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connecting 2 mac pluses

just.in.time

Well-known member
I'm not sure what you mean by system connector. You should, in theory, be able to AppleTalk them together with just a printer serial cable. However, you will also need the software for it.

 

Anonymous Freak

Well-known member
If you have a hard drive on one of the two with System 7.0 or higher on it, you can use the "Sharing Setup" control panel to start a file share on that system, then connect to it from the other Plus using Chooser, as long as you have Appletalk client on that system's boot disk.

If they are both floppy-only, you're out of luck - I don't know of any system that will fit on an 800k disk with file sharing support.

 

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
On most Macs, you just need the printer cable. On the Mac Plus, you may need to make one, as I do not know if a null modem DE9 to DE9 Mac serial cable was ever built. (I don't know what the printer end of things looked like on, say, the Imagewriter 1 or Imagewriter LQ.

I'm not sure what you mean by system connector.
I'm guessing he means the serial adapter to the 3-pin cables, or serial to PhoneNet adapters.

You can build a 2-node LocalTalk network out of those system adapters, but you generally did not need them.

The only gotcha is that the Plus does not use DIN-8 connectors, it uses DE-9 connectors, so there may be a need to use two LocalTalk 3-pin or LocalTalk PhoneNet cables. The advantage there will be that you'll have the starting kit needed for a bigger network.

EDIT: here are a few graphical examples, this page suggests it should be possible ot use a "printer cable" but doesn't show a printer cable linking a 512 and a Plus or two Pluses.

 
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Gorgonops

Moderator
Staff member
The only gotcha is that the Plus does not use DIN-8 connectors, it uses DE-9 connectors, so there may be a need to use two LocalTalk 3-pin or LocalTalk PhoneNet cables. The advantage there will be that you'll have the starting kit needed for a bigger network.
Only the 128k and 512k(e, ED) use the DE-9 connectors. But it's an easy mistake to make.

 

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
That teaches me to look more closely at Google Images.

The picture I saw had text on it, which upon further examination say "Only 128/512 have these"

In that case, then you only need the one printer cable, but what I said about buying phonenet or localtalk system connectors might make for a starting point for a bigger network.

It will work if one's running 6 and the other is running 7, but as mentioned above, the system 7 machine running as the server should have a hard disk.

 

just.in.time

Well-known member
Could it work if i had system 7 on one mac and 6 on the other?
I seem to recall sharing a LW300 printer using a PB 5300cs running 7.6.1 to a Classic with 6.0.8 and that worked. However, I can't remember if I also shared files using that method. Best bet would be to give it a try.
 
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