The problem is not one that I have met. There are 32 Macs in my LAN, embracing seven OS X machines (only one with Tiger) and 25 with a system between System 6.0.8 and OS 9.2.2. As long as the oldies can 'do' TCP/IP they can deferentially approach even Tiger as clients. And OS X Macs can find all of the OS 9 Macs as servers with no trouble. Oldies without TCP/IP just do a double-hop from selves to TCP/IP-capable intermediaries, and then onward to OS X Macs. Admittedly, this latter is rare, because it is usually the OS X Macs that download software to distribute to the oldies, which also usually is done through an intermediary Team Leader (yecch!), or father confessor and backup server. Because all 32 Macs are never up and gabbling to each other at the same time, I don't use AppleTalk zones, but I could.

I use manual IP address allocation and whole-drive filesharing, but those should not have any effect on negotiations.

de
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(60x) 13DT + 3PB + PTPro; (G3) 7DT/MT; (G4) 3T + PB. System 8.1 to OS 10.5.8