On Wed, 2 Apr 1997, Benoit MARTEL wrote:

> I have a Mac running NetBSD and a PC running Linux at home. Neither of 
> them has a network card for the time being. I was wondering if it's 
> possible to connect them with a cable directly to transfer files etc 
> because right now I have to put the stuff on disquettes and reboot in 
> MacOS then back in NetBSD and use hfs tools because the floppy does not 
> work under NetBSD.
> 
> I've heard of many people connecting 2 Macs or 2 PCs with cables but has 
> anybody around here connected a Mac to a PC and if so how does one go 
> about it? (what kind of cable).
> 
> Actually, I've noticed that the cable I use from my Mac to my modem fits 
> nicely on the LPT port of my PC. Can I fry anything by simply plugging 
> that in and reading/writting to the devices in /dev on each side?
> 
	You should be able to connect the PC serial port to the mac serial
	port & run either ppp or slip. (LPT is the PC parallel port, COM1
	or COM2 will be the PC serial port).

> The followup question is can I set up ppp or some networking using the 
> above method so that using 1 modem, both computers have internet access 
> directly.
> 
	Yes - you'll probably need to use NAT (which comes with NetBSD
	-current) or equivalent to ensure the outside world only sees 
	one address, or pay more to your ISP to route multiple addresses
	form your connection (I'd go NAT for just two machines :)

> If someone tells me that I can do this, I'll go get myself a good UNIX 
> administration book and try. The software does not scare me it's just the 
> cable part since all I know about hardware is that I can fry it if I dont 
> know what I'm doing.
> 
	Serial to serial should be fine - it would be a little easier to
	setup if you had the same OS on both machines, but not massively
	so. As for the correct cable to use.. hmm - I'm sure the
	NetBSD/mac68k FAQ _should_ have an example, if not then someone
	should add one :) (I dont have one to hand :(
		
                David/abs               abs@anim.dreamworks.com

.---- I've been too drunk to love ----.-- I've been too drunk to remember -.
|          too drunk to care          |    the hell of the night before    |
|  looked like death, felt like hell  |   I've been drinking myself blind  |
`------ been the worse for wear ------'-- and still I'll drink some more --'