Does Farallon Etherwave Work Under System 6?

[equant]

Anyone know if the Farallon etherwave serial to ethernet adapters work under system 6?

Thanks,

Nathan

 

[equill]

If you register at this site, which is cost-free, you can get most of the Farallon drivers. Unfortunately, there is no text to accompany many of Farallon's products. It is possible to glean that the oldest Systems for use with EtherWave devices seem to be either 7.6.1 or 7.5.5, depending on the device. This may argue that TCP/IP (in Open Transport) is an essential part of the deal.

de

 

[Big Bird]

I thought I had heard the EtherWave was incompatible with Open Transport and required Classic Networking. But I don't have one, and don't have any firsthand knowledge.

If it requires OT, it will work with OS 7.5 and up, as long as you install the OT software, available on Apple's website.

If it only works with Classic Networking, it may very well work with System 6, but is assured to work fine in System 7. The best thing to do would simply be to test it in the OS you want to use it under. Just because the company has not tested and does not certify it for use with a particular system version doesn't mean it won't work.

 

[Charlieman]

I agree with Big Bird for the most part. It is possible that the installer will refuse to run under System 6. If that is the case, build a System 7 test system and install it there; work out which INITs and CDEVs are installed and use ResEdit to identify where system resources are installed. Then copy the lot of them to your System 6 box.

I supported a few people in the mid 1990s who used these boxes -- I didn't recommend them but the local Apple Centre did. From memory, at the time there were no Open Transport compatible drivers. Check the ReadMe for the latest drivers to see if this is still true.

The first versions of Open Transport were certified by Apple for System 7.1 and possibly earlier. If you are prepared to do a bit of hacking, the later versions may work on pre System 7.5 systems.

 

[beachycove]

I don't have a definitive answer, but:

1. they don't work under Open Transport, and

2. they were presumably designed with early powerbooks and compacts in mind (i.e., models to which ethernet could not be added internally);

3. ergo, I reckon it's a good bet that they'd work under 6.

In fact, I seem to recall that they are unhappy running under anything much past 7.1. They certainly belong to the early System 7 era, so there is probably at least as much backwards as there is forwards compatibility.

You do, however, need the requisite drivers.

 

[equant]

Thanks Beachycove. I've put the Etherwave on the back-burner for now. I'm not even sure I have the right drivers at this point. I found two different DLs that might be what I need, but I don't have a target mac to test with at the moment.

Nathan

 

[Maccess]

If the Etherwave Serial to PB adaptor (i.e. the Mac PB Etherwave adaptor) doesn't work in System 6, Dayna's Port EZ (also EZ-T, with 10-Base-T) does.

 

[katmac]

The Etherwave AUI and AAUI dongles don't require any software and seem to work on anything that has an AUI or AAUI port. The Printer adapter, which converts ethernet to localtalk, also requires no software and seems to work on any localtalk printer.

The "Mac" adapter, sometimes called PB adapter, converts localtalk to ethernet, and the driver is optional. You can use the driver with classic networking and get somewhere around double localtalk speed. You can also ignore the driver, and I think it will convert localtalk to ethernet on any Mac with localtalk.

Etherwave cards were made for Nubus and possibly the LC slot. They cannot be used without the driver, which requires classic networking. With some of these classic drivers, you can use ResEdit to pick out the DRVR resource the installer sticks into your System file, and paste it into a different System file, possibly an Open Transport-only system. I think I tried this once with a Farallon driver and it didn't work.

 

[equant]

The "Mac" adapter, sometimes called PB adapter, converts localtalk to ethernet, and the driver is optional. You can use the driver with classic networking and get somewhere around double localtalk speed. You can also ignore the driver, and I think it will convert localtalk to ethernet on any Mac with localtalk.

Can this "PB" adapter be used to get a mac onto an ethernet network using mactcp. or can it only bridge localtalk via ethernet?

Thanks.

Nathan

 

[katmac]

Can this "PB" adapter be used to get a mac onto an ethernet network using mactcp. or can it only bridge localtalk via ethernet?

Yes, the etherwave drivers can be used with mactcp.

 

[alk]

The driver isn't strictly necessary, but it allows a system to get an IP address (not MacIP but MacTCP) over the serial connection and speeds up the comms through the port. It does indeed require "Classic Networking" and does not work with OT. However, the converter hardware still works with Open Transport. The downside is that you can only obtain IP addresses through a MacIP server, and the throughput is slower.

They are fantastic devices for getting LocalTalk devices on an EtherTalk network, though. They even work with old Apple LocalTalk printers like the LaserWriter IIf.

Peace,

Drew

 

[pee-air]

Etherwave cards were made for Nubus and possibly the LC slot. They cannot be used without the driver, which requires classic networking. With some of these classic drivers, you can use ResEdit to pick out the DRVR resource the installer sticks into your System file, and paste it into a different System file, possibly an Open Transport-only system. I think I tried this once with a Farallon driver and it didn't work.

I have a Farallon EtherWave card in my LC III. So they were made for the LC PDS slot. I'm also using mine without a driver in System 7.5.3. So either Apple began supporting the Farallon EtherWave in Mac OS somewhere between the release of System 7.5 and 7.5.3, or the EtherWave PDS cards do not require a driver for operation.

I am also using Open Transport 1.1.2 on my LC III, and it works just brilliantly with my Farallon EtherWave PDS card. I did not have to do anything to get this card to work with Open Transport. I just popped the card into the PDS slot. Connected an Ethernet cable to the card, and everything just worked.

The Farallon EtherWave PDS NIC is actually my preference for 68k Macs with LC style Processor Direct Slots. The reasons being:

• These cards just plain work. No drivers needed.
  
• These cards just plain connect. They have no problems with auto-sensing 10/100/1000 switches/hubs/routers.
  
• These cards just save. They have a second RJ45 port that you can use to daisychain those miserable Asante and Dayna NICs that will not negotiate with 10/100/1000 switches/hubs/routers. So they save you the need to use an inline 10base-T hub.

 

[beachycove]

Discussion is not about the LCPDS card, but about the stingray-like dongle adapter that went under the etherwave name.

 

[equant]

the stingray-like dongle adapter

Ha, yeah, nice description. I've wondered how to describe it before; that's perfect.

Nathan

 

[pee-air]

Discussion is not about the LCPDS card, but about the stingray-like dongle adapter that went under the etherwave name.

Just filling in a gap in a previous post. No harm in lightly touching on the entire EtherWave product lineup. Somebody... Somewhere... Sits at a Google screen slowly typing... f... a... r... a... ... e... t... h... e... r... w... a... v... e...

And, when they click their [RETURN] key (Or [ENTER] key for those without [RETURN] keys) they will find this thread. And, they'll be ever so delighted to find that this thread briefly discusses the entire Farallon Etherwave product range. And, when they get to my post, which filled in the gap in katmac's post, they'll be overjoyed to learn that the Farallon Etherwave PDS Ethernet Card is the best one to get for the LC range of Macintosh computers with LC Processor Direct Slots. [] ]'>