MAc noob, please advise

I have ALOT of questions. Please be patient with me, as we were all noobs once.

First off, hello. I'm a new member! looks like a great forum. Categories are very specific and don't know where to post this. Second, I'm used to any version of WinblowZ except NT. So this Mac thing is all new to me. I've been wanting to get to know Macs and Linux, that time has come.

Anyways, I recently acquired a powerbook 1400c/166 w/OS 7.6.1. 3.5 floppy, no CD-ROM. I'll use a networked CD-ROM, so that's not important. Awesome notebook for as old as it is. Runs like a champ and really is quite fast for what it is. Great $20 investment to learn with. That and I've been wanting a small notebook to carry around just for basic internet access, MS Office and Adobe. I'm VERY pleased with it's performance. I DO NOT need it for any type of multi-media. Even IF the CPU had the power, I still wouldn't utilize it.

It came with a Global Village modem/ethernet PCMCIA. I figured out how to configure it for dial up and it connects just fine now. However, Netscape and IE both error out on me and lock it up. I suppose I should post the error message? I will if necessary.

I want to connect it to my home LAN. But my box that I've set up as a server runs XP Pro (the other 2 run 98se and support Appletalk) and I was told by a friend that MS stopped supporting Appletalk in XP (which I figured out when I tried to install the Appletalk protocol) and I have to install it using Win2k. I have Win2k, but don't know how to go about doing this. Anyone know how to do this?

I have O/S 7.5 from an old Duo 280c (from the same era, but never worked right). I was thinking about doing a clean install. With winblowZ, you need drivers for add-on's. Do I need to find and re-install "drivers" with a Mac OS (PCMCIA modem in specific)? Or does the OS have it already built in? I'm not worried about MS Office, as I have that on 3.5 from the Duo as well that I can re-install. I MIGHT want to play MP3's on it. But it's not necessary.

What would the major diff's be between O/S 7.5 and 7.6.1 in my situation.

What are some good utils to clean up the HD?

Thank you all for any help you can give me.

keep your posts shorter, you may get more replies.

i've heard that OS 7.6.1 is better than 7.5. Not sure why but thats what i've heard over the years..

utilities for cleaning the hd? you mean to delete stuff, or something else? you could get an older copy of norton utilities.... check ebay or half.com.

hope this helps some.

OS 7.6.1 provides a couple of bug fixes and supplied a bunch of bundled apps like Netscape etc., really though OS 7.6 changes to OS 7.5.5 are minimal, functionality wise its the same at the core of the OS.

You can attempt to use the Duo 280c's disks but often older Mac laptops had very specific install disks for that model which supported it, as the 1400c is a PPC laptop and the Duo 280c is a 68k (68040) laptop—it may lack the PPC enablers. You can however download System 7.5.3 free from Apple and the System 7.5.5 update for free which would work definitely—just a matter of getting the disk images to the PowerBook 1400.

Have you tried downloading Internet Explore 4.5? (I think that support System 7, IE5 doesn't IIRC) See if that also gives you an issue. When you say lock up, do you get a primitive looking white dialog box with a cartoon bomb in it?

Now the networking issue, I'm not sure when MS dropped AppleTalk support—but like you say it could be Windows 2000. The big problem is that up until OS 9, AppleTalk did not support TCP/IP over the protocol, after that it did and that solved half the problem per se. There is a 3rd party utility that allows TCP/IP over AppleTalk but for the life of me I forget its name right now. It is designed for System 7/mac OS 8 users in mind.

The next problem is the Win 98 drivers working on Windows 2000—without wanting to be a party pooper; I don't think it is possible; as Win 9x/3.x network drivers are essentially DOS based drivers, NDIS or something—whatever the **** that is, I just remember the joys (read agonising pain akin to sticking a barbed knife through one's liver.... :flower: ) trying to get a 3com Ethernet PCMCIA card working in Windows 3.1 many moons ago.

It will be possible but you may need 3rd party software at an expense I don't think Samba exists for System 7 either

As for if there is an option for the AppleTalk protocol in Windows 2000, I presume that will mean going to the Network Adapters thing in Control Panel, right click and Properties and then you should get a list box with various bits in it and there should be an Add or Install button, click it and then you should get a window with adapter, services or something—somewhere along the services line I would have thought there would be a basic AppleTalk (AFP) service maybe.

I am a Mac user and so my Windows knowledge gets patchy with this kind of stuff.

Let us know how this helps you along!

Also, have you tried downloading the latest OpenTransport (1.1 rings a bell) for the 1400c? It may be that that is corrupted?

Lots of ideas!

Vicky

7.6.1 is much better.

What exactly is "much better" about 7.6.1 versus 7.5.5 when you strip out the software you can download for free? The only 'big' jump with System 7 was 7.1 to 7.5, and then it was much of a muchness, big fixes and system enablers for new PowerPC Macintoshes at the time. The on good addition in 7.6 was the Extensions Manager but that from what I recall from memory was it and though not the situation these days, upgrading from 7.5.5 was pointless—especially as 7.5.3/5 is free now from Apple.

From my experience System 7.5.5 have run just the same as any 7.6/7.6.1 system, I'd just be curious what made 7.6 so much better, because I have missed it :flower:

System 7.5.3 (19 self mounting images)

http://download.info.apple.com/Appl...System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/

(System 7.5.5 SMIs)

http://download.info.apple.com/Appl...merican/Macintosh/System/System_7.5.5_Update/

Vicky