TITLE: iMac: Transferring Files Modem to Modem

Article ID: 22229
Created: 8/17/98
Modified: 8/17/98

I was told that I could transfer data from an older Macintosh computer to my iMac by running a phone cable from my old Macintosh computer's modem to the iMac computer's built-in 56K modem. Is this possible? If so, what is the step-by-step process for transferring files?

Yes, you can connect two modems with a phone cable and transfer data, however, Ethernet is a much better way to transfer data if your older Macintosh is Ethernet capable. In testing, we were able to perform data transfer between an iMac and Power Macintosh G3 desktop computer using ClarisWorks 5.0. You can use other terminal applications like ZTerm. We also used StuffIt to create one single file for simplicity when sending. You can find the steps we followed below:

1) Connect both modems with a standard phone cable.

2) For both computers, we set our Connections Settings for:
• Baud Rate: 57600
• Parity: None
• Data Bits: 8
• Stop Bits: 1
• Handshake DTR & CTS

3) For both computers we left the default File Transfer Settings at:
• Protocol: XMODEM Tool
• Method: MacBinary
• Transfer Options: Standard

4) Select Open connection from the Session menu (this will let you type modem AT commands

5) On the sending computer, type: "ATD"

6) On the receiving computer type: "ATA"

7) The modems should begin to negotiate and give you a connection speed.

8) Once the modems are connected, select Send File from the Session menu on the sending computer.

9) Select the documents StuffIt archive file and hit the send button

10) On the receiving computer, select Receive File from the Session menu

11) The computers should start to send and receive the file via XMODEM