1999 – There’s been a fair bit of interest in AppleShare 3 thanks to some articles on this site. Although long discontinued, it is possible to find copies of AppleShare 3 (be sure to get the 3.03 updater from Apple). And for the small network, it may be an ideal solution.
AppleShare 3 runs on a 4 MB Mac Plus, SE, or Classic – and on a Power Mac. Because it predates Open Transport, it is best used with classic networking.
The following information is primarily from AppleShare and AppleShare IP File Sharing: Chart of All Limitations:
- requires System 7.0 or later
- runs on 68000 or later with at least 4 MB RAM
- up to 120 connected users (v. 10 for file sharing)
- up to 346 unique files open at one time
- up to 50 shared volumes (vs. 10 for file sharing)
- up to 8,192 users and groups (vs. 100 for file sharing)
- up to 65,536 files per volume (limited by HFS file system)
- up to 4 GB volume size (System 7.0 through 7.1 are limited to 2 GB)
- up to 2 GB file size (requires AppleShare Workstation 3.5 or later on clients)
The 4 GB maximum volume size is a limitation of the AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP).
If you need more than 120 simultaneous users, AppleShare 4.0-4.1 supports 150 users and 4.2-5.0 support 250. Version 6.0 supports up to 500, RAM permitting.
If you need more than 346 simultaneously open files, AppleShare 4 and later support up to 3,000 open files.
All versions of AppleShare since 3 are limited to 50 volumes; 4.2-6.0 support up to 100 sharing points on up to 50 volumes.
The maximum number of users drops to 4,096 with AppleShare IP 5.0 but jumps to 20,000 with AppleShare 6.0 (10,000 with email).
For more information on setting up an AppleShare file server, read Setting Up a Home File Server.
Further Reading
- AppleShare Supported Platforms, Apple TIL (remember, a version of AppleShare may well run on an unsupported platform – like version 3 running on a Power Mac), cannot locate file on Apple Knowledge Base.
- AppleShare Supported Platforms, Protect Your Macintosh, Bruce Schneier, 1994
- Old Macs as File Servers, MacUSB, 9/10/99.
Keywords: #appleshare #appleshare3
Short link: http://goo.gl/HMrUHy
