How to get an SE online without an ethernet card

[miker00lz]

Being new to compact Macs, I thought I'd turn to the pros here. What is the best way to get one of these things online without an ethernet card? What are the specific parts necessary? I can't seem to find any Maccon cards for the SE, only SE/30. The prices are insane anyway. I'm basically looking to turn it into an IRC client, I thought that would be a cool use of it. I also have a Mac Plus 1 MB that should do the job just as well.

I've been doing some research, but frankly it's a little confusing when it comes to what OS version, what TCP stack, what physical connection etc. It sounds like I should be using some kind of PPP over null modem? What connector would I need to connect it to a PC, what PPP server on the PC end? Lots of questions, I know.

 

[techknight]

A guide to connect an SE/30. Now I know it says SE/30, but it can basically be applied to all Macs, as its considered the Classic Mac Networking guide 3.0. It is stickied right here in this forum above this post. 

http://www.applefool.com/se30/

Then there is this for appletalk/localtalk systems only (In your case), Using a localtalk printer adapter. like Etherprint, or Etherwave or any one of those printer ethernet to localtalk adapters, There is this solution which works perfectly: 

https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/27453-macippi-surf-the-internet-on-your-old-macintosh-with-tcpip-over-localtalk/?hl=macipgw

There are other macIPGW threads here on the forum, please search for them and youll find a solution that works for you. 

 

[bdurbrow]

SLIP should also work... and if you don't have access to a LocalTalk to Ethernet bridge, but do have a Unix machine of some (OS X, BSD Unix, Linux, or possibly even Windows running Cygwin) sort you should be able to set up a bridge process to route from a serial port on that machine to the ethernet port.

I also thought that there was a software LocalTalk-to-Ethernet bridge that would run on a classic Mac with built-in Ethernet (i.e, any Mac that ranged between the Quadra 700 up to - but not including - the iMac)?

The other way to go about it would be to use a terminal emulator (like Red Ryder) and run the IRC client on a Unix machine.