What is allShare?

Personal file sharing utility for System 6-era Macs.

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McKenzie Brown designed allShare to provide only the functionality necessary for use with multiuser applications. Accordingly, allShare focuses on implementing byte-range locking rather than folder-level access privileges.

Implementing byte-range locking on a user’s local bard disk is particularly tricky. If a shared database resides on a dedicated server, the database is not “local” to any one user. Since all users must log onto the server to access it, it is relatively easy to restrict any user. But if a shared database resides on a user's local volume, thut user can gain unrestricted access to any file. allShare overcomes this problem by extending byte-range locking to local users, even though they are not logged on to the database via an AppleShare client.

allShare doesn't need much in the way of configuration. Users can prioritize how much impact allShare has on their local Mac's performance as well as disable the ability of remote users to delete files on local volumes. There are no user lists or groups to administer — a single password allows access to the local Mac's storage. allShare doesn’t support access privileges to folders on a volume; it lets each user publish either an entire local volume, a specific folder, of a local volume with one folder protected.

For work groups that just need to move files around and use multiuser applications, allShare fits the bill. While it is simplistic in its security, the low price — $249 per zone with a maximum of 254 user/servers per zone — makes allShare very attractive.

Somogyi, Stephan. (July 1990). Sharing without AppleShare. MacUser. (pg. 208).

Download allShare for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

System Requirements

From Mac OS 6.0 up to Mac OS 7.6

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Mini vMac