Network on SE30

[surfer150]

Hello together,

I have an issue getting network on my SE30 with Mac OS 8.1. It has the Asanté MacCon SE30E network card in it with driver version 5.6.1 installed.

I connected it to my router using an AUI to RJ45 10BASE-T transceiver (Allied Telesyn AT-210TS). The link LED turns on but there’s no network. I’m not getting any DHCP. I also tried setting the IP manually in the TCP/IP control panel, but i still can’t ping the SE30.

After that i tried to connect it directly to my laptop. I manually assigned IPs from the same subnet on both ends (laptop and SE30) but i still can’t ping the SE30. The link negotiation seems to work, it shows a negotiated 10 MBit/s in the network adapter properties.

As I don’t know further has anybody an idea what’s going wrong here? Is the MacCon even compatible with MacOS 8.1?

 

[Fred1212]

Do you have any other early Macs that you can try to connect to via Appletalk? This would confirm everything hardware and software is correct. Why 8.1 on an SE/30 and not the 7.6.1 sweetspot?

 

[robin-fo]

Did you try loading any website or do pings from the SE/30? The TCP/IP stack often only gets loaded only when first needed.

 

[surfer150]

Did you try loading any website or do pings from the SE/30? The TCP/IP stack often only gets loaded only when first needed.

No I haven‘t yet. Will try this.

Do you have any other early Macs that you can try to connect to via Appletalk? This would confirm everything hardware and software is correct. Why 8.1 on an SE/30 and not the 7.6.1 sweetspot?

Because I like the new platinum UI design more and I had an original Mac OS 8 install CD laying around.

Does 7.6.1 perform a lot better?

I can try to connect the SE30 with my Kanga G3 if Robin‘s approach does not work.

 

[croissantking]

Does 7.6.1 perform a lot better?

Yes. You can install Mac OS 8’s Appearance Manager extension to get the platinum look under System 7.

 

[Phipli]

Even 7.6.1 is a bit new for a stock SE/30.

 

[croissantking]

Even 7.6.1 is a bit new for a stock SE/30.

Yes. There's really no reason to go higher than 7.5.5. Many are happiest on 7.1 whilst some even prefer 6.0.x.

 

[Phipli]

Yes. There's really no reason to go higher than 7.5.5. Many are happiest on 7.1 whilst some even prefer 6.0.x.

Yeah, personally I always like using 7.1 on an 030, and just adding back in what features I want from 7.5 and newer manually. I like how lightweight it is. You feel the difference on 16MHz, especially if you don't have loads of RAM.

 

[Bolle]

I‘m not sure if thr Asante driver is compatible with OpenTransport… I think it might not.
Wipe the whole drive and install a fresh copy of the system software and make sure to check Ethertalk which will install the generic Apple ethernet driver that will work just fine with your Asante card and is compatible with OT.

Also what others suggested make sure the TCP stack did actually load either by forcing it to do so in the advanced settings of the TCP/IP CP or by launching an application that uses TCP.

 

[superjer2000]

Not all hubs/switches play nice with older Ethernet cards. I have a 10mbit switch that I use for my vintage gear as older cards dont always play nice with auto negotiating switches.

Also when connecting your laptop and SE30 directly were you using a crossover cable? I am not sure if that would be strictly necessary with a modern laptop but it used to be required to connect computers with Ethernet directly. I don't know that failing to use a cross over would prevent a link (ie you are showing a 10mbit connection from your laptop) but it would definitely prevent communication.