Frequently Asked Questions
- Is this the earliest possible Mac you could use as a server?
No. Many people assume that because the SE was the first Mac to support add-in cards ("SE" stood for "system expansion", it's the earliest you could hook up to the internet. But the previous model, the Mac Plus, also had a (rather slow) SCSI port, which meant it could use a SCSI ethernet adapter like this one, and it could use an external hard drive (either one of the 20MB-or-so units which were popular in its day, or a turn-of-the-century 100MB SCSI Iomega Zip drive). The Plus had the same CPU and memory capacity as the SE, so all the same software could be used. But even the hard drive isn't strictly needed, as demonstrated by a few people (including Gilles Aurejac, the current standard-bearer) who've maintained floppy-only Mac Plus web servers over the past several years. (The lack of a hard drive means the Mac Plus needs no fan to cool its interior, which makes it an incredibly quiet device.) - What about the Mac models before the Mac Plus? Couldn't you rig it somehow?
I can't see how. The original 128K Mac and the "Fat Mac" 512K/512Ke had no SCSI ports and no add-in slots. This was part of the original Mac concept: a closed box with no expansion capabilities (like your TV or your toaster). The only mode of internet communication that might be possible on a 128K would be over its serial port, perhaps using SLIP or PPP (i.e. dial-up). The 512K models could use LocalTalk for simple networking, but they were limited to 512KB RAM, which simply doesn't leave much room for an OS, the necessary TCP/IP stack, and server software. Maybe in theory it could be done (perhaps using a stripped-down version of BSD for the 68K-family CPUs instead of Apple's system software), but not with any software I'm aware of. - What's the minimum you'd actually recommend?
What do you have? Use that. If you're looking into hosting your own web site and you have an OS-X-capable machine available (even if you're still using it as a workstation), that's a very good choice. OS X really is a much better web-serving platform than OS 7-9, and will run well on any G3 or later Mac (including all of the iMacs). But if you don't have one of those, and if you have an older "G1" or "G2" Mac that ain't doin' nothin' else, by all means put it to work. Basic web serving really isn't that hardware-intensive a job. A Mac Plus can pull it off. As this site demonstrates, an SE (or the comparable Classic) does OK. An SE/30 or Color Classic does pretty well. A Quadra will do better. A PowerMac running 4D WebStar is better still. An Xserve running Apache is ideal. - Is a SCSI ethernet adapter the only way to put an SE on a network?
There are a few alternatives. Every early Mac (except the original 128K model) can be networked with other Macs using LocalTalk, a simple local networking scheme designed by Apple. LocalTalk can be bridged to other kinds of networks, such as ethernet (which is commonly done to connect an old LocalTalk-ready printer to a modern network). Keep in mind that, if you want a machine connected to the internet, it needs software to support TCP/IP in addition to the physical connection (either MacTCP or OpenTransport). The Mac SE does have an internal slot designed to accept an ethernet adapter, and they can still be found second-hand for not too much money. Add-in cards for the SE/30 are not compatible; only devices specifically for the SE (original or FDHD) can use its PDS (processor-direct slot). Anecdotal evidence (i.e. I've opened one of each) suggests that accessing the original SE's slot requires removing the motherboard, but the SE FDHD's modified frame allows access just by opening the case. There are a handful of different SCSI-to-ethernet units in existence, from Asante and Dayna, with assorted coax BNC/RJ45/AUI connectors. I went with the SCSI option (despite it being slower than the PDS card, and bulkier than an internal device) because I could use it on other Macs if I ever decide to, say, build a Mac Plus server.
- Doesn't the FAQ for MacHTTP say that its minimum requirement is System 7.5, and 4MB of RAM free?
Yes, it does. But I tried it on my System 7.0.1 box, with some fairly conservative settings in MacHTTP.config, gave it less than 2MB RAM to use... and it worked. When it starts on my machine, MacHTTP detects that the Component Manager isn't installed (it was included in System 7.1 and later), so it disables scripting. I've installed Apple's Thread Manager extension (included in System 7.5), which enables MacHTTP to handle multiple file requests at once, rather than disabling that feature as well. So MacHTTP doesn't have full functionality, but it works fine for this purpose. - Is this the only server software that will work?
You could use NetPresenz instead of MacHTTP. It's a combined Web/FTP/Gopher server, which means it has some functionality that MacHTTP lacks, and it's officially supported to run on System 7.0 with 4MB RAM. It used to be $10 shareware from Stairways software, which was a bargain. Now it's only available as a commercial download from Interarchy, for $69.95, which is a bit steep for a package that - let's face it - would only be of use to hobbyists with little or no budget. If you're going to spend $70 server software, you might as well put that money toward buying an early beige PowerMac G3 at a garage sale and an upgrade to OS X, which will get you a much faster server with far greater functionality.
