again if I run into snags.

Marty

In your Netgear router there should be a LAN IP setup screen.  Under the DHCP server section you have starting and ending IP address settings.  I believe the default is 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254.  Just change the starting address to say 192.168.0.20, that will give you 192.168.0.2 to ,19 for static addresses (192.168.0.1 is the address of the router LAN port).

Allen,  

Thanks!  I stumbled across this when I logged into the router manager.  There's also a way to reserve a specific IP for a specific device (via the MAC address).

Marty

ChrisL said:
@Mardeec

A word of caution is in order when referring to the reservation feature.  Reservation in the context of a DHCP server specifically relates to using the DHCP server to allocate a specific IP address to a specific device meaning the client device is still configured to obtain it's address via DHCP but the server always allocates a specific address as per the reservation.  This might work in your case however the reservation features isn't specifically intended to be used for static IP address devices.  The most proper way to do what you need would be to shrink the IP range used by the DHCP server in the router then allocate an IP statically to the device that is both outside of that range yet within the same subnet.  

Chris,

Thanks!  I had to think this over for a few days, but I see what you mean.  I've installed all the software I need (I think).  I'll post a photo if I can get it all working.

Marty

I think you may be better off connecting the Mac to a network rather then to try to get the device to act as the CPE . That would let you create a DHCP reservation for the MAC address of the ethernet interface for the adapter. It would also make DNS alot easier. Unless creating difficulty is part of the challenge? 

Health Edge said:

I think you may be better off connecting the Mac to a network rather then to try to get the device to act as the CPE . That would let you create a DHCP reservation for the MAC address of the ethernet interface for the adapter. It would also make DNS alot easier. Unless creating difficulty is part of the challenge? 

I've been reading everything I can find about networks, but I haven't set up a network before and I'm not getting a good picture of what I need to do.  Is there a specific network topology you would suggest?  Will I need a host computer?  Or just add a hub or switch between the Mac and my router?  Could I use IP forwarding?  I have several PCs from XP to 10 I could use for this, or I'm not adverse to picking up another slightly-more-modern Mac.

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

Marty

Mardeec said:
 Is there a specific network topology you would suggest?

Most common type is star topology. Thats the type routers use that you would buy in a store. A router will have 1 Wide Area Network(WAN) port that you connect to the modem, and then 4 Local Area Network(LAN) ports that connect to other devices on your network. The router will use DHCP to aquire a IP from the modem and  DHCP server on the router connects to devices on your LAN and assigns IPs.The router uses Network Address Translation between your WAN and LAN to route traffic to the devices that request it and some sort of firewall will control what traffic is allowed back and forth. See here for more info.  A little tedious, but good info.

As for what you use, thats really up to you. What is the purpose of the network? Just to get the Mac online? What other devices do you have? Wired vs Wireless? Are you looking for something DIY or store bought? 

I'm not sure it's as easy as creating a TCP/IP network.  Does your old MAC support an Ethernet adapter?  Old MACs used AppleTalk and didn't have a standard bus, you needed something like a SCSI to Ethernet adapter.  Also were you able to install a TCP/IP stack on the unit?  Both are needed to connect the MAC directly to a TCP/IP network.  If it only supports AppleTalk, you need some sort of a bridge to go from an AppleTalk network to the TCP/IP network, and  I'm not even sure that exists.  Anyway, I'm not sure it's the type of project I would want to take on as my first network

As Health Edge said, you will be using a star network for the TCP/IP portion but the trick is getting the MAC to speak the same language.  Connecting different network protocols is very tricky. 

Allen, Health Edge,

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll keep plugging away at this, and I'm certainly learning a lot about networks in the process.  I do have a SCSI to Ethernet adapter for the Mac, and a TCP/IP stack (MacTCP).  There's a discussion on this topic on the Vintage Computer Forum, and the original poster is making pretty good progress.  One suggestion has been to insert an old 10Mbit hub between the ethernet adapter and the router.  I might try that, but I think the main problem is to work around DHCP, which isn't supported by MacTCP.

Marty