Need some advice about PCMCIA network and card readers adapters

[arkpandora]

Hello,

I am about to exchange a PC with a serial port for a Mac OS X Apple Mac Mini without a serial port.  As I often need to transfer various files between this other computer and my A1200, I need something else than the serial cable I have always been using.  As I also need something more practical than a CD-writer, I suppose that a network or a PCMCIA card reader is the best solution.  But as I have never used any of these options, I am looking for some advice.

So here are some questions :

1. Is it really possible to exchange files through a network between an Amiga and Mac OS ?

2. Which hardware and software are the most suitable for each option ?  On the network side, Hodgkinson said in another thread that he was using a 3Com 3C589 network card with the drivers and the tool SMBFS from Aminet.  But I still don't know if this tool will be compatible with Mac OS.  On the card reader side, I see that Fat95 and CFD from Aminet are needed, but I still don't know if the Mac can handle an Amiga-compatible format, as I still haven't a suitable card reader for the Mac (I wouldn't buy one in the near future if I choose a networking solution).

3. On Amigakit there is the "AMIGA PCMCIA NETWORK CARD MKIII" : http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_id=116&osCsid=a58b618e15111b7df005639dabb93867
and the "EasyADF PCMCIA Compact Flash Transfer Kit" :
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=440&osCsid=a58b618e15111b7df005639dabb93867
Is it just what I need ?

Thank you for any advice !

[Bazzaq]

Macosx can read fat drives, so i would imagine a usb card reader of some sort will let you access it on the mac.  Then one of them pcmcia convertors to plug into the a1200, i was using one the other day. Works fine, cfd and fat95 were all that was needed.

i guess the network way would be more fiddly, at a push you could run ftp server on one and ftp to it from the other.

[Jope]

Fiddly and fiddly.. You could share a directory with the Mac (SMB/Windows Sharing) and then use smbfs to connect to it on the Amiga side. Instant access to the files you have placed there, no need to swap any cards. :-)

Only problem, smbfs is a tad unstable, it might not work at all with your Amiga. :-(

I wouldn't recommend doing a Samba server install on the Amiga, it is  more trouble than it's worth + hungry on resources.

[Piru]

@Jope

Only problem, smbfs is a tad unstable, it might not work at all with your Amiga. :-(

smbfs is rock solid here, perhaps you're not giving it enough stack?

[motorollin]

Agreed. SMBFS loves massive stack. And for the benefit of the OP, it's really easy to get this working on your Mac:

1. Go to the Apple menu
2. Go to System Preferences
3. Go to Sharing
4. On the Services tab, tick Windows Sharing

That's it! Your home directory on your Mac will now be shared as an SMB (Windows) share. The tricky part is then getting your TCP/IP stack working and configuring SMBFS. I can post my SMBFS line if that would help.

--
moto

[Iggy_Drougge]

arkpandora wrote:
1. Is it really possible to exchange files through a network between an Amiga and Mac OS ?

Definitely. OSX has an entire UNIX under the hood, so it has all the network options you'll ever need.

2. Which hardware and software are the most suitable for each option ?  On the network side, Hodgkinson said in another thread that he was using a 3Com 3C589 network card with the drivers and the tool SMBFS from Aminet.  But I still don't know if this tool will be compatible with Mac OS.  On the card reader side, I see that Fat95 and CFD from Aminet are needed, but I still don't know if the Mac can handle an Amiga-compatible format, as I still haven't a suitable card reader for the Mac (I wouldn't buy one in the near future if I choose a networking solution).

OSX handles FAT filesystems just fine. After all, all cameras and USB sticks use FAT. Also, if you're happy with your serial cable, you can use a USB serial adaptor. I can recommend the ones by Keyspan, but stay away from Belkin.

When networking an Amiga with OSX, you can use either SMB or NFS. NFS might just work better, but I've never tried SMB myself.

[arkpandora]

Thank you for these precious advices.

Unfortunately I have to shelve this topic at the moment, as I have just received my Mac Mini, and *sigh* I am already running into several problems, the main one being that Mac OS X is currently unable to communicate with my Ethernet modem, a Sitecom DC-213.