On Mon, 11 Dec 2000 03:55:18 GMT, George Rentovich wrote: > >"Mr. Boffo" wrote: >> >> What I likely do NOT have, is knowledge of the password on the system >> I am buying. So the big question is, is there a way to hack the >> password file on the Digicard server? > >First the easiest way to find the password would be to contact the school >it was connected to. Some times the school ID is on the unit, or the >district. Yes, I will likely be asking the eBay seller where they got it. >> I wouldn't have a problem with just swapping in a different hard drive >> and starting over, but I've never built one up from scratch so I'm not >> sure if the Digicard server is capable of formatting, partitioning, >> and create a "default" volume set. Any suggestions? > >I have a Digicard what appears to be a 5.25 disk., but to set up a >network like you suggest requires more than a Server. I'm sorry but your sentence seems to be missing a word. (??) >> My plan is to use it as a Master Server, for every game and software I >> have ever owned. If you've never used the Digicard, it is truly weird >> in that it can support both ProDOS AND DOS 3.3 volumes on the same >> drive, and in the process of using it, it frequently crosses back 'n >> forth between the two. >> >> This to me makes it more worthwhile than just an Apple SCSI card and >> drive, since Apple's implementation appears to only support ProDOS >> with the SCSI card. Plus, it only cost me $27 for the server and HD, >> as compared to Apple's SCSI card which still goes for up to $175 >> alone. What a deal!! :) >> > >Nice plan but as I said it takes more than a Digicard Server to make a >net work. >First you need the Digicard Server. > Second you need for each computer a Digi Card external satellite like >modem. > Third you need for each machine is a Digi Card card to interface with >the modem like device. As I may have mentioned, I am a school admin. I am currently providing tech support for two different schools, and both have DigiCard hardware. One school had mostly dumped their Digicard network but after talking with some teachers it seems some in the elementary actually wanted it back! The humorous bit about Apple II hardware is that it is PERFECT for "drill and practice" for the lowest grades (Preschool to Grade 3). Little kids don't really care about fancy 3D graphics.. to them even Number Munchers is cool. So I hooked it all back up for them. That old digicard server is currently serving about 35 Apple II's daisychained across about seven classrooms, and sitting on a UPS to fight off problems of SCSI drive sticktion during an outage.. Note that this is the "newer" digicard. There is an "older" digicard with different wiring. There appear to have been three versions of the digicard server. The PhoneNet one is the 2nd and 3rd generation server. Here's a picture of the one I'm getting, a 2nd generation server without an Ethernet jack on the back: http://www.geocities.com/s_c_a_l_a_r/digicard-src2.jpg This later version of the Digicard server is easy to manage because it is essentially an AppleTalk network, except it uses the cheaper "PhoneNet" connectors with plain old telephone wire strung from one machine to the next. At the end of a wiring run, you insert a "termination resistor" -- little more than a phone jack with a resistor crimped in it -- into the last network port to absorb noise on the network. You can use the official Digicard network boxes, or you can use the Farallon Macintosh PhoneNet boxes, and they all work together, no problem. There doesn't appear to be much difference at all between a Farallon PhoneNet Star Controller, and a Digicard 12-channel Star controller either. Lurking in my bedroom closet is a Farallon network repeater, should anyone ever want to use a IIe with Digicard some 500 meters away.. And indeed the rewiring of the building with cat-5 100base-T is a boon for the old Digicard network! Merely yank out the Ethernet jumpers linking a port to the 100base-T hub, and instead use the jumpers to loop Digicard signals out from one room's network port and into another. The wiring itself doesn't care if it carries 100mbit Ethernet or 1mbit DigiCard signals. You can wire the digicard network either as a bus, one machine to the next, to the next, etc, or as a star -- like our "modern" 10/100base-T hubs -- or a combination of both. The one school doesn't have any star/hub controllers, so I've wired all the machines into a bus network. This design requires two Ethernet wall jacks to work, because all machines are in a big long chain and the signal has to come into the room on one port and head back out on another. Newer machines get Ethernet priority, so in some rooms I use jacks on opposite sides of the room to pass the digicard through to the next room. Lotta phone wire strung everywhere, but it works! :-) In case you ever find any, there's a IIe digicard with a DB-9 output, and there's a IIgs version with NO cable connection at all. With the IIe digicard, you plug in a ribbon cable with a DB-9 port, and a DB-9 phonenet network box into the ribbon cable. With the IIgs digicard you use a standard Mac PhoneNet box and plug it into the circular DIN IIgs Printer serial port. There seems to be a bit of trickery here because somehow the IIgs Digicard is taking over the motherboard serial port, even with slot 7 set to "Your Card". This is something which I wouldn't think a slotted card could do... I have found that the IIgs can use the IIe card and its DB-9 network box. The only real difference is that the IIgs can't print to the network printers using the IIe digicard. Since most people no longer do this anyway, it is not a real concern. The printer "card" is a bit of a joke, really. It's a card you stick in slot 1, yes, but it has only a SINGLE pin on it, no chips at all. That single pin runs to a single wire, which connects to a jumper on the IIe digicard network card. My guess is that it is grabbing the device select line, so that the digicard board can pretend it is a printer card. AFAIK, all other slot lines are shared across the slots, so with the slot 1 device select line, a card in slot 7 can pretend to be in slot 1, too.. ;-) I'm just getting started with the other school, getting their digicard network up and running. Not sure what amount of documentation they have.. perhaps they have a system manual which describes password recovery. -Mr. Boffo Email: mister_boffo@hotmail.com