Another option (one I haven't explored yet) would be upgrading to System 7.5, which is A) the last version of the Mac OS to run on the SE (System 7.6 and later required a more advanced CPU), and B) reportedly the earliest version on which Apple's Personal Web Sharing software would run. Which means that the SE and PWS just barely overlap. But I suspect the speed of System 7.5 with only 4MB of RAM and a mere 8MHz 68000 would be pretty slow, so probably not worth it. - Where can I find out more about old Macs?
Low End Mac is probably the best single resource for information about previous Macintosh models. It's useful regardless of your definition of "low end", because it covers the entire history of the Mac family, including all of the 680x0-based desktops, the "PowerPC" era, the assorted portables, and the modern multi-colored/metallic units. - What other Macs do you use?
- I have another Mac SE with a 20MB hard drive, 800KB diskette drive, and 2.5MB RAM. I paid only $5 for it because it wouldn't boot (just the "?" icon indicating that it couldn't find a boot disk), but after a firm-but-careful thwack to the hard drive, it worked just fine. It needs another thwack occasionally to get it spinning when it's been sitting a while. It has System 6.0.8 installed, and a few programs including Microsoft Word. But the real reason I bought it was for the case it came in. I've removed the guts of the machine from its case, and turned into an aquarium. The guts of this machine (which is a bit of an electrocution hazard in its exposed state, but it still runs) is nicknamed "Stranger".
- My next-biggest Mac is a Quadra 630. At the time I bought it several years ago, I was looking to get the most-possible Mac for as little money as possible, because I was a student on a shoestring budget. As one of the final pre-PowerMac models, it was a "dead end" that people were willing to sell really cheap, but still powerful enough to help a person (whose home machine was a Windows system) get by in graphic design classes where all we used were Macs. It wasn't as much help as I'd hoped, but I could still use it to transfer files from one disk format to the other. This was the first Mac I tried setting up as a web server, and with its snappy 33MHz 68040 CPU, ample 20MB RAM, and System 7.5 with Open Transport (which doesn't require the decimal-to-binary calculation of IP addresses that MacTCP does), it went smoothly enough to inspire me to try it with the old SE sitting in the corner. This system is called "Dinah".
- System 7.5 will only get you so far, so I eventually bought a G3 All-In-One, the last non-tower model before Apple overhauled their product design to eliminate beige, and introduced the compact and colorful iMac. If the Mac SE is Bruce Banner, the G3 AIO is the Incredible Hulk. The case is the same fundamental design, but it's huge and bulges in places, as if to suggest muscles straining to break out. The SE's B&W 9-inch CRT has grown into a full-color 15-incher. Next to the 1.44MB floppy drive is an internal 100MB Zip drive. The CPU trots along at a dignified 266MHz. I upgraded it to 320MB of RAM and a 13GB hard drive. And most importantly, it supports OS X, which means it runs all the latest software. This is "Dick".
- My current darling is a PowerMac G5, the discontinued single-CPU 1.6GHz model. "Oliver" is my main Mac sharpshooter these days.
- I have another Mac SE with a 20MB hard drive, 800KB diskette drive, and 2.5MB RAM. I paid only $5 for it because it wouldn't boot (just the "?" icon indicating that it couldn't find a boot disk), but after a firm-but-careful thwack to the hard drive, it worked just fine. It needs another thwack occasionally to get it spinning when it's been sitting a while. It has System 6.0.8 installed, and a few programs including Microsoft Word. But the real reason I bought it was for the case it came in. I've removed the guts of the machine from its case, and turned into an aquarium. The guts of this machine (which is a bit of an electrocution hazard in its exposed state, but it still runs) is nicknamed "Stranger".
- What about a PC? How low can you go with the IBM-compatible platform?
Personally, I've gone as low as a 25MHz 386SX with 10MB RAM and a 1.44MB floppy (no hard drive). This was done using Coyote Linux, a minimalist Linux package that fits on a diskette, intended for use sharing an internet connection among several machines on a local network. It includes thttpd, a tiny web server, as part of its remote configuration interface, and I've written instructions explaining how to hack Coyote for use as a general-purpose web server. Because it uses a RAMdisk as its file system, and has to compress that onto a floppy for non-volatile storage, it can't hold very much. (I run Coyote on a 486 as my firewall; your request for this web page was routed to Snapper by that system.) The PC analog of my Mac SE would be a high-end 8088 XT or a low-end 286 AT, which won't run Linux of any kind. The only way I know of to turn one of those into a web server would be using Minix, a simple Unix clone, and the httpd used by Mike Mulder on his trusty 4MB, 18MHz 286 "Phoenix". I've also recently learned off a package called EZ NOS which may be able to work on an 8088 CPU with 640KB RAM running DOS, from a high-density floppy. A first-generation IBM Personal Computer won't quite handle that (the motherboard didn't hold that much RAM and the floppies were low-density), but nearly any XT-class clone (either with a hard drive or a high-density floppy system) would. - What about the minimum platform using Windows?
See my Windows 3.1 web server site.