🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <|^'XC@rpi.edu> slart@pawl.rpi.edu (David Bolling) writes:
>My roommate and I each have Mac II's.  They are 50 feet apart from each
>other in the same apartment.  What are the various ways we can network
>them together?  Our objectives are:
>      1) be able to play network games like Strategic Conquest
>         and NetTrek.
>      2) file sharing on an external SCSI hard disk.
>      3) share my LaserWriter IISC (if possible).

To play games, I'm almost sure all is necessary is the LocalTalk connection
between the machines.  But to do the file sharing and LW sharing, you'll
need something like the following.  This is pretty inexpensive compared to
other alternatives.

Probably the best software to use for this small of a network is Tops by Sun
MicroSystems.  For two machines this is much less expensive than AppleShare,
around $137 for each machine (last time I bought copies).  You'll need also
three LocalTalk or equivalent network connectors.  For your use something
that uses phone cabling would be least expensive, so a connector such as
PhoneNet or ModuNet (is this still available?) would suffice.  Each of these
runs around $35, so what you have so far is roughly $370 plus phone cabling.

You connect them using a bus topology like:

  Mac        Mac        LW
   ^----------^----------^

That's all you'll really need.  You could add more software, such as laser
spooling software, but that's not absolutely necessary.

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