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Access Internet in Mac OS 9, through host's ethernet port?

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 8:14 pm
by mkrilano@silcom.com
How do I access the Internet from within my emulated Mac OS 9, through my host's ethernet port?

I'm running Edward Mendelson's excellent pre-packaged SheepShaver, from http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/macos9osx.html. My host is a late 2013 iMac (2.7 GHz Intel Core i5), running Yosemite 10.10.5.

Because Edward's SheepShaver is pre-packaged, I don't have access to the "Virtual Machine Settings" panel, where I could specify "Ethernet interface: slirp".

In my emulated Mac OS 9, I have TCP/IP set this way:
.....Connect via: Ethernet
.....Configure: Manually [my ISP requires manual]
.....IP address: 192.168.1.4
.....Subnet mask: 255.255.2555.0
.....Router address: 192.168.1.1
.....Name server addr: 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4

Apple System Profiler reports these TCP/IP settings, and also says:

.....Network overview
.....Open Transport, Installed: Yes................Active: Yes Version: 2.6.1
..........AppleTalk, Installed: Yes...................Active: Yes Version: 60
..........Default AppleTalk zone: not available.......This node: 40
..........Active network port(s): Ethernet built-in...Hardware Address: 52.54.00.12.34.56
.....................Router: <not available>
.....................Active: Yes, Version: 2.6.1

I'm a total novice with SheepShaver (although expert with Mac OS 9, and macOS X).

Can anyone help me to access the Internet from within my emulated, prepackaged Mac OS 9?

Thanks.

--Mark

Re: Access Internet in Mac OS 9, through host's ethernet por

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 9:00 pm
by Ronald P. Regensburg
In SheepShaver do not set TCP/IP to your ISP's addresses. Best set it to "Ethernet" and "Using DHCP Server".

As soon as you try to access the outside world, for instance with a web browser, these are the values that should appear:

IP Address: 10.0.2.15
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Router address: 10.0.2.2
Name server addr.: 10.0.2.3

Or you can set the above addresses manually.

Think of it as a built-in router in SheepShaver.

Re: Access Internet in Mac OS 9, through host's ethernet por

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 9:44 pm
by emendelson
You don't need to do anything to access the Internet with my system. It comes already set up to access the Internet. There's a copy of Classilla in the Applications folder. Start it up, and it should connect to the Internet without any trouble.

EDIT: I just tried it on a Yosemite system (in VMWare Fusion), and Classilla connected perfectly to the Internet. I use a High Sierra system normally.

Re: Access Internet in Mac OS 9, through host's ethernet por

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:26 am
by mkrilano@silcom.com
Wow, that's great! Simple, and it works.

But it only works when I connect (via iCab) to Google.com.

For any other domain iCab displays "Network error #163495582".

This happens even when I type in the IP address directly (I tried those for Apple.com, Wikipedia.org and a few others).

What might I be doing wrong?

Thanks.

--Mark

Re: Access Internet in Mac OS 9, through host's ethernet por

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:34 am
by emendelson
Have you tried Classilla? All those sites that you list open in Classilla, though they look a bit weird, as expected from an old browser.

If those sites don't work in iCab, you might want to take that up with the iCab developer. It's not a SheepShaver problem, as far as I can tell.

Also, just a guess - but if your Mac is using Google's DNS servers (8.8.8.8 and whatever the other one is), instead of your ISP's DNS servers, that may - MAY, I'm just guessing - be having an effect. But this is only a wild guess. I once tried using Google's DNS servers, and quickly stopped, for reasons I don't remember, except that many things seemed to stop working.

Re: Access Internet in Mac OS 9, through host's ethernet por

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 1:02 am
by mkrilano@silcom.com
Thanks a bunch!

Classilla works for me.

It didn't make any difference when added my ISP's domain-name search address.

The other Google DNS server is 8.8.4.4. I've never had any problem with either of them on any Mac platform, but I believe you that you did.

My old PowerMac G4 is getting old, tired and sick. You just saved me from buying a "new" one, to keep running my old applications. The main one I depend on is Outlook Express for e-mail.

Yes, I know I'm a dinosaur!

Thanks a million.

--Mark

Re: Access Internet in Mac OS 9, through host's ethernet por

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 4:28 am
by adespoton
The problem you were experiencing is an SSL incompatibility issue: iCab can use plaintext HTTP or HTTP via SSL; modern web servers reject SSL and require TLS.

Added to that, the certificate authority list for the root certificates iCab uses have all expired. So you're going to get errors even on the few https sites that still accept SSL certificates.

Classilla gets around all this by being a modern web browser with modern TLS root certificates. It does not, however, have a modern JavaScript engine or fully support HTML5, which is why page layout often looks a bit odd.

Re: Access Internet in Mac OS 9, through host's ethernet por

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 4:30 am
by adespoton
mkrilano@silcom.com wrote:The main one I depend on is Outlook Express for e-mail.

You know that Office365 can import Outlook Express mail archives and is virtually identical in functionality, right?

What I miss is Claris Emailer; that was my favourite email client.

Re: Access Internet in Mac OS 9, through host's ethernet por

Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 9:45 pm
by mkrilano@silcom.com
You know that Office365 can import Outlook Express mail archives and is virtually identical in functionality, right?
No, didn't know that. Thanks a million! You saved me hours of tedious work.

--Mark