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Getting a IIci on tah intarwebz.

Mars478

Well-known member
How do I get my IIci with 7.5.1 and an Ethernet card, on the internet so I can browser 68kmla in complete nostalgia,

(And also win my "Lets play a game..." Thread :)

 

LCGuy

LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
You've got two choices - "Classic Networking" (using MacTCP) and Open Transport. Personally I'd use Open Transport, its newer, and far more easy to configure.

 

Mars478

Well-known member
Where do I get open transport and how do I get it to the IIci?

It has no browser either.

 

Nico

Member
1) Ensure you properly installed the drivers for your Ethernet card. If you can get drivers from your card's vendor, those might be better than the generic Apple network drivers.

2) Since you're using 7.5.1 and have 8 MB of RAM, I highly suggest installing OpenTransport. It's much easier to configure than MacTCP and has better compatibility with modern routers. You can download OpenTransport 1.1.1 and the update to 1.1.2 in floppy format from the Apple site:

OpenTransport 1.1.1:

Disk 1 - Disk 2 - Disk 3 - Disk 4

OpenTransport 1.1.2 update:

Disk 1 - Disk 2 - Disk 3 - Disk 4

3) After installing, configure OpenTransport to use DHCP (should be enabled by default) and go into the advanced user mode to have it always enabled (instead of TCP/IP only being enabled when it gets used, as it is by default). You can set OT back to simple user mode afterward.

4) Install Netscape 2.02, which is IMHO the best browser for the IIci. It runs nice and quick, while still being fairly compatible with most modern sites. Netscape 3 will also work on a IIci, but it is slow as molasses. Also, 8 MB of RAM is probably not enough to run NS3 stably.

Here's an archive of ancient Netscape releases: link

And for your convenience, here's a direct download link to Netscape 2.02 English for Mac: link

That download is too large to fit on a single floppy, so you might have to work some file splitting magic to transport it onto your IIci.

5) After starting up Netscape 2.02 for the first time, quickly press the Stop button to prevent the browser from loading the default Netscape homepage (and all sorts of hell breaking loose). Go to the settings menu and set a blank page as the default site.

Then go to Security settings and disable Javascript. Javascript in NS2 is outdated and produces gazillions of error messages on most JS-enabled sites. If you want to have any kind of fun with your browsing experience, you'll want to disable Javascript.

Finally, don't forget to click 'Save settings' in the settings menu. Otherwise, the default settings will be restored on the next startup.

If all went well, you should be able to produce something like this:



 

Mars478

Well-known member
Woah, Thanks for the awesome tutorial, I'll setup my IIci again Tomorrow ( I have to use my dads LCD because it is the only one which works with the IIci and the Mac/VGA Adaptor or any other vintage mac for that matter) And follow that tutorial.

 

Nico

Member
Note that I wrote all that from the top of my head, so I might have gotten a few details wrong or maybe even forgotten a step somewhere. I also left a couple of things open for yourself to find out, since your situation is not identical to mine. Let me know if you have any problems.

 

olePigeon

Well-known member
I have my IIci on the web with a MacSense E440 NuBus ethernet card. I got the ethernet card new on eBay for $12. :)

Woah, Thanks for the awesome tutorial, I'll setup my IIci again Tomorrow ( I have to use my dads LCD because it is the only one which works with the IIci and the Mac/VGA Adaptor or any other vintage mac for that matter) And follow that tutorial.
Apparently the onboard video doesn't have sync on green, so multisync monitors generally don't work. I got mine to work, however, by also hooking up to an LCD. I then cycled through the various 640x80 options until the normal VGA monitor worked.

 
Does anyone have any experience with the correct drivers on a Asante MCNB Rev A?

P/N is 09-00061-03 A3

I looked on Asante's website, and could not find anything on this card.

I have a IIci running System 7.1 and desperatly want to get this to work.

I have no Browser, or no TCP installed as far as I can tell.

asante_MCNB.jpg


 

LCGuy

LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
You'll also need to ensure that you're plugging it into a 10Mbps hub - not a 10/100 switch - older Asante gear can't work directly with a 10/100 switch, you must put a 10Mbps hub between the Asante card and a 10/100 network.

 
Well, it looks like my card is installed.

The driver disk has MacTCP on it, and I installed that. But, in the Network control panel, there is only EtherTALK, not ethernet.

Do I need a different Mactcp? Does OpenTransport work on System 7.1?

 
I installed Open Transport on my mac.

I was having issues with the card not being recognized by the installer software, but after some messing around, it was then detected.

I noticed the LED on the back of the card is constantly flashing at consistant intervals. If I power down and put a jumper on the the JP2 leads, the flashing stops.

I'm not sure which setting I need.

Can't test the card because I'm having a hell of a time trying to configure this open transport correctly...

 
I removed the jumper from the card.

I made the flashing light go away by plugging the cable into an older switch I had, now it's a constant on.

After this I am now getting an IP address and can ping it from my other machines....

Looking good.

 
Currently trying to put an FTP client on the mac. I put a FTP server on my Windows box, so hopefully, I can transfer Netscape that way.

(unstuffing this takes forever....)

 
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