Cheap Ethernet solution for Classic Amigas

[abraXXious]

Hey guys,

I have read several threads that talk about using off the shelf RS232 to Ethernet adapters that support modem emulation in order to connect a classic miggy to an Ethernet network and access the 'net. I know, depending on the CPU in the miggy, it would not be the fastest, but it would be interesting to do. Especially if you have a miggy fitted with a high speed, low cpu load serial device, such as the Silversurfer.

Would one of these work - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/RS232-to-Ethernet-TCP-IP-RJ45-Converter-Module-Serial-Device-Server-10-100M-/110930750950?pt=US_Radio_Comm_Antennas&hash=item19d3fcede6 ?

If so, could some clever miggy user PLEASE write some form of guide to setting up both the hardware and software so the rest of us could make use of these cheap units? Just think, we could all be playing Dynamite online and chatting in real time with our ole' 1200s!

[abraXXious]

Easiest and cheapest way with an A1200 is a PCMCIA ethernet card.

See here: http://youtu.be/svTDHiBePyM

Lol, yessum, we all know that - I have several A1200s and even an ACA630 equipped A600 using a pcmcia Ethernet solution.
 
 However, this is not a solution for the A500 and A1000. It is a Phoenix equipped A1000 that I was intending to do this to.

[abraXXious]

Wouldn't be quick enough for most people, I suspect. But maybe I'm picky, it drives me nuts to use anything slower than gigabit ethernet.

Hmmmm, not sure what you mean. The word "quick" does not enter into the equation if the conversation is about internet access on a 68000 based computer.
 
 To be honest, I think when you reach even 20kb per second then the bottle neck is no longer the speed at which you can retrieve data over the Ethernet  connection, bur rather, the speed at which the poor old 68000 can process it and display something useful!
 
 At the very least, the sort of person wanting to do this would surely be doing it out of novelty standpoint - myself included as browsing the internet in its modern java/frame etc form is painful even on a fast 060 with RTG.
 
 However, being able to use IRC, a basic web browser to connect to sites like Aminet etc and play the occasional networked game should be doable even on a lowly 68000 with 20kb per second "crippled" broadband.
 
 What do you think?

[abraXXious]

Ok, to be fair you did say 1200...

Lol, I actually said that facetiously, as in to say "think of all the low end classic miggies that could benefit from it to go online" - Dynamite was the first thing that came to mind that could use such internet access, and from memory Dynamite needs AGA at a minimum..... or will it run in OCS/ECS?

[abraXXious]

Yessum, I don't consider using another system as a file server/terminal as a proper solution as then the host machine is not a standalone system - very messy.
 
 The sad thing is my C64 has native Ethernet access via my MMC64 / RR-Net setup. Along with the IDE64 it has attached, I have access to 400GB of high speed disk access, a DVD Burner and Ethernet.... in fact, the Telnet client available for the C64 is amazing....
 
 .... and this is a <1mhz C64!!!
 
 Surprisingly, no one has written an Amiga driver for the RR-Net even though it plugs into the MMC64 clockport which itself is a clone of the Amiga clockports.
 
 From memory Jens looked into it and said there was no point as the way the RR-Net worked (some form of polling system) you could only get about 50kb per second from it. This is crazy as 50kb per second would be HEAPS for 99.9% of classic Amiga networking.
 
 Only 10 years ago most of the world was using V90 dial up modems which can get 5kb per second on a good day. This was fine for browsing then, you cant tell me TEN times that is not good enough for basic browsing now?
 
 Of course, with a classic miggy you are not going to be visiting youtube etc etc, so 50kb per second would be loads.