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Earlier this month I got the RS232 serial modem from The Old Net[1], so I finally got to set up networking on the SE/30!
Setting up the modem was straightforward thanks to the included quick start guide. I used MacTerminal first, but this didn't work with PPP so I changed to ZTerm[2] and proceeded to set up my wi-fi credentials:
AT AT$SSID=YOURWIFINETWORK AT$PASS=YOURWIFIPASSWORD ATC1
Once I confirmed that I could get an IP address, I changed the baud from the safe-but-slow default of 300. While the modem itself supports 115200, the modem port has a max baud of 57600.
AT$SB=57600
And in ZTerm: Settings > Connection > Data Rate to 57600. After confirming it worked, I saved the settings.
AT&W
I'm using System 7.5.5 so I already have TCP/IP and OpenTransport, but I had to install MacPPP[3].
Configuring PPP is easy, and The Old Net provides a video[4], but in Config PPP you need to create a new connection, set the port speed to the baud you selected, and set flow control to None.
[4] Video from The Old Net explaining how to set up PPP
Then in ZTerm I can dial to PPP
ATDTPPP
And click "Open" in Config PPP and that's it!
I have iCab, Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator installed, so I decided to try my own website[5] and play with the services and proxies offered by The Old Net[6]. All three loaded well except for displaying unicode characters incorrectly.
Netscape Navigator has OK performance and was able to load the website well, it has some issues identifying JS files which means you get a download screen, but otherwise nothing major. I disabled Javascript and Java by going to Options > Network Preferences > Languages
iCab seemed to deal better but it's extremely sluggish, I don't think it's suitable for this computer and I wouldn't recommend it.
Internet Explorer landed somewhere in the middle for me: Slower than Netscape but usable, and better at rendering HTML. I also disabled Java and Javascript by goign to Edit > Preferences > Web Content, and Edit > Preferences > Java
One thing I was able to test was wallops[7], an IRC app. This one is pretty speedy, and let me connect to libera chat no problem. Other than having to type the identify, I can actually see myself loading this every time.
Macstodon[8], a client for mastodon was too slow and I didn't manage to authenticate at all. I might have been using an earlier version so I plan to give this another run.
Joshua Stein, the author of wallops has some other handy classic mac apps. Notably wikipedia[9], however this one worked on and off.
One thing I did want to try was accessing a network drive using netatalk. I set up netatalk on raspberry pi and set it to serve the same directory I use in my samba share.
The version of AppleShare I was using didn't let me specify an IP address, so I had to update AppleShare to version 3.7.4[10] and Open Transpot 1.1.2[11], but after this it actually worked but it was R E A L L Y S L O O W and froze the whole finder.
I'm not sure if the issue is on the server or the mac so I decided to leave it be for now.
Since AppleShare didn't work, I needed an alternative to move files back and forth. I settled with FTP. I'm running vsftpd on a raspberry pi and that's how I got this file out of the computer and into the blog.
On the mac I'm using Fetch[12], which is pretty nice (though I might consider other apps as the window size for fetch is huge.
I want to build a small tool that lets me publish my blog directly from the mac. I reckon I'll still have to use the raspberry pi to provide most of the functionality, but if I can write a file and drag it to a window and see it live, I'll be happy!
This blog was authored on a Macintosh SE/30 using Anarcho 1.6.