Broadband -Overkill?

[Herewegoagain]

"tcp / ip stacks...."
I'm afraid I don't understand what you're talking about, can you or somebody else explain?
Thanks....

TCP/IP is basically a protocol that gets bound to your network card (I'll try to keep it simple) so that it obtains a network number to communicate with other computers on the same network, in this case, the internet.  This number is issued by a server from your ISP which is called a DHCP server.  Once you connect,  the DHCP server issues your computer a number so you can communitcate over this network.  It also issues gateway, and DNS numbers to allow proper routing of everything.  

It's not important to understand how it all works, as most of this will happen automatically for you with a router.  You will only have to set the router to use PPPoE and put in your user account and password info.  Normally, this will be all that is required.  And you can usually configure the router via a web browser.  The router will then act as the DHCP server for all of your computers locally on your internal network.  I hope this helps understand a little more.

Broadband
-Overkill?

Hi, I have some more questions about this topic. This time with the subtitle "-Overkill?".

I have several options when I order broadband, both in speed and monthly capacity (GB downloaded per month).
For me, it's 704 kbps or 1024 kbps that's most interesting. But I ask: How much speed can my Amiga make use of?

Will 1024 kbps be overkill? Perhaps even 704 kbps is? How fast internet can an Amiga handle? (The fastest option is about 10 mbps....) If you're driving on a highway and your car only can go by 90 mph, it doesn't make a difference to you if the speed limit is 100 or 150.

What part of the Amiga is limiting the speed? The ethernet card? The 68060 or the PPC? All these parts? ( I suppose the browser is run by the 060.)

Setup: A-4k-T, PPC 233 / 060-50, + an ethernet card and a router that's not yet obtained.
More hw details is available in my profile.

[N7VQM]

Viking wrote:

What part of the Amiga is limiting the speed? The ethernet card? The 68060 or the PPC? All these parts? ( I suppose the browser is run by the 060.)

The limiting factor is the Zorro bus.  But, don't worry.  You really won't feel limited by the Zorro bus bandwidth.  The XSurf card I had in my A3k (RIP) is built to the Zorro 2 spec and I saw sustained download speeds of 150-175KB/s (1200 bps to 1400 bps) on cable modem which is more bandwidth than the 1Mbps connection offers.  Just for comparison, my current Win32 and Linux boxen with PCI 10/100 ethernet cards both can achive 300KB/s (about 2.34Mbps).  Of course, that must have been on a "really good" network day.

[MikeB]

Yep, its easy.

Just buy a network card for the Amiga, I recommmend the X-Surf as the install does it all for you.

You need Miami or Genesis

And an ADSL router/Modem, make sure it has an ethernet port on it.

The amiga is faster on broadband than my PC!!

I will try my best to be easily configurable for Internet!  :-o

erol wrote:

You need Miami or Genesis

What's Miami and Genesis?

The amiga is faster on broadband than my PC!!

Absolutely kidding? Is it a 386?
[/quote]
Edit:
I think I have a Zorro 3 controller, but I'm not sure.

[AmiDelf]

Oki... lets clear up something here...

Well..

1. There is so many possibilities for an Amiga to get on-line these days. PCMCIA (Amiga 600 and Amiga 1200), USB network card, PCI nettworks cards and also Zorro network cards.

2. The speed of a broadband today is ennough, even if you just have 10mbit, but then again if youre in a network or on a demoparty with thousends of PC lamerz , 10mbit can hold, but 100mbit is then recommended (only Mediator users can reach this speeds at the moment, if I am wrong.. Shout please..!!!)

3. Miami and Genesis is two tcp/ip stacks for Amiga. Miami is the most advanced one, but also a tcp/ip stack that can bug at times. Genesis is another one. Its the original AmiTCP in GUI form. It dosent have any DHCP function, but else, its a damn stable tcp/ip stack. I never got problems with it at all.

4. I use NextGenTel here in Norway, the speed is 703 down and 384 up. My Amiga keeps the speeds, no losses. It gives even out better performances than my PC in some areas. Especially downloading time.

I hope that this clears some questions..


Regards,
Michal Bergseth, editor of Amitopia
url: www.amitopia.tk (the Scandinavian Amiga mag)

AmiDelf wrote:

1. There is so many possibilities for an Amiga to get on-line these days. PCMCIA (Amiga 600 and Amiga 1200), USB network card, PCI nettworks cards and also Zorro network cards.

