I've been trying to figure out how to get the oldest Mac that can do AppleShare (Mac 512k) and a modern Mac running Leopard to share files. Since Leopard doesn't use Appletalk anymore for file sharing, and the Mac 512k can't do TCP over AppleShare, it's been an interesting challenge. I've always known I'd have to use a Mac OS 9 machine as a bridge of some sorts. The issue is that Apple doesn't let you "share a share". Never quite sure why they choose that limitation, but it's true in OS X as well and the Classic Mac OS.
I was inspired by watching Time Machine work on a network disk. It backs up the files on a disk image that resides on the network, but is mounted on the local machine. That got me thinking, because a mounted disk image IS sharable on both OS X and Classic.
Here's what I did. I created a 100 MB disk image on my iMac and shared out the folder it resided in. On my Power Mac 6500, I connected to this share with the Chooser and IP address. From this share, I double clicked the disk image and it mounted on the OS 9 desktop. I shared this mounted disk image, and I was able to access with the AppleShare 1.1 client!! If I copied a file to the drive, it wrote back in real time to my iMac with Leopard!
Let's take it a step further. Let's say you want a Mac 512k to connect to a network share that only a modern Mac can connect to, like Time Capsule or an Airport disk, or the iPhone with DataCase software. Simply make a disk image INSIDE another disk image. Put the main disk image on the network share, and mount it on your OS X desktop. Share that mounted image to the OS 9 Mac, and mount the internal disk image on that desktop. From there, share to the 512K. You can then read and write in real time from the 512k to these modern types of network shares!
I was inspired by watching Time Machine work on a network disk. It backs up the files on a disk image that resides on the network, but is mounted on the local machine. That got me thinking, because a mounted disk image IS sharable on both OS X and Classic.
Here's what I did. I created a 100 MB disk image on my iMac and shared out the folder it resided in. On my Power Mac 6500, I connected to this share with the Chooser and IP address. From this share, I double clicked the disk image and it mounted on the OS 9 desktop. I shared this mounted disk image, and I was able to access with the AppleShare 1.1 client!! If I copied a file to the drive, it wrote back in real time to my iMac with Leopard!
Let's take it a step further. Let's say you want a Mac 512k to connect to a network share that only a modern Mac can connect to, like Time Capsule or an Airport disk, or the iPhone with DataCase software. Simply make a disk image INSIDE another disk image. Put the main disk image on the network share, and mount it on your OS X desktop. Share that mounted image to the OS 9 Mac, and mount the internal disk image on that desktop. From there, share to the 512K. You can then read and write in real time from the 512k to these modern types of network shares!


