So you want to connect your System 7 machine to a OS X file
server?

It is perfectly possible for a System 7 Mac to connect to your
current OS X machine and share files. This tutorial will show you
how.

First, be sure to download and install all the updates for your
system that can be found on the Important Updates page. You will
also need MacNFS, which can be found at Macintosh Garden.

Restart after everything above is installed.



Step 1 - Create a NFS share in OS X

OSX already has NFS implemented, since it's a UNIX based
operating system (and NFS is the default file sharing protocol in
any UNIX based OS). What we will use to create our NFS share on
OS X is NFS Manager. What it does is give you a nice and "Macish"
GUI for the command line NFS stuff. What you need to do now is
add a NFS share and set some access rights. This is pretty
straight forward. Remember that you set access privileges based
on folder permissions in the OS.

I recommend creating a folder named say "Classic" and setting the
permissions on that folder to read & write for everyone. Then
share this folder using NFS Manager.


Step 2

Back on your System 7 machine, select Apple Menu -> Chooser.
Click on MacNFS. If you see your OS X computer listed under
"Select a NFS Server:" click on it and click OK. If not, click on
"Mount Manually", enter the IP address of the machine you want to
connect to, and click OK.


Step 3

You will be presented with an authentication choice dialog. Enter
your username and password, or if you have enabled anonymous
access to the folder you have shared choose "anonymous user".


Step 4

In the next dialog, choose which share you want to mount and get
access to, and click OK.


Conclusion

The share you have chosen in the previous dialog will now appear
on the desktop, just like any other mounted CD-Rom, harddrive or
share. You can now double click it to access your files!