Amiga Networking
12 messages in this thread
Drop onto AmigaVendor and drop a message into Oxxi's "lap." You'll get a
response — they WROTE the Amiga Novell Client software.
There are only two Ethernet cards that I'm aware of out there for Amigas.
One from Commodore (A2065, I think) and ASDG's LanRover. Both are
supported by the Oxxi software. Comodore has published a specification
(SANA-II) similar in scope to ODI and NDIS for the Amiga, but certain
vendors (notably Oxxi) refuse to support it. Meaning of course that I
can't even think about putting my PCMCIA-slot-equipped Amiga 1200 on a
Novell LAN without having to write everything from IPX on up. (Yes, there
is a PCMCIA Ethernet card available for the Amiga 1200 now.)
// Brian — Cruising on AutoPilot…..
\X/
Interesting that the leading (from what I gather) Amiga Networking vendor
refuses to adhere to the Commodore standard. Is there some kind of problem
associated with it or something?
BTW – who's making the PCMCIA Ethernet card? New Media?
–Mike Ryan
Oxxi is hardly the leading Amiga Networking vendor. They are just the
only ones selling an Amiga Netware Client (their only networking product).
The only reason they don't do SANA-II is because they haven't sold enough
of their product to justify any additional development resources on that
product, including the week or two it might take to make it use SANA-II.
Their product was (I think) shipping before SANA-II was finalized.
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with some time on his hands.
Well, IF it were SANA-II compliant and had a ".library" interface for the
IPX/SPX/NCP side of it, I'd want it very much. Even if it does use the Mac
Namespace. Why? So I could demo an Amiga 1200 on a Novell Network. Rig an
E-mail program that would talk to the one we use at work (Pegasus mail),
and I may be able to get somewhere with Amiga's.
// Brian — Cruising on AutoPilot…..
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Tell Oxxi, not me.
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with some time on his hands.
Dale,
So IS there a leading Amiga networking vendor? Its not Commodore, is it??
–Mike Ryan, PC Mag
I probably wouldn't say that anybody is the "leading Amiga networking
vendor" today. It seems like everybody that other than Commodore that has
any networking products has only one. Commodore at least has a released
product and a standard, so I guess you call them the leading vendor on
those grounds 🙂
On the other hand, I'm not sure that I'd call Apple the leading Macintosh
networking vendor, just the leading Macintosh vendor. Same with Commodore
if they had a coherent released networking strategy.
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with some time on his hands.
If they'd released a coherent 'anything' strategy. I think they just
lucked into al of us who know it and love it and the platforms they do
serve (video, games…) just seems lucky, not any coherent strategy. BTW I
am following this networking thing REAL close…I'd like to wedge a few
Amigas in at work…
Robb
Dale,
Its kind of funny… I was going to say the same thing that Robert Little said
in his reply! It really does seem that the big C is lacking in the 'coherent
release _____ strategy' department. If it wasn't for the fact that Amiga users
loved their systems so much, who knows where the company would be right now!
You're right about the Apple comment, BTW. They probably wouldn't even
be listed among the 'top 10' Macintosh networking vendors.
–Mike Ryan, PC Mag
Mike,
I wonder if someone could write a Parnet progam for the IBM so I can use
my amiga's emulator to access their resources.
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Michael-
If I knew a little more about Parnet I could give you a better answer, but it
seems like a great suggestion. Doesn't it seem like these kinds of ideas are
the ones that no one ever acts on??!
-Mike Ryan, PC Mag
Parnet uses the parallel port to connect two computers so that at high
speeds any program or file can be accessed from each other. It is a cheap
man's ethernet.
It is at higher speeds than a serial port connection.
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Always on autopilot