#PAR and Imagine
8 messages in this thread
Blaq!
>Pretty nifty.
Indeed!
What would it take to connect a Pentium to an A2500? Or how will/does your
Pentium A3000 work?
Denny
>> What would it take to connect a Pentium to an A2500? Or how will/does your
Pentium A3000 work? <<
I don't know yet. PC networks is a blind spot in an otherwise stellar amount of
knowledge <grin>. I'm gearing up to the process of learning all about LANs on
the PC and Amiga sides. For the Amiga, I'm ordering Dale Larson's book; I have
great hopes for this guide.
Blaq!
I currently connect my Pentium and A2000 via a null modem cable. Procomm Plus
on the PC side, and Term on the Amiga side. 115Kbaud transfers. It takes a
while, but it works. Legendary Design Technologies supposedly has a product
called LinkIt! that connects PCs & Amigas via Parallel port, transfers around
60K per second, but they're REALLY BAD about shipping — I ordered one in
October 1994 and still haven't gotten it ("well, we've had problems getting
cables…" sheesh.). Aside from that, EnLan-DFS should work with a Ethernet &
PCs running TCP/IP protocol software.
That's the end of my knowledge on networking.
On a different tack, if you have SCSI on both the PC and Amiga, you should be
able to use an external hard drive, formatted on your PC, and then use
Cross-DOS on the Amiga to read the drive (you'd have to remove the drive from
the PC and hook it up to the Amiga).
Jim Shields
Regal Rodent Development
Thanks for the informative message, Jim. I'll need more than a null modem or
removable drive, however — what I want is to have full peer-to-peer networking
going, so that each machine can access the other's hard drive transparently.
Blaq!
>> what I want is to have full peer-to-peer networking going, so that each
machine can access the other's hard drive transparently.
My best advice is to contact the Enlan-DFS people. I think they can
accomodate.
Jim Shields
Regal Rodent Development
Jim (and Blaq)
you might take a look at Twin Express in AmigaUser. It uses a null modem and
allows more flexiblity than terminal programs.
-ash
Blaq,
OK, Then were in this together, Lone Ranger!
Here's where my Pentium A2500 plan sits:
Wife has a 486 sx50. I have P-100. Have networked the 486 and P100 on
peer-peer Either net with Windows for Work Groups s/w. Total cost for net h/w
about $125 for 2 Boards meeting NE2000 std(which include the necessary BNC
female/female/male T's) 2 terminaters (one for connection to each end of the in
line peer-peer net) 2 50ft RG58 eithernet cables and a Male-Male connector to
join the cables.
The "Wife net" has priority over a connection the A2500, which may be a fatal
flaw, because my A2500 isn't gonna run Windows for workgroups, but maybe I can
uncable wifenet for short periods to run to Amiga. In that case I need to add
an either net board to Amiga, a short RG58 cable and a terminator for Amiga
when it replaces wife's computer on net. Then must locate some kind of net s/w
that both P-100 and Amiga can live with!
Ya know, looking at the hassle of adding that A2500 to the net, I wonder if a
Jim Shields' serial null modem doesn't make more sense for my situation. Bet
equiping the A2500 for either net will cost mort han the A2500 is worth. The
main use will be passing images. I could zip them up on P-100, pass one huge
file on null modem and unzip in A2500.
Comments or thoughts?
Denny
You might find that serial transfer is too slow. You might discover that you
need to get a better serial card for the PC side, with a 16550 UART instead of
the cheap slow ones they usually use. If you add the TCP/IP protocol stack to
WfW, and add an Ethernet to the Amiga, you'll be happier. If you want to stay
fast and cheap, explore methods of sharing files on floppies. You might be
better off finding a good tool that breaks up large files into pieces, copies
them to 720K or 1.44 floppies in MS-DOS format, then moves them between
machines. It's going to be faster than serial…