What's your advice for me? I believe I have a Zorro 3 controller (the standard one for C= A4000 040). But I'll probably obtain an USB controller/card anyway, for a new printer.
Hw details in my profile.

3. Miami and Genesis is two tcp/ip stacks for Amiga. Miami is the most advanced one, but also a tcp/ip stack that can bug at times. Genesis is another one. Its the original AmiTCP in GUI form. It dosent have any DHCP function, but else, its a damn stable tcp/ip stack. I never got problems with it at all.

Miami, Genesis, TCP/IP stacks, =protocols. But a protocol, is this the same as a piece of software? Some kind of ROM? Maybe the language is a part of the problem here.
Anyhow, sounds like Genesis is the better one.

A lot of thanks to everybody who's helping me, even the list of questions almost seems endless... Thank you! Your answers is helpful even if they sometimes leads to new questions.


(..Perhaps the Vikings never was meant to bother with internet...)
:lol:

[N7VQM]

Viking wrote:
What's your advice for me?

Get a Zorro based Ethernet card such as an XSurf card from individual Computers.  Another option would be a used Ariadne.  The USB card has nothing to do with this conversation.  AFAIK, both the Ariadne and XSurf are Zorro 2 cards but, Zorro 2 cards work on Zorro 3-equiped Amigas in all but a few cases.  For example, the XSurf worked flawlessly in my Zorro 3 Amiga 3000.

Miami, Genesis, TCP/IP stacks, =protocols. But a protocol, is this the same as a piece of software?

A protocol is a method of doing something.  In the case of networks, a protocol is a method of data transfer.  A TCP/IP stack is a software package that allows  your computer to use the TCP/IP protocol so you can connect to the Internet.  Miami and Genesis are TCP/IP stacks.  You only need one.

 I recommend Genesis because you'd need something close to a miracle to get Miami registered.  Holger Kruse, the author of Miami, doesn't seem to want anything to do with Amiga.

[Damion]

Genesis works great (although MiamiDX is slightly
faster on my system). With Genesis, you will
definately need to buy a router to handle the
DHCP method of assigning that your ISP uses.

N7VQM wrote:
>Get a Zorro based Ethernet card such as an XSurf card from individual Computers.

Sounds like the XSurf card is only for Amiga and not likely to find in an ordinary PC-store? But luckily I know a PC-store that supports Amiga -more or less.

-D- wrote:
>With Genesis, you will definately need to buy a router to handle
>the DHCP method of assigning that your ISP uses.
---------------
Yes, I already realized that I need a router, because I also got a pc and I'll connect both. (The pc needs to download Win updates every second day, otherwise it starts complaining  :-P ).

I guess it doesn't matter what router I buy, or you would probably told me already.
But are you so sure that my ISP (Norwegian) use a "DHCP-method"?  Whatsoever, I guess you have a reason why you say so.
------------
[edit]
No wait, this is a misunderstanding. DHCP? -No.
I'll use the DSL kind of broadband, and my ISP use the PPPoE-system. And they do not use USB-modems.
I guess this info should be useful.

[Damion]

Sorry Viking, I thought you mentioned DHCP earlier
in the thread but I was wrong...I must be getting
tired. Chances are they use it, but you're
right they may not. In any case with the router
Genesis is fine, forget what I said earlier.

[AmiDelf]

Viking!...

There is a lot of network cards actually for Zorro. Not only X-surf. But thats the newest.

There is also:
Ariadne
Ariadne_II
X-Surf
Norway expansion module for HighwayUSB
Hydra/AmigaNet

The downside here, is that there is no 100mbit network cards for Zorro at all. Only 10mbit.

If thats not ennough help , here is a nice list of Zorro, PCMCIA and other based Ethernet card sollutions for Amiga:

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/nic.html


Regards,
Michal Bergseth, editor of Amitopia
url: www.amitopia.tk

[pVC]

"What part of the Amiga is limiting the speed? The ethernet card? The 68060 or the PPC? All these parts? ( I suppose the browser is run by the 060.)"

I'd say that with 060 it's depending of the bus and ethernet card, but with 040 and lower the cpu comes to limiting factor. I have had 10Mbps line for long time and I have used Hydra's Amiganet1.1 in zorro2 and realtek-based pci-card in Mediator. Both on the same a1200/060@66. Maximum speeds I got with Hydra were around 600kB/s, but with pci-nic in Mediator I can get the full use of 10Mbps line. Maximum speeds are now over 1MB/s in good "weather" Normal speeds are 700-900k/s.

See my [edit] above.