68k low end internet, or not?

[Olympiaman1010]

I know this will be mostly a matter of opinion but what do you think will get more use, a Ethernet card or the Apple IIe card? I really can't decide which to hunt for. I have a LCIII maxed out with the 36mb and 768k vram and on the way is a Seagate Hawk 4GB HDD, also my zip 100mb is hooked up. I guess my question is how slow is the internet going to be on the LCIII? Would a beige powermac be better suited for low end internet and games that have troubles on the 68k? What do you guys think?

-James

 

[LCGuy]

I'd forget about using the internet on any 68k for anything more than a mild curiousity, its far too slow and they don't support a lot of the stuff on most websites these days anyway.

It depends - an Apple IIe card will allow you to run Apple II software, but an ethernet card will allow you to connect the LCIII to your ethernet LAN (i'm assuming you have one) and transfer files, muuuuch faster than over LocalTalk. Furthermore, with an ethernet card you can do more things than you can do with LocalTalk, for example you can connect to IP based AppleTalk servers (such as Mac OS X systems), or install DAVE and even share files with PCs.

 

[Unknown_K]

I guess it depends how much you would use the IIe card. The first thing I look to snag for old macs is an ethernet card, it just makes moving data around between machines so easy. On the LCIII the internet would be about useless, FTP and IRC would be ok. Its no big deal to pop the cover and swap PDS cards as needed so get both. The only cards I have for the LC are network, one Supermac Spigot card , and I think my Sonnet Presto Plus (in my LC520) would work in a LC as well. I guess it is hard to decide what to install on machines with only one upgrade slot, which is why I like the ones with a few Nubus slots.

 

[Olympiaman1010]

-James

 

[Olympiaman1010]

Hmm, I will probably get both : But here is the thing... Right now for file transfer I am able to do 100mbs at a time. Since my macbook is my main computer but is running os10.6 I put the files on to a thumb drive, run downstairs, wake my g4 (running Tiger) that's in the garage from its slumber and transfer whats on the thumb drive to a zip disk. I guess the decider would be if I could not only use the Ethernet card for internet but direct file transfer to my macbook which sits on the same desk. Could I use the Ethernet for file transfer and internet when directly connected to my macbook? My macbook and g4, are set up wirelessly for file share but I imagine it would be different for a 68k? Would it make file transfer easier than the good ol' sneakernet?

-James

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The simplest method is FTP. Mac OS X has an FTP server built-in (turn it on in the Sharing Preference Pane,) and just get an FTP client for the 68k.

(I also have an ultra-simplistic web page set up to host files internally that even Mosaic 1.0 can connect to.)

 

[Cory5412]

Another use for an ethernet card might be to connect to a netatalk server. Your G4 with 10.4 might be able to do this too if it were on your local network, but more or less, your macbook and your LC III would both be able to connect to the same file server and you'd be able to just leave files on the server if you wanted to.

If you don't have a spare computer, you might try out Ubuntu or Debian in a virtual machine, such as with virtualbox or the vmware player. You'd just need to install netatalk (apt-get install netatalk) and then it should show up in the chooser on the LC III when you have the ethernet card installed and hooked up.

 

[Bunsen]

What you want to use the LC PDS for is up to you; if you really want a IIe experience then sure, go for that. There are a few other cards worth considering too (TV out, second monitor, PAS 16 audio/MIDI).

However:

I guess my question is how slow is the internet going to be on the LCIII?

Horrible.

Would a beige powermac be better suited for low end internet and games that have troubles on the 68k?

Absolutely.

IMHO, don't bother with LC ethernet. Cut out the huge middleman in your sneakernet, and get a USB ZIP drive. 100MB at a time is plenty for an LCIII. Localtalk the LC to the beige for day-to-day transfers - heck, you could even run a text browser over the connection if you need to. Or get an ethernet-localtalk converter. Sure, slow, but then so's the LC, and the relevant files are small

 

[Olympiaman1010]

That's What I have, a USB Zip drive on the G4. That pretty sums it up, with zips as cheap as they are, the setup I have now is fine... Apple IIe card I see in the near future!

 

[ClassicHasClass]

And gopher! Don't forget gopher! Among other things,

gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/archive