Good modem & ethernet hub/switch choices for SE/30

[gdanie]

Hello,

I have a SE/30 that is running System 6.0.8, 7.1, and 7.5.5 on separate partitions.

I have a good ethernet NIC card and 7.5.5, OTT 1.3, appropriate driver etc.  But there is no connectivity because it refuses to talk with my modern router (typical I know).

Anyways I want to get a good 10-Base-T ethernet hub that works good and has good connectivity to my vintage mac (and vintage OS).  Anyone have any suggestions for what worked for them?

ALSO, I want to get a modem.  A bit of overkill I know, but I want the full vintage effect of dialing into a ISP.  Besides, very honestly, I may just give up if I can't get it to work eventually, and stick with PPP.  What modems do you have?  I have heard of a lot of people having success with http://www.nocharge.com/ these folks.

Thanks in advance,

gdanie

 

[Unknown_K]

Any old 10/100 3com Ethernet switch should do. Get an old Linksys router if you need one.

 

[Floofies]

+1 On the old Linksys router suggestion. Just make sure it's a model that can run DD-WRT so you can easily configure it. When you plop DD-WRT on one of those babies, you can do just about anything with it, including setting it up as a 10BASE-T switch for vintage Mac NIC's.

 

[rsolberg]

DD-WRT cannot set the speed/duplex on the Linksys WRT54GL's switch. You can set it up, it'll show up in the interface, but the hardware will still run at 100mbps/full duplex. It may work on other WRT54G models, but not the GL. DD-WRT micro uses too much flash, so there's not enough space to install ethtool. I ended up using OpenWRT, installing ethtool, and setting port speeds at command line.

 

[Floofies]

DD-WRT cannot set the speed/duplex on the Linksys WRT54GL's switch. You can set it up, it'll show up in the interface, but the hardware will still run at 100mbps/full duplex. It may work on other WRT54G models, but not the GL. DD-WRT micro uses too much flash, so there's not enough space to install ethtool. I ended up using OpenWRT, installing ethtool, and setting port speeds at command line.

Oh wow, I didn't know that about the GL models!

 

[Unknown_K]

I just use the stock setup, my model is too old to support DD-WRT (WRT54GL).

 

[gdanie]

I ended up buying this switch on the cheap ($5):

I have the verizon fios internet router at my house.  I have to, since I also get the TV service.  So they get me on rent for that...

However, from the looks of things, all I need to do is plug this guy into the router, and then set a static IP, right?

 

[rsolberg]

You probably don't need to set a static IP with your setup. DHCP is very much backward/forward compatible. If the hardware link is established, the Mac should get an IP address from your Verizon router.

If you plug your Mac into that switch and you get a Link light for the respective port, it's compatible. If you don't get a link light or the 100M lights, your network card is not compatible with 10/100 devices and you'll need to get a hub/switch that is 10mbps only or a managed switch that can be programmed. Many PDS Ethernet cards are incompatible with 10/100 and 10/100/1000 autonegotiating devices. In my experience, every Asante MCLC PDS I've tried won't link unless the connected port is 10mbps only or forced to 10mbps/half duplex.

 

[gdanie]

You probably don't need to set a static IP with your setup. DHCP is very much backward/forward compatible. If the hardware link is established, the Mac should get an IP address from your Verizon router.

If you plug your Mac into that switch and you get a Link light for the respective port, it's compatible. If you don't get a link light or the 100M lights, your network card is not compatible with 10/100 devices and you'll need to get a hub/switch that is 10mbps only or a managed switch that can be programmed. Many PDS Ethernet cards are incompatible with 10/100 and 10/100/1000 autonegotiating devices. In my experience, every Asante MCLC PDS I've tried won't link unless the connected port is 10mbps only or forced to 10mbps/half duplex.

Well I have a Daynaport E/si30 SONIC-T PDS.  When I connect it to my verizon router, in the router preferences it shows a hardware link.  However the mac will not grab DHCP and entering in the informational manually into OT 1.3 doesn't work either.  The activity light on the NIC just blinks.  There is a light on the router showing a connection.  However, the link shown in router prefs is "inactive".  

We'll see what happens with the switch.  It hasnt arrived yet.  Maybe it is a "handshake" problem.

 

[360alaska]

Could you just remove the extra two pairs of wire that give you gigabit and force the router into 10/100? Would that help things?

 

[rsolberg]

Could you just remove the extra two pairs of wire that give you gigabit and force the router into 10/100? Would that help things?

I've tried that myself, with no success. A gigabit port will auto-negotiate to 100mbps and the Mac won't actually have a link.
Something like this would be a simple solution as it's 10-base T only: http://ebay.com/itm/391220099957

The mac will link with it and the Verizon router should negotiate a link with it successfully.

 

[massiverobot]

There is no need for an old switch. I've connected my SE/30 with an Asante/Net card to many modern 1000/100/10 switches that I have in my house. Cisco and Netgear. Every switch I've ever seen goes back down to 10bT...

Now, I wouldn't plug it directly in to the router, but get a $20 1000/100/10 Netgear 5 port switch on Amazon, so you can use it for other things.

As for DHCP your Se/30 with MacTCP isn't going to do it. Maybe OT will get an address, but MacTCP you need to manually configure it. At least my MacTCP won't pick up any DHCP offers from modern versions of dhcpd.

 

[rsolberg]

Massiverobot, can you post or PM the model and revision of your Ethernet board? I'm compiling a list of cards with/without auto-negotiate compatibility.

From what I've gathered, a lot of these PDS Ethernet cards use somewhat nonstandard interval/length link integrity test pulses. These pulses are closer in form to the fast link pulses used to advertise 100mbit/full-duplex capability, so a connected auto-negotiate port will configure itself to the wrong speed/duplex. The PDS Ethernet card won't be able to acknowledge the link, so the auto-negotiate port may or may not indicate a media connection. If it does, diagnostics will generally report a connection problem. These problematic cards do not work with any hub/switch/router/NIC that has 100mbit or gigabit capability, unless speed and duplex can be configured manually.

The PDS cards that work seem to be using a standard LIT (link integrity test) pulse which auto-negotiate ports automatically recognize as coming from a 10mbit half-duplex device.

 

[massiverobot]

I can look the next time I have the SE/30 open- but I will say it must be one of the later ones because the daughter board has Thick, Thin AND 10BT on it. So 10BT was around. Perhaps the cards that came before- that only have Thick and thin, and use the Thick converters to 10BT have issues... Just a guess.

 

[gdanie]

I ended up getting a 10-Base-T ONLY hub, an old D-Link, for $4. We'll see if I have better luck with this. If this doesnt work, because I know I am setting up everything right with Open transport (or at least i think I know enough about networking to think I do), I'll begin to suspect that the problem was with the card itself. It may be fried from an earlier incident. I will get this thing online and read bbs and gophernet on it. And get on IRC. And FTP. I have no idea why I want to, but I do. I transfer loads of games and stuff over on the floppy emu board...

 

[gdanie]

Okay the D-link from the early 90s was a hit.  The internet is working flawlessly.

So if anyone else has this card, or ends up getting one:

 Daynaport E/si30 SONIC-T PDS

-

You need to install 7.5.5 -> install the driver (because it doesnt work automatically with 7.5.5) -> install Open Transport 1.3 -> then use a 10-Base-T only switch or hub-> then wire that into the PDS to get online. Use either manual or DHCP server in TCP/IP control panel prefs. It doesn't work any other way, I've tried and tried.  I hope this helps someone else.

 

[uniserver]

awesome!