LC475 and OS 8.1 Web Browsers and FTP clients

[GerrySch]

Good Evening all.  Since I have an SCSI2SD with 32GBs of storage on my LC475 to run OS 7.5.5 (with 136 MBs of RAM), I got rambunctious and decided to install OS 8.1 on a new miniSD card and remove the Apple IIe card and put in a Farallon LC ethernet card.  The installation went perfectly and the LC runs well.  For 68k web browsers I downloaded iCab 2.99 and WannaBe 1.0b14 but they are dog slow.  Perhaps I'm spoiled and expect too much from a 68040 processor running at 25 MHz.  I do have Classilla 9.3.3 running on my iMac G3 (1GB of RAM with a 500 MHz G3) under OS 9.2.2 and it's a decent browser but only for PowerPCs.  Any suggestions for a better 68k web browser under 8.1?

Along the same lines, I also use an FTP client to pull files directly from my Mac Pro.  I've got Anarchie 1.6 on the LC475 and 3.7 on the iMac G3. Version 3.7 has stopped working because the trial period has ended.  Any good and free FTP clients for these old machines?

Finally, I purchased some LC475 motherboards from eBay.  I'm testing them but I ran into something odd.  Both MBs have the part number 820-0364-A C-1993 but one board has an extra connector slot between the MB mounted RAM and the display memory slots on the right.  I think it's a board for a Quadra 605 but I've found no references to it.  What is that connector?

Thank you for the help,

Gerry

 

[ArmorAlley]

Hiya Gerry,

One good upgrade is to get a full upgrade to the 68040 processor. The LC475 uses the 68LC040 processor. One member, now banned, used to offer a service to increase the bus-speed from 25MHz to 33MHz. This would allow for the 33MHz processor.

Back to your question: the LC475 came out in 1993 and it wasn't especially fast then. The browsers then were NCSA Mosaic and Netscape 1. When Mac OS 8.1 came out in 1997, IE was up to v3 and Netscape up to v3 (I think). I was using a IIcx until 1997 to browse the Internet and it was on the slow side. A friend was using a IIsi. It was more expensive than slow.

I have found that the modern websites render slowly and poorly on an LC475. The only decent browser for Mac OS 9 or under that I've found is Classila.

I don't know what that slot is for. I initially thought that it was originally the slot for a ROM SIMM and then it was built in. Now I suspect that it was used by Apple for diagnostics.

On a final note, if you have so many LC475s, why don't you built a LAN gaming centre? 4 boxes, or maybe 5 with one acting as a server? I can't remember if Marathon requires a full 68040 processor, but Marathon would be great. ArmorAlley is good, albeit for 2 players only. Bolo was very popular. NetTrek was a very addictive game in its day. You would need a router/hub that handles 10baseT only.