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This is an old page, last updated @1997. I've retained it as it may have some odd information of use to someone. My current network configuration, including that old PowerBook 165, is described at Wireless Home Local Area Network (LAN), see also my newer Backing up a mixed OS X and Windows 2000 Home Network

Macintosh PowerBook and Windows 95 connectivity: SCSI/Link, Ethernet, MacLAN PC AppleTalk, Home Intranet LAN, and modem sharing via a Windows 95 proxy server

In February of 1997 I assembled a cross-platform home intranet that I'd been planning for about 3 years. It took that long for the all the pieces to come together. The setup I had to work with is a bit unusual, but the lessons may be of more general use to anyone working with both Macs and PCs.

Here's the setup:

  1. PowerBook 165 running system 7.5.3 and MacTCP. This machine has the IP address 192.168.1.2, a class C address reserved for intranets.
  2. Dayna SCSI/Link Tethernet adapter on SCSI chain (along with 2 other devices): This acts like a network card, but it routes output through the Mac's SCSI bus rather than an internal bus. The speed feels about 3-4 times faster than LocalTalk; significantly slower than standard ethernet, but quite an improvement on LocalTalk. The SCSI/Link T has a somewhat curious pass-through arrangement; with the cable Dayna provides it must be the first or last device in a chain. Dayna said it would work with power from the ADB bus (this means can use no other ADB devices), but on my 3 device chain this didn't work. Dayna FedExed me a free external power supply and a new, improved, SCSI cable. That's unbelievable customer service.
  3. Crossover 10BaseT cable (no hub needed for only two machines).
  4. Pentium running Win95 with 3Com PCI ethernet. This machine has two IP addresses, one provided on the SLIP connection dynamically (server assigned IP), the other a second fixed intranet address (192.168.1.1)
  5. M&M Soft's WinProxy 1.4, in evaluation mode (supports 2 users). (http://www.winproxy.net). This is a Czech proxy server, comparable to WinGate. Implements SOCKS. WinProxy exec is 289K, with an HTML interface. It is free for 2 or fewer users, and very reasonably priced for more users. This is a great home-office product.
  6. Miramar's MacLAN PC for Windows 95 running on the Windows 95 machine. This lets the Win95 machine handle AppleTalk and be a file and print server and AppleTalk client. Note, however, I must keep network backup on the Mac -- PC based backup cannot handle Macintosh file resource forks. Also, I can't mount a Mac CD-ROM on the Windows 95 server. This product is a bit flaky, but it mostly works.
  7. Apple LaserWriter Select which has a parallel port connection to the Windows 95 machine. This quite nice LW has no ethernet port, but MacLAN allows me to print to it from my PowerBook.

Eudora and Internet Explorer on the Mac are set up to use WinProxy (SOCKS interface) running on the PC. They send requests to WinProxy, which forwards them to the net. I can share a single IP address, phone line, and modem. Setup is straightforward, except for Eudora. Eudora 2.1Mac requires something like this in the POP Account field: john#email.labmed.umn.edu@192.168.1.1, where the IP adress is the the local intranet address of the Win95 machine hosting the proxy server. Similarly the SMTP server is the proxy server machine: 192.168.1.1

On the PC I run Netscape 3.0, which talks directly to my network connection (not the proxy server).

All this stuff pretty much worked right out of the box, with negligible tweaking (except getting Eudora to work with a proxy server, that took a 2 minute Alta Vista search for setup info). There was an incompatibility between MacLAN's client and WinProxy 1.4b5, but that appears to have been fixed in WinProx 1.4b6.

The whole setup cost a bit more than a second modem, and that's only because I splurged big time on the PC network card and had to buy a second hand (half-price) SCSI/Link. If my Mac had had built-in ethernet, total cost, including cable and a $25 ISA ethernet card, would be $50 (proxy server is free for 1-2 users, if it keeps working I'll send the shareware author money anyway).

Windows 95 Proxy Server List


Author: John G. Faughnan.  The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. Pages are updated on an irregular schedule; suggestions/fixes are welcome but they may take weeks to months to be incorporated. I reserve copyright except where noted, if you want to repost or quote a page just ask. Anyone may freely link to anything on this site and print any page; no permission is needed for linking,  printing, or distributing printed copies.