PC-Mac connections?

[KifArU]

A little bit off-topic, hope you don't mind.
I'm thinking off buying a lot of old computers. Some of them are mac's (G3 and some things called PC8000, quadra and LC475), rest of them are PC's (P166 - Cel466).
I might want to use some of them for a crackrack, but is it possible to have mac's and pc's in 1 network, using a pproxy?
And some of them might be incomplete. So is it possible to use a monitor/harddisk or memory from a mac in a pc and the other way round?

Thanks,
Thijs


EDIT: Unfortunately, I didn't get the computers. (it was an auction and people were paying more than shop-prices)
Thanks for the help!

 

[DanC]

Monitor? - maybe... I've never tried it.
Hard disk? - no
Memory? - no.

Not maybe the answer you were hoping for, but they're pretty incompatible platforms and form factors....

 

[mechBgon]

I don't know the answer, but it sure is good to see you, KifArU! I've been wondering where some of my teammates have been, you being one of them.

 

[KifArU]

Well, I started working half a year ago, and it takes some time away from internet ;-)
I still come here and crack, but haven't posted a lot lately.

Thijs

 

[Eug]

<< Monitor? - maybe... I've never tried it.
Hard disk? - no
Memory? - no >>



Well actually...

Monitor - Maybe. Many Macs use VGA monitors with a converter.
Hard disk - Maybe. Recent Macs use standard IDE drives.
Memory - Maybe. Recent Macs use standard SD-RAM DIMMs.

I suggest just taking them apart and seeing what's inside. Plus the Apple site has complete specs of all of their models.

By the way, my NT 4.0 PII 350 desktop, Win 2000 PIII 600E laptop, and OS 8.1 PowerMac 7600/120 are all running via TCP/IP through my switch, hooked up to my workplace's Ethernet network (DHCP).

 

[Bakwetu]

Seeing you are using mostly old mac- no, they are not compatible. The g3's are probably compatible with harddisks and memory, and the older ones might be able to use the ram, but it depends on what model of Mac you're getting. I'm running a pc through a almost totally mac dominated network, it works well.

 

[AppleTalking]

Use the same pproxy? Yes, definitely (all of my herd (see sig below) flush through the same pproxy).
Use the same monitor? Yes, almost all Macs can use a PC monitor with the appropriate adapter (check your local hardware store). PCs can use Mac monitors with the help of another adapter.
Use the same memory? It depends. Some older Macs used EDO DIMMs, like one would find in Pentium-class PCs, but others used FPM (Fast Page Memory) DIMMs.
Use the same hard drive? Yes. Macs can be upgraded to use almost any IDE hard drive with an IDE PCI card (a company called TurboMax makes one such card). All recent (G3 and G4) Macs have IDE built-in.

If you are looking for parts or upgrades for older macs, you might want to try Other World Computing. Good luck!

Nick Klingaman
appletalking@home.com

 

[GSmith]

Monitors: some newer Macs have VGA ports, others can use an adapter.

Hard Drives: Most older Macs use SCSI drives, newer ones tend to have IDE but some still have SCSI (mostly servers). If the drive works in the Mac, it can almost always be reformatted to work on a PC. The opposite isnt always true. The drives need an apple compatible firmware, and finding info on wether a drive has Apple firmware can be extremely difficult.

Floppy disks: Macs can read and write PC floppies and Zip disks, but the opposite isnt true (unless you want to spend $).

Ram: To find out what kind of RAM a Mac uses, download a freeware program called GURU. It's a database that lists what type and combinations of RAM a system can use. It think it's made by Newer Technology (they make processor upgrades for the Mac) but I'll check at work on Monday to find out for sure.

Pproxy: Yes, at work most of my cows are Macs (G3 and G4) and they flush to a Proxy on a Win98 system.

Networking: Any Mac that has an expansion slot available can have an ethernet card added, the question is whether you want to spend the money for it. Some Macs have expansion slots that are unique to only a handful of models, but most newer ones have PCI slots. Many even have ethernet built in, either a RJ45 jack or an AAUI port (looks like a mini Centronics port) that you can get an adapter to connect an RJ45 cable to. Network ports are typically marked with the symbol <..>

Edit: Macs and PCs cant necessarily &quot;see&quot; each other on the network without special software. NT can be setup to act as an Appleshare server, and an Appleshare server can be setup to appear to the PCs as an NT server. Easiest way though is to install a program called &quot;Dave&quot; on the Macs, then the Macs will show up in Network Neighborhood in Win, just like any other system. If you put in the IP of the PC based pproxy though, the Mac cows will find it and flush/fetch.

I'm the computer tech for a school district with 1500 computers, a mix of PCs, Macs, and Apple II's so I deal with these cross-platform things regularly.