Pocket-NetAdapter
22 messages in this thread
Hello Everybody in the Amiga-Forum,
———————————–
at this point I would like to forward a question of a not-yet-COMPUSERVE-member
who is owning an AMIGA for several years and studying electronics at the Uni in
Karlsruhe/Germany.
Is there anybody planning to develop a Pocket-Network-Adapter for an AMIGA (500
through x000) to put this machine on the wire with other Cheapernet-Using
equipment – wether point-to-point or client-server-based.
If not: Who would like to have some XIRCOM-like-plug into Par-port-for more
flexibility in communications?
Thanks for answers and/or hints for adequate functions already developed!
yours
Michael R. John
I haven't heard of any support for Pocket adapters, not that I could
afford to lose my parallel port for one….
Brian — Cruising on AutoPilot…..
While I'm not really interested in a pocket Ether adaptor, I *am* looking for
software that can interface with a PCMCIA ethernet card on an A600 or A1200.
There are plenty of PC cards, but no Amiga software.
I'm looking for TCP/IP, Novell or Amiga-Amiga peer-2-peer.
-Chas
Chas:
Actually all that would be needed is a SanaII driver for the PCMCIA
ethernet adapter. Then you could use either Commodore's AS225 TCP/IP, or
the AmiTCP/IP that was uploaded here reciently. I just downloaded it, and
once I get the bugs worked out of my Unix machine (the machine my Amiga is
networked with) I'm going to try switching from the AS225 software to the
AmiTCP/IP to see if it's better or not. If you could get a SanaII driver
for one of the 'pocket' ethernet adapters (the ones that go on the
parallel port) that should be almost as good as a PCMCIA one. Another
option (for an A1200) might be one of the many external SCSI ethernet
adapters hooked to one of the 3rd party SCSI adapters for the 1200. I have
an A600, so I too would like to get some from of ethernet adapter that
will allow me to hook it into my network.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Yes, I could do wonders with A1200s hooked via ethernet to a couple of
A4000s/A3000s. Graphic terminals with the power of $100,000 setups for a price
that'll stun some folks in gov't.
A shame that the extent of my 'C' knowledge is on compiling "Hello, World" and
getting it to run successfully.
-Chas
Just for fun, you might try asking the makers of any of those PCMCIA Ethernet
cards for the technical specs needed to program them. That would be the first
thing someone would need to make a SANA driver for it. If you've already got a
card, at least you would be able to loan a developer both the card and the
manual so they could program one for you. 🙂
John,
There is a PCMCIA Ethernet manufacturer down the road here. We have
the tech specs, and they'll sell us 'developer' units (a couple, I think)
for around $139 ea. We simply do NOT have the time at this time to do a
driver.
If somebody wants to pay to have the driver done, I'm sure that some
recently laid-off former Commodore who wrote the SANA-II spec could be
convinced to work on it… 🙂
Dale,
What'd something like that cost and how long would it take? If there's still
none available by mid-September, I'll probably have the cash for such a venture
(as well as an impending need).
-Chas
Writing a SANA-II driver for most hardware should take a few weeks —
maybe four or six for an optimized driver. Depending on the interface
provided by the hardware, it may be more. As far as cost, plan on paying
well for a consultant with Amiga and networking experience. If it was
PCMCIA rather than Parallel (I can't find the parent in this thread),
you'd probably have to provide hardware (not too many developers have a
few 1200s lying around — they'd rather have 4000s). For an optimized
driver, you'd probably have to foot the bill to lease or purchase a
network analyzer — I think you can buy a good one for around $10,000, but
you may be able to lease one for a few weeks for a few hundred.
I doubt there is enough public interest in such details to warrant
carrying out further discussion anywhere but mail.
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with lots of time on his hands.
For entertainment purposes, I'd write SANA II drivers for hire. As you know, I
have written more SANA II drivers than just about anyone in the world. 🙂
All that means is that you've written two 🙂
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with lots of time on his hands.
With the parallel port network adapaters I've seen, you'll also need the MAC
layer code for the processor on the adapter. You'll need to get that from the
interface vendor (who are wonderfully unresponsive to "Joe Developer").
I don't think that's a problem with the PCMCIA interfaces because they use
EEPROM or some such method of storing the layer code.
John,
If you're interested, I'll buy you a PCMCIA ethernet adaptor and can probably
get the programming specs that you need. Just let me know. 🙂
-CHas
John, PLEASE say yes!
Brian — Cruising on AutoPilot…..
No. 🙂 I'll leave the project to someone else. In January, I bought out the
3D conversion side of Syndesis; I am no longer in the networking business.
TSSnet was sold to Thunder Ridge, Inc., located at the former Syndesis address.
I bought an office building about 30 miles east of Madison.
TSSnet? Er, I never heard of it. I admit I wasn't LOOKING for an
amiga-based network until these past few months, but I _hope_ I would have
heard of it…
d
Brian — Cruising on AutoPilot…..
You bought an office building?????
Must be a pretty busy market for those 3D conversion modules. ;^)
Are you going to throw in a 1200, too?
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with some time on his hands.
Well, right now I don't have the funds…but if you wanted to work for
equipment…..I can arrange for an A1200 (10 Mb RAM, 14 MHz fpu) with hard
drive and an A600 with hard drive…as well as the PCMCIA cards. All for you to
keep. 🙂
Wait until late September or early October and maybe we can talk (seriously)
about a commission job.
-Chas