WiFi DaynaPORT

BlueSCSI v2 Wi-Fi Setup

BlueSCSI allows you to emulate at DaynaPORT SCSI/Link network device using the Pico-W’s Wi-Fi interface.

You’ll need the following to get started:
- A BlueSCSI v2 with a Pico W board already installed
- The latest firmware to enable Wi-Fi functionality
- A Macintosh with System 6 or 7 installed or Atari ST.
- A beta for the is available as well - Wifi Amiga

Hardware and Wi-Fi Configuration

  1. Download the latest firmware and follow these instructions to update the firmware of your BlueSCSI v2.

  2. Create a new text file in the root of your SD card and name it bluescsi.ini

    • Ensure the file extension is .ini and not .txt or anything else.

  3. Open this text file and enter the text shown below.

    • Replace MyWiFi with your wireless network name and pass123 with your password. Save your file.
    • Wrap your password in double quotes " if your it contains ; or # characters.

Your text file should look like the example below:

[SCSI]
WiFiSSID=MyWiFi
WiFiPassword=pass123
# Optional - Each Pico-W will generate its own MAC address, so only add this if needed.
# WiFiMACAddress=00:80:19:C0:FF:EE
  1. Create another new text file and rename it to NE4.hda

The ‘NE4’ stands for network and the SCSI ID (4 is used in this example). Be sure to choose an unused SCSI ID! This will reserve the SCSI ID and allow the Wi-Fi DaynaPORT feature to work.

Software Configuration

You’ll need MacTCP or Open Transport installed on your Mac so you can connect to the internet.

MacTCP will work on System 6 or System 7. Open Transport will work on System 7 or later. Open Transport gives you the option of configuring your IP address via DHCP. If you install Open Transport it will often disable MacTCP.

Note: Open Transport was included by default in System 7.5.2 and later. You can install Open Transport manually on System 7.1 on Macs with a Motorola 68030 CPU or better and 5 MB of RAM. Version 1.1.2 or 1.3 of Open Transport are strongly recommended for this guide.

Using MacTCP

  1. Load this .hda image to your BlueSCSI, it has the following software installers:

    • MacTCP 2.1
    • DaynaPORT Drivers
    • MacTCP Ping
    • Various other Internet utilities and Disk management tools.

  2. Install MacTCP 2.1 by dragging it to the System Folder in System 6. For System 7, drag it into the Control Panels folder. Restart your Mac.

Note: If you try to install MacTCP in System 7 when you already have Open Transport installed, it will make the MacTCP control panel invisible. Uninstalling Open Transport will make the MacTCP control panel visible.

  1. Install the DaynaPORT 7.5.3 drivers via the provided disk image. You must mount the DaynaPORT image file on your desktop as the installer cannot be run from a subdirectory. Once the installer completes - Restart your Mac.

Note: If using System 6 you can use MountImage cdev (included on the image) to mount the image. See its Readme for usage.

Note: If you use the ‘Easy Install’ option the installer it may produce an error saying it cannot overwrite newer versions of Network (and similar) files on your disk. If this happens, instead go back and choose ‘Customize’ and select ‘DaynaPORT SCSI/Link’. This will only install the DaynaPORT driver and not any Apple networking software.

  1. Now we’ll configure MacTCP. Open MacTCP and select “Ethernet Built-In”.

BS_MTCP1w

Note that yours will not match the image above - the image is just an example.

You will need to set up a static IP of your wireless network. For example, if your router is at 192.168.1.1 choose an unused static IP in that range, say 192.168.1.73.

Click “More…” to fill out the rest of the networking.

The subnet mask is usually 255.255.255.0. For DNS (name server) you can use 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 or your ISP’s DNS server - be sure to set one as the default option.

When closing MacTCP - you may be asked to restart. Upon the reboot - go back into MacTCP and ensure “Ethernet Built-In” is selected. Close MacTCP and test with MacTCP Ping.

BS_MTCP2w

Testing with MacTCP Ping

Now open “MacTCP Ping” and try to ping 1.1.1.1 - if you get a success back, your vintage Mac is now online!

BS_MTCP3w

Using Open Transport

  1. Install Open Transport 1.1.2 or 1.3. Restart your Mac.

Note: You must have Open Transport version 1.1.1 already installed before installing version 1.1.2. All versions of Open Transport can be found on MacintoshGarden.org. For more information about installing Open Transport, see the PiSCSI guide here.

  1. Install the DaynaPORT 7.5.3 drivers via the provided disk image. Restart your Mac.

Note: If you use the ‘Easy Install’ option the installer may produce an error saying it cannot overwrite newer versions of Network (and similar) files on your disk. If this happens, instead choose ‘Customize’ and select ‘DaynaPORT SCSI/Link’. This will only install the DaynaPORT driver and not any Open Transport or Apple networking software.

  1. Open the TCP/IP control panel. From the Connect via drop-down menu choose “Alternate Ethernet”. You can then configure your network settings. In most cases, choosing the “Using DHCP Server” option is the easiest. Close the control panel and select Save.

  2. Open a web browser to test your connection!

EtherTalk

When configured to use “EtherTalk Alternative” in the Network Control Panel, AppleTalk traffic will be sent over the BlueSCSI network interface to enable AppleShare and other AppleTalk protocols over Wi-Fi.

Since this traffic is sent as multicast though, some wireless access points will not forward it properly. Multicast traffic must also be sent at the lowest “mandatory data rate” of a Wi-Fi network since it has to be sent to all clients on the network, which means it will be very slow (often slower than wired LocalTalk) and can drop packets.

Troubleshooting

Review the log.txt on the SD card - you should see a network Initialization section if you configured a Network device:

=== Network Initialization
WiFi MAC is 00:80:19:C0:FF:EE
Connecting to WiFi SSID "UniFi" with WPA/WPA2 PSK
Successfully connected to WiFi SSID UniFi

Performance

You will not want to use this on a Power Mac where an AAUI or built in ethernet is an option, but for many 68k machines it will allow you to get on to your favorite BBS, FTP site, or browse the web with FrogFind!

A real DaynaPORT connected to a PowerBook 180 using Fetch gets approximately 80kb/sec. The same machine with a BlueSCSI v2 Pico-W gets 60kb/sec.

The Raspberry Pi Pico W is equipped with a 2.4GHz wireless interface and cannot connect to 5GHz Wi-Fi networks.

Generated 2024-04-26