Recommended system extensions?

[stormy]

Hi all,

I'm a complete noob to classic mac and im looking to pimp out my 840av system 8.1 installation. Are there any recommended system extensions? Stuff that adds extra functionality etc.

Also wondering for file sharing if there is any NFS or Samba client compatibility available? My NAS supports AFP but I'm guessing it might be too modern?

Also any good system terminals and perhaps SSH clients? Can I get sshfs?

Cheers for any advice,

 

[ArmorAlley]

Be warned that the plastics in your 840av are *very* brittle!

I have a PM 8100/80 (the model that followed the Q840av) and I learned the hard way when I was trying to max it out.

How much RAM to do you have? If you have 16MB or less, then something like RAM-Doubler 8 might be good. Speed Doubler 8 (also from Connectix) is also useful. There are mac magazines in the Internet Archive (MacWorld, MacAddict) and in the Macintosh Garden (MacFormat) that do reviews of Mac software and hardware. Reading through these magazines will give you a good idea of the Mac world in the early 1990s. The Quadra 840av was the flagship Mac just before the Power Macs came out and, except for RAM, was almost perfect. It didn't need a graphics card to be useful, the HDs were quite fast and big for the time, it had the fastest bus the mac had seen (with the exception of the IIfx).

System Extensions that I like: WindowShade, SuperClock! (built in), The Grouch (I love it because it's trash), RAMdisk (built in), UDF for reading DVDs.

It is very much worth your while to know what every file in the Extensions folder and Control Panel folder does. Use Extension Manager to learn their functions and to «disable» (put them in another folder) the files you don't need (like, say, TokenTalk, A/ROSE or PowerBook stuff).

Software packages that are useful: Norton Utilities to repair volumes, FWB HD Toolkit, FWB CD-ROM Toolkit, LaCie Silverlining 2.2, Conflict Catcher, Toast for burning CDs and an anti-virus package. Disinfectant 3.7.1 was standard. Virex is good. I'm not sure if NAV 7 (Norton Antivirus) will run. Something that will rid you of or protect you from the 666 virus is helpful. If you ever see an extension labelled '666' in your Extensions folder, you have a problem.

 

[stormy]

Cheers for all the helpful info! I'm good for ram at 64mb luckily, and yes I have already witnessed the brittleness of this case. Don't worry though, I superglued the bit that broke off (A latch inside the case) I have lovingly cleaned the entire machine inside and out, re-capped it, cleaned the motherboard, washed the case and dismantled/cleaned/putback the PSU.

 

[Cory5412]

MacSSH is available as an SSH client, it runs great on the 840. The only gotcha is that you have to enable older ciphers on your SSH server (For me, it was easier just to install an older debian jumpbox to use with the classic macs) and then disable ZLIB compression on the macssh side.

In terms of extensions, to be honest, I run my systems with as little as possible. Pretty much, only load software and leave extensions you think you'll actually benefit from. 

After as ArmorAlley says, disabling stuff you're not using like a/rose, printing, UDF, tokentalk, et al.

In terms of AFP, it depends on how your NAS implements it. Netatalk on Linux used to support Appletalk (as in, the entire non-tcp/ip protocol that old macs can speak) directly, but newer releases are more focused on being time machine targets for modern OSX macs.

 

[stormy]

MacSSH is available as an SSH client, it runs great on the 840. The only gotcha is that you have to enable older ciphers on your SSH server (For me, it was easier just to install an older debian jumpbox to use with the classic macs) and then disable ZLIB compression on the macssh side.

In terms of extensions, to be honest, I run my systems with as little as possible. Pretty much, only load software and leave extensions you think you'll actually benefit from. 

After as ArmorAlley says, disabling stuff you're not using like a/rose, printing, UDF, tokentalk, et al.

In terms of AFP, it depends on how your NAS implements it. Netatalk on Linux used to support Appletalk (as in, the entire non-tcp/ip protocol that old macs can speak) directly, but newer releases are more focused on being time machine targets for modern OSX macs.

Cheers, I grabbed MacSSH and disabled a bunch of extensions. My NAS connects very easily with the chooser, so seems compatible. But one peculiarity is that when transferring lots of files, larger ones (like games) seem to lock up finder during transfer. I don't know whether this is down to the AFP implementation or perhaps a memory leak in os 8.1. It could also be the NAS/network not particularly enjoying the 10mb ethernet

 

[Compgeke]

That's just Mac OS being Mac OS. Anything prior to OS X does that really.

 

[beachycove]

Try Speed Doubler.