Network - Old Mac G3 to XP

[noTHINGface]

Hi all

My lady needs to be able to transfer files from an old Mac G3 to her PC (and vica versa). I understand that the G3 will not peer to peer network using ethernet and that an null modem cable may be the only solution. Has anyone experience of doing the above?

[darrensen]

Download a bit of software called maclan for the pc, then you'll be able to transfer files

[noTHINGface]

Damn, thats gonna cost a few quid - im not being tight fisted but I dont think that its worth the investment. I may just persuade her to pick up a mac mini, at least OS X has a decent level of samba integration.

[darrensen]

I have an iBook running Tiger 10.4, the samba file sharing works spot on for me.

[Bob Crabtree]

What G3 Mac is it, beige or one of the newer blue jobbies with USB (and maybe FireWire, too)?

Also, what Mac OS is she running, OS 9 or OS X?

Email databases aside, typically, most people don't have a lot of data - it can usually be measured in the 100s of MByte, rather than in Gigs.

If that's the case with her, then a USB solid-state pen drive might do the trick. If there is a lot of data, then a USB/FireWire hard drive would work (if formatted as FAT 32) - and any of the three would be a good investment, unlike networking software if the Mac is going to be replaced in the near future.

But, the way forward will very much depend on what G3 she has and which OS she is running.

If it's a beige G3, with no FireWire or USB, and running OS 9, then there could be problems. But, with that hardware and OS X, you definitely can connect to a peer-to-peer Windows network by using Samba, which is free, but last time I looked was a download of something over 20MByte.

Here's a useful guide to Samba on early versions of OS X.

And this is a useful Apple KnowledgeBase article about the subject.

If none of this helps, please let us have that info about the Mac itself, and the OS, but do please keep us posted.

Bob Crabtree
DVdoctor.net

[noTHINGface]

Cheers for that Bob! Sorry I should have stated, this is an old G3 powermac - beige and dusty! No USB or firewire and its running OS 8 <shudder> so there's no smb on there currently. She's a graphic designer so there is a lot of image information and Quark files to transfer and spit between the two.

I have an old 25-9 pin null modem cable here so will try that tonight.

[Bob Crabtree]

OS8?

Shudder? Oh, yes.

Aaaaaghhhhhhhhh!

Best of luck with the null modem route.

I honestly can't remember how long it was since I saw OS8 running.

I presume that she's not even got an internal CD burner.

Burning to CDs is a cheap option if it's available - the hard disk on a beige G3 with OS8 surely isn't very large, and wouldn't fill up more than a handful of discs? I seem to recall the original in my beige G3 was 4GByte, or even smaller.

If she does have a CD burner and no decent software to burn with, you should be able to buy an old copy of Toast cheaply on ebay or even DVdoctor's classified forum.

If nothing else works, buy a decent brand of external FireWire or USB hard drive case, pull out the hard disk from the G3 and bung it in the case, and connect it to a more modern Mac that will allow you to transfer to some sort of media or other. You can then flog off the hard drive case if you don't need it - so total cost would probably only be £10-£15 after you got some money back.

Check out the IcyBox stuff that Scan sells but also bear in mind ADS Tech's external drive bays - they seem to be very good quality and might be a better option if you decide to keep the drive bay, though they'd cost you more.

Of course, is she wants to upgrade her machine, she could always make me an offer for my beige G3, running OS X, OS 9, FireWire, USB, and more, I'd be hard put to refuse any figure!





Bob C

[noTHINGface]

Yup - good old OS8! I think that this whole venture has doom written all over it. Not only is she wanting to transfer data she was intending using the Mac for freelance work - again the word 'doom' springs to mind.

There was no internal cd burner, though it does have a working 100Mb zip drive, I have the feeling that this is the best option to hand.

Im loathe to recommend spending any money on it, I think you hit the nail on the head, it would be a better to upgrade the machine. I have the feeling that I'll be looking at this Tuesday!

Cheers for the help Bob, and the offer of the G3 but I think one beige box in my life is more than enough :-)

[Bob Crabtree]

Zip drive will do the job - albeit slowly.

Of course, the big problem she's going to have when/if she upgrades to something rather more 21st century is that she's going to have to buy versions of her preferred software that run under OSX - and that could be a big hit on top of the cost of a new Mac.

So, how much do you want me to pay to take away my beige G3?



Bob C

[noTHINGface]

I think I have solved it - null modem cable and a piece of software call star gate. Thing that I always forget with pre-war Macs is that you cannot download Mac binaries on x86 so she's burning the app from her works G5 today.

You're right about software - I work in pharmaceutical IT so wont pretend to understand the software requirements of graphic designers but some of that stuff is really expensive -plus she has to ensure that she has compatible versions with the repro guys for when it goes to print, she did explain this to me but I drifted off and settled into another bottle of Peroni instead!

C'mon Bob, you know that you'd miss that G3 if you let it go. Fire it up and re-live the glorious age of irritating computing

[5lab]

you might be able to do a parallel link cable (a LOT quicker than null modem) or, if it has a network card in, why not set yer pc up as an ftp server and transfer the files that way?

[noTHINGface]

Mr 5lab, thats not a bad idea actually - the ftp route I mean. Thanks, Ill look into that tonight when I have the honour of waging more war with the G3 despot.