Do I need phonenet adapters to use an AsanteTalk?

[khaz]

Hi,

I'm trying to connect my old Mac SE/30 (6.0.8) directly to my not as old iMac G3 (9.2.2). And I'm having some issues: the connection is very unreliable, and I've never been able to share files, only start a multiplayer game of Bolo.

I'm starting to wonder if it's because I'm using a printer cable to connect the SE/40 to the AsanteTalk and not a couple of phonenet adapters with terminators like some people seem to do online. Though these people always have more than a single old Mac in their network.

The SE/30 is connected to the AsanteTalk from its printer serial connector, a printer cable to the AsanteTalk. The yellow cable connects to the iMac. The most reliable way I found to establish some sort of connection is to start the SE/30 first, then the AsanteTalk, and finally the iMac.

Starting a game of Bolo, I could only have the iMac host. I could not have it connect to a game on the SE/30. Even then, I have to try twice before the SE/30 could see the game. This part seems very consistent.

I tried sharing files from the iMac, but I could never establish a connection. In Appleshare, the iMac would often not show up, and when it did I would get an error "the connection to this server has been unexpectedly broken."

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Or is the unreliability part of the course when switching from Serial to Ethernet? Or having two machines from a very different time period?

 

[cheesestraws]

You should be fine with just a serial cable.  You only need the boxes and termination when you have more than two computers connected together; literally the only things in them is an isolation transformer (and, in the Apple ones, termination resistors; in phonenet, they're external).

That said, the AsanteTalk is extremely picky in a number of ways, not all of them I've pinned down.  When I've been using mine it just feels like pretty flaky hardware, honestly.  I switched to using an old mac running Apple Internet Router to connect LT/Ethernet, and it's frankly enormously better.

File sharing: check whether the OS 9 machine is trying to restart the AFP connection over TCP rather than AppleTalk.  Can't remember how you find that out, but that was a problem I ran into that had that symptom.

 

[ScutBoy]

A serial cable should be fine.

Agreed that Asantetalk is OK, but not great. If you can't spare a whole machine for this, look for a Shiva Fastpath 5. A little obscure to configure, but mine has been bulletproof. Better yet, it will do Appletalk/IP routing, so you can get your localtalk machines working on an IP network. MacIPgw on a Pi is also a good solution.

 

[khaz]

Yeah that's what I'm gathering. I'll try again with file sharing. Tbh this direct connection was mainly to test the device and see if it worked correctly. My goal was to use the AsanteTalk to connect the old Mac to my ethernet network and access files on a NAS. This seems compromised.

The Shiva Fastpath looks great, but is also rare and expensive nowadays. Also big. I wonder if there are software solutions with like a raspberry pi? That would be neat.

 

[cheesestraws]

MacIPgw on a Pi is also a good solution.

For clarity for @khaz, MacIPgw only does the "IP" half of that, won't do the LocalTalk bridging .

Shiva FastPath is good stuff, as are GatorBoxes, but they're much harder to find than LC-class Macs, and harder to find spares for.  Still, if you find one, an excellent option.  I've been looking for a FastPath for ages over this side of the Atlantic...