Sharing an internet connection over serial cable

[ferix]

There is the recipe for connecting an a600 to the net over a serial link:

Ingredients:
- A fonera 2.0g router (in developer mode)
- A serial to USB adapter and the corresponding module (driver).
- Extra slip module for the fonera (compiled by me).
- Some slip tools & scripts for the fonera (compiled and wrote by me).
- Some extra iptables rules for the fonera's firewall (added by me, included on the scripts above).
- A null modem cable.
- An unexpanded Amiga 600. I've installed a 64Mb CF as HD, but you can built It from floppies.
- Workbench 2.x+
- AmiTCP 4 (demo version, of course).
- If you want a webserver, add the arexxwebserver package...

Preparation:
- Plug all cables and machines together.
(fonera usb port<---> USB to serial dongle <---> Null modem cable <---> Amiga 600 serial port)
- Turn on the machines.
- Install all the stuff into the fonera and restart It.
- Run Workbench.
- Install and configure AmiTCP to match your network settings using slip protocol.
- Configure arexxwebserver if you want It
- Run AmiTCP.



That's what I did, and It works like a charm.
Of course, It's very sloooooooooooooow... But I's amazing what you can do with a 1Mb Chip Ram machine.
Now you can do networking betwen your slip machine (the amiga) and your wired and wifi machines, and/or internet too...  
 
The only advice:
The most reliable speed I got with serial.device was 9600 bps. You can use 19200 bps if you want, but you'll lose a lot of packets (about 25% on my tests).
You can use also cslip instead of plain slip, but It gives no much speed increase, and a bit more of cpu power load...

Extra tip:
Baudrate: 9600, hardware handsake (7 wires or CTS/RTS)
MTU: 576

I'll post all the details later (I'm at work now).

[ferix]

I run Linux (and not Windows) on the laptop here so Multilink might just be the thing for me too. Now I just need one of those USB-Serial adapters.

Cammy, What distro do you use?
I can help you to configure your linux machine.
It's easy: You only need to include the slip support into the kernel (if you haven't It), as a module or recompiling It (the kernel).
After that, you only need to run slattach and bring up the interface.
Denpending on your distro, you'll need some routing and iptables rules too.
Of course, you must do It with the USB to Serial adapter plugged in and the null modem cable between It and your amiga
On the amiga side, you only need AmiTCP.
If you need more details, please send me a PM.

[ferix]

Hey, here comes a little demo:

http://ferix.no-ip.org:2080

Please, be patient. Remember It's connected over a 9600bps link...

If you can't view It, please try later. It only serves one page at time (a memory restriction).

[ferix]

Ubuntu? fine... You're a nice girl
Please, remember you also need a nullmodem cable or adapter. They were easy to find some time ago, but I don't know if they are now.
Regarding to the link speed... I guess the CD32 could deal with a 19200 link, or even a bit more...
Even the A500/A600 can do that if they have real fast ram (same applies to A1000 and A2000).

[ferix]

Taste me you will see
More is all you need
Dedicated to
How I'm killing you
...

Well, after this, let's try to maintain this thread on topic

[ferix]

No, master of puppets easily their best albumn.  They did go shit with load/reload/st anger, but death magnetic a return to form

Totally agree!!!

[ferix]

What about the old trick of using the old PDA serial-to-ethernet adapter?  I think the PDA was a Palm...

Hmm... It could be possible... but there are some disavantages.
First, It's a very old piece of hardware, and a rare one too.
Second, I don't know what "language" It talks, but for sure It's not slip or ppp, so you need some kind of proxy software.
The USB to serial approach seems to be the most realistic one. And It works too

[ferix]

Cammy, I'll help you to setup the linux host. Send me a PM

[ferix]

Ok, I'll try to catch you, but I didn't see you on MSN for a month...