WTD: Help w/Networking my Amigas (at 100MBS)

[Rabbi]

I've got a DKB Wildfire060 accelerator for my A2000, but I use an A1200 as my main computer.  I've got a wireless-G broadband router with Vonage VoIP service into a motorola SB5100 cable modem over Comcast.  I'm using MiamiDx as my TCP stack.


I've got many questions:

1) What else do I need to s/w wise & h/w wise network my Amigas locally, as I've got 1 A4000, a couple of A1200s, & a A500?  Can using my A2000 with the DKB WildFire060 actually achieve 100 MPS locally with my A1200 & A4000?

2) What PCMCIA modem would I need to got on my A1200 to be able to get 100MBS throughput?   I'm currently using a 3Com EtherLink III 3C589D-TP on the A1200.  I'm strongly considering replacing it with another type since I d/l-ed both Debian & NetBSD m68k Linux that I wish to install and, apparently, there are no drivers for the 3C589D-TP, nor does it appear that it can exceed 10 MBS.  I've also go the Interworks I-Card PCMCIA Ethernet Adapter for the Amiga A600 & A1200 computers.  I've never got this card to work properly.  Is it a well-known paperweight, or can I get it working?  Also, what is the fastest TCP stack for the 68k Amiga?  I have the Blizzard 1260 in my A1200.

3) I've got an Ameristar A4066 Z-III Ethernet card for the A4000 I've yet to install in it.  What's the fastest it can go?  How could I get 100 MBS on the A4000 if not with this card?

4) I've got 1 A2000 with a DKB Wildfire060 accelerator.  I've only found out recently that this is the only solution for the A2000 that can handle 100MBS.  What s/w would I need to network my A1200, A4000, & A2000 @ 100 MBS?

5) I think I saw something just recently on eBay that can network an A500.  What was that?

6) BTW, I've got the Envoy 3 CD, but haven't done anything with it yet.  Are there any updates to it that I should be aware of & can the Envoy 3 CD help me here?  Can it do 100 MBS or even 1000 MBS?

[cha05e90]

Hi there!

It looks like you are very keen on getting your Miggies to work with 100
or even 1000MBS in a network. I am not 100% sure, but I suppose this task
is impossible with a classic Amiga (even with a 060 and ZorroIII).
It will not happen. They will hardly reach th 10MBS mark. This is a least
true for "classic" Zorro and PCMIA network cards. You MAY be faster
with more esoteric expansions like PCI extension cards and an "standard"
pc network adapter (A1200 tower solutions or A4000), but these are no
options for your A2000 or A500.

So there is no need to bother about your software, whether you use Envoy or
a standard TCP/IP stack like Genesis or Miami. It`s a hardware bottle
neck...

yours,

Frank

[Zac67]

The A4066 is Zorro II and 10 Mbps only.
I don't think the PCMCIA port is fast enough for >10 Mbps either.

As soon as I've got a Voodoo3 I'll try my new Prometheus PCI board with a RTL8139 - I'd be very surprised if it actually throughputs much more than 10 Mbps though...

[Robert17]

I thought the WildFire accelerator ethernet was 10mbit?

Even if you could get a 100mbit card to work, I doubt it would yield much of a speed improvement over a 10mbit card.

And where on earth did you manage to obtain a wildfire card from?!?!

Robert

[Rabbi]

Robert17 wrote:
I thought the WildFire accelerator ethernet was 10mbit?

Even if you could get a 100mbit card to work, I doubt it would yield much of a speed improvement over a 10mbit card.

And where on earth did you manage to obtain a wildfire card from?!?!

Robert

I thought so too, until someone sent me this link on another thread:

Amiga Hardware Database - DKB Wildfire

I got it years ago from a guy called Hal (Bowers?)here in the states, as he was liquidating his Amiga dealership.  I paid in the high $300s if I remember correctly.

BTW, you'll notice in the photo that just below the Fast SCSI-2 connector is the ethernet twisted pair connector.  This is on the external side of the edge connector.

[Rabbi]

Zac67 wrote:
I don't think the PCMCIA port is fast enough for >10 Mbps

I was reading the info concerning using a PCMCIA ethernet card under NetBSD that some 100Mbps PCMCIA ethernet cards can achieve 11Mbps on the A1200 under NetBSD m68k Linux.  No MiamiDx TCP stack to slow it down.

[Matt_H]

Hooray, another potential Envoy user! I've been using Envoy for about a year now, and it really is fantastic. It's very easy to set up, has security if you need it, is very expandable, and is extremely lightweight.

Forget about 100MBPS, as it's just not practical to do on the Amiga. You've got just about everything you need for a 10MBPS network, though, and it's still pretty damn fast. It doesn't *feel* much slower than my hard drives when transfering files, though an actual speed test probably would reveal it to be. Get an Ethernet hub, and plug everything in. I recommend not using DHCP. If you can ping each machine on the network from any other (remember to add hostnames and IP addresses to the Miami database on each machine), you're ready to set up Envoy.

Just run the installer, and have fun. Don't worry about Realms or Gateways. Since you're running it in parallel with Miami, you need to change the IP Type and ARP Types in Envoy to 2049 and 2055 (architecture bug), respectively. There's an Envoy 3.1 patch on Aminet, along with a bunch of additional services for added functionality.

[Rabbi]

Matt_H,

Thanks for the tips!  IIRC, wasn't some updating to Envoy involved the printer sharing under the network, now that I think of it?

I won't get around to this, though for another month, at least.  I'll map out my strategy then.  I've got so much on my plate right now. :crazy:

[fiat1100d]

Searching on the Internet, it looks that the DEC Ethernet chip used on the Wildfire (DECchip 21040) only is 10 Mbit/s, while the 100 Mbit/s one is the 21140, not used on Amiga.