[DewD]

I installed an aftermarket Ethernet card in one PCI slot of my hand-me-down PowerMac 6500/275 beige tower running OS 8.6
The card is recognized by Apple System Profiler. Hooked to my PM 8600/G3 also running 8.6 , with the Cat-5 crossover cable. the diode on the 6500's card indicates a good" alive" network connection. I think the hardware is all OK.

However, when configuring File Sharing , the AppleTalk control panel does not present a " Connect via" Ethernet option at all . It only gives me a choice of Modem Port, Printer Port, or Remote.

I copied the Apple Enet extension over from the 8600 to the 6500 ( it wasn't there ).


This is my first experience connecting two Macs by ethernet.
Is there something else missing from the 8.6 System folder that will allow me to do Ethernet ? before I try a clean install or somesuch I'd like to find a simpler solution

-Dewd

[firefly]

What make is the ethernet card? It will need a custom extension in order for it to function properly in the mac. Whether drivers exist for it is up to the manufacturer of the card (or the chipset mfr, eg Realtek), if there aren't any you'll have to find another mac-compatible ethernet card.

[jeromep]

I had to pull this one out of the old posts.

The problem you are having with your ethernet card is driver related. It has nothing to do with Apple's networking extensions. Apple does not design their networking extensions to work with any old card that is installed in a machine. There has been a history of some NuBus ethernet cards not requireing drivers, which is convenient, but also indicates to some extent the control Apple had over NuBus as a bus standard. Which means that those NuBus ethernet cards had to be made to such high Apple standards that Apple could have the networking extensions self sense and support the ethernet cards. With PCI that just isn't the case since PCI is an "open" standard that Apple does not control, but must accept an apply to their hardware.

On to your problem. Find drivers for the card. If there are no Mac drivers, it will never work.

I've posted this before about CommSlot equipped macs, and I'll post it again. CommSlot ethernet cards are widely available in the market, and through sellers on eBay. They are a much better solution to your networking needs than using PCI (unless you want a 100Base card) and are very reliable. If you have a modem in the CommSlot remove it in favor of some sort of external modem. The CommSlot modem that would have come with the 6500 was a piece of junk. With that said, go out and find a CommSlot II ethernet card and associated drivers from eBay or another source and install that instead of your PCI card.

[DewD]

The PCI ethernet card in question has Mac drivers. The extension shows up. It appears to be configured correctly.

I do beleive that system software is missing, sicne the Ethernetoption is not even available from any Appletalk chooser.

And by the way, the modem in the 6500 is a good Global Village 56 kbps unit...indistinguishable in operation from my GV 56kbps external on the other machine. The PCI ethernet card solution should work just fine, or else Apple's operator's manula for this machine is bogus...it has several pages on just that

[jeromep]

It was a fairly well publicized issue with some PowerMacs with onboard ethernet that the networking would not appear to be configureable unless the networking components saw a hot network connection (a hub). It is highly likley that this may still be an issue or a possible issue for this particular card. Before you go through any more software troubleshooting, I would suggest that you get a hub and hook these computers up in a manner more like a real network. Using a crossover cable is not recommended by any hardware manufacturer I'm aware of for computer-to-computer ethernet connections.

Is an ethernet, alternate ethernet or some other option referencing ethernet available in the TCP/IP control panel? If any reference is there then that same reference should show up in the Appletalk control panel.

Out of curiosity, did you install an aftermark internal modem from GV? I wasn't aware of them making a CommSlot II modems. Apple Knowledge base article 112409 states that from the factory the machine may have come with a 33.6 modem, which was most definitly a Geoport modem (and a piece of trash)

[George Orville]

I am preparing to file sharing between 7300/6116....Physically it has not been done yet.......I can configure AppleTalk and File Sharing in 7300 no problem.... but in my 6116 the physical connection must be made before AppleTalk can be configured.. according to the following dialog....Do you have some of the following active.....


Control Panels......
AppleTalk
File Sharing
TCP/IP
User & Groups ....??

Extensions.......
Apple Built-in Ethernet .....??
Apple Enet
Apple Ethernet NB .....??
AppleShare
Ethernet Phase 2 ......??
File Sharing Extension
File Sharing Library .....??

bigbiker

[ 05-25-2002: Message edited by: George Orville ]

[DewD]

I resolved the problem. The answer was there all along. Sort of....

There was an Ethernet extension in the System Folder called " Ethernet CS II " , which was the driver for ethernet IF you put a card in the 6500's Comm Slot II . Well...that is where the on-board Global Village 56k modem lives. When I added the after-market PCI ethernet card amd installed the driver, and added the Apple Enet extension from anothersyatem folder on a shared computer , the 6500 would not provide an ethernet option

Yesterday, on a whim, I removed the Ethernet CSII extension altogether, and added back in the standard Apple 8.6 " Enet" extension instead. That is all it took. Choice of two ethernet extensions...pick the one---and only one---that is required. Enet plus the card driveritself was the winning combo. Leaving in the Ethernet CSII extension as well was nihilistic.

Like so many superfluous extensions that lurk in a Mac's system folder , how are you supposed to know this stuff if somebody doesn't tell you?

- Dewd
cody wy

[ddiokno]

Kudos Dewd!
I'm sure this will be of help to others!
dave