connect imac to performa 500
Am I able to connect a legacy Performa 500 to my Intel iMac to transfer files to external HD? Performa has an eternet connection.
iMac (20-inch Mid 2007), OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)
How easy this can be done depends a bit upon the operating system on the Performa.
Typically, with System 7.5.3 or higher, Open Transport networking is possible, meaning that the TCP/IP control panel is active (the earlier classic networking uses MacTCP, which may make things more complicated).
Because of the differences between the latest versions of Mac OS X and the old systems, do not expect any "built-in" file sharing to work.
Instead, a good idea can be to use a small FTP server (NetPresenz is now free) on the Performa. One can then connect to this server from a dedicated FTP client (or a web browser) on a modern Mac (or PC). The physical connection would be over Ethernet cables (via the LAN ports of a normal router).
If you need to install downloaded program files, one solution (providing that the Performa has an internal or external CD-ROM drive) may be to use a CD-R (in an ISO format, burn at a low speed) for transfers from a modern Mac or PC. Keep any downloaded files encoded (typically, MacBinary = .bin) until on the Performa. Use StuffIt Expander on the old computer to decode the files.
Jan