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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: stanlong on March 21, 2009, 09:45:51 PM

Title: Broadband A1200
Post by: stanlong on March 21, 2009, 09:45:51 PM
what would be the minimum set up to use broadband on an A1200
Title: Re: Broadband A1200
Post by: taunusand on March 21, 2009, 09:49:39 PM
1230 processor card with 16Mb ram would be minimum.

I used my A4000/040 with 16Mb fast ram for internet, it was pretty slow, but now I have 060/50Mhz + 128mb fast ram, it runs like a dream, OS3.9 with IBrowse 2.3 :-)
Title: Re: Broadband A1200
Post by: Daedalus on March 22, 2009, 12:12:30 AM
You'd probably also want some sort of network card and hard drive if you're starting out with a totally plain A1200. Look around eBay for suitable wired or wireless networking kits, or search Aminet for cnet.device (wired) or prism.device (wireless) drivers and compatibility lists.
Title: Re: Broadband A1200
Post by: rkauer on March 22, 2009, 12:35:08 AM
 Not exactly!

 To use Internet browsers, you need at least 6Mb of RAM. So any humble 4Mb memory will suffice.

 But notice the experience will be frustrating, at best. :headwall:

 Much better with a decent accelerator.

 If you want just FTP and mail, just a 4Mb expansion will be more than enough.

 Just network? A vanilla 2Mb Amiga is enough.
Title: Re: Broadband A1200
Post by: brianb on March 22, 2009, 03:44:52 AM

A1200 + Hard Drive + 3COM Etherlink III PCMCIA network card (and driver) + TCP Stack (MiamiTCP) + additional ram and optionally accelerator.

FTP, IIRC, Mail, Telnet all work great.  But Web browsing, as others have also said, will be painfully frustrating.   My 1200 w/ '030@50Mhz and 16MB did better then I expected, and 10 years ago might have screamed.   But the web is quite different now, most sites think nothing of having megabytes of pictures and ads.  Not to mention animations, code, etc.  With even the simplest pages sometimes using a couple hundred KB.

It was interesting to setup and I enjoyed doing it, but I wouldn't spend a lot of money doing it.  Just not worth it.   Good news, a lot of the hardware can be found on Ebay cheap (except the accelerator).



Title: Re: Broadband A1200
Post by: AmigaMance on March 22, 2009, 05:01:51 AM
Quote

taunusand wrote:
1230 processor card with 16Mb ram would be minimum.


 I agree on the CPU if it runs at least at 40mhz, but i know from experience that 16MBs are not enough for internet access. Unless you want to start the browser and then quit to start the mailer and then quit the mailer to start browsing again. :-) 32MB is the minimum amount of memory for "comfortable" operation, imho.
 And on AGA, you really need to install FBlit + SystemPatch or FText, not only because it speeds things up, but because it will also keep your Amiga from crashing because your Chip-ram ran out.
Title: Re: Broadband A1200
Post by: murple on March 22, 2009, 07:35:07 AM
An Amiga 1200, a broadband connection, a PCMCIA ethernet connection, a TCP/IP stack (Miami, AmiTCP, etc).

I don't remember offhand if the TCP/IP stacks for Amiga OS 3.1 or earlier have DHCP capability. If not then you'll probably need a static IP (unless you intend to use a Linux PC or other system for network masquerading).

If you expect it to be comparable to using a modern computer, you're going to be very disappointed. There is pretty good Amiga software for IRC and older protocols like telnet and FTP. There is acceptable software for AIM. Web browsers are pretty minimal and for the most part suck for anything but very simple all text or text with simple graphics pages.
Title: Re: Broadband A1200
Post by: taunusand on March 23, 2009, 07:20:29 PM
Quote

AmigaMance wrote:
Quote

taunusand wrote:
1230 processor card with 16Mb ram would be minimum.


 I agree on the CPU if it runs at least at 40mhz, but i know from experience that 16MBs are not enough for internet access. Unless you want to start the browser and then quit to start the mailer and then quit the mailer to start browsing again. :-) 32MB is the minimum amount of memory for "comfortable" operation, imho.
 And on AGA, you really need to install FBlit + SystemPatch or FText, not only because it speeds things up, but because it will also keep your Amiga from crashing because your Chip-ram ran out.

I'll have to agree with you, but it could be done with my specs, I know, because I did it on my A4000. Really slow! But it worked.