Testing Farallon PhoneNet: AppleTalk without Apple's Expensive Cabling

Farallon PhoneNet was one of those wonderfully practical networking ideas: instead of pulling Apple’s expensive LocalTalk cabling through an office, it let Macs communicate over ordinary telephone wiring. In this episode, we look into how PhoneNet fit into the AppleTalk world. We'll look at the PhoneNet adapters, RJ11 cabling, and 120 ohm terminators to connect vintage Macs using System 7.1, System 7.5, and Mac OS 8.6 for file sharing.

In this episode:

00:00 Intro
00:32 Networking Macs Using LocalTalk
02:46 What Made Farallon PhoneNET different?
06:00 How To Setup And Use PhoneNET
10:00 Conclusion

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This presentation, Copyright @ 2026 THE PHINTAGE COLLECTOR, Gianpaolo Del Matto. All rights reserved.
Individual Copyrights apply for referenced material (see sources).

Music composed by
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ℹ️ Sources:

PhoneNet manuals and documentation
https://bylenga.ddns.net/MiscManuals/PhoneNet%20Connector%20Users%20Guide%20Part%201.pdf
https://bylenga.ddns.net/MiscManuals/Farallon%20PhoneNET%20Connector.pdf
https://archive.org/details/1987-farallon-phonenet
https://archive.org/download/TNM_PhoneNET_System_AppleTalk_over_telephone_wire_20170827_0482
https://archive.org/details/TNM_PhoneNET_System_AppleTalk_over_telephone_wire_20170827_0482/page/n11/mode/2up

Apple LocalTalk and AppleTalk references
https://vintageapple.org/macbooks/pdf/Apple_LocalTalk_Cable_System_Owners_Guide_1987.pdf
http://www.applefool.com/se30/sites/essentials.html
https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/PhoneNET

PhoneNet history, BMUG, and Reese Jones
https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Reese_M._Jones
https://32by32.com/bmug-lab-in-ucb-eshleman-hall/
https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Berkeley_Macintosh_Users_Group
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/027401997/publication/US5003579A?q=pn%3DUS5003579A

PhoneNet for DOS and PC compatibility
https://archive.org/details/FarallonPhoneNET-eng
https://archive.org/details/farallon-phonenet-talk-for-MS-DOS-French
http://www.applefool.com/se30/sites/pc_hardware.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/l8p184/testing_a_localtalk_pc_isa_card/

Price lists and contemporary magazine references
https://tinkerdifferent.com/resources/apple-developer-price-list-oct-1991.161/download
https://vintageapple.org/macworld/pdf/MacWorld_8806_June_1988.pdf

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