Another problem the A500 had was Workbench colors. If you cranked up Workbench colors above 4 color (to 8 or 16 color), the serial port died.
Shame that low end Amiga like A500 don't have a cost effective ethernet solution like the Commodore 64/128 do.
http://www.jbrain.net/products/64NIC%252b.html
