First, read All About AppleTalk for a primer on the network types

LocalTalk • The easiest way to connect 2 Macs with AppleTalk is to just connect a serial printer cable between the Printer ports. • Apple sold a “LocalTalk connection kit” with boxes that connected to the printer point and had 2 ports to daisy-chain Macs using proprietary 3-pin DIN cables • Farallon created a cheaper method called “PhoneNET” where the proprietary cables were replaced with regular RJ11 phone cables

EtherTalk • Ethernet is built-in to many Macs • Early Macs require AAUI dongles to convert from the Ethernet port on the Mac to a more familiar 10Base-T RJ45 plug (or BNC) • Macs without ethernet can have it added:    • NuBus card    • Comm Slot card    • PDS card    • SCSI adapter (Asante EN/SC or see Modern Hardware below for BlueSCSI)

Wi-Fi • Apple AirPort • AirPort-compatible cards (Orinoco WaveLan Gold) • Some modern Wi-Fi routers or modern laptop Wi-Fi adapters do not pass AppleTalk

Bridges Briges are used to connect LocalTalk and EtherTalk segments

• Dayna • AsanteTalk • Farallon EtherWave Multi-Printer Adapter • LocalTalk Bridge is a software solution that can be run on a Mac that has both LocalTalk and EtherTalk • Apple Internet Router can also bridge LocalTalk and EtherTalk networks

Modern Hardware • BlueSCSI • TashTalk2 Hat for Raspberry Pi • AirTalk LocalTalk to LocalTalkoverUDP (LToUDP) via WiFi adapter