Still love my Amiga

[Cronos]

Hello

   I've not used my amiga for many years butI now want to use it again because I miss her very much. I started off with an A500 when I was like 9 or 10 but then upgraded to a A2000HD. It was not really easy to find software for it in canada + I did not have much money but I always loved my amiga and even got a few of my friends to buy them also. I want to start upgrading my a2000 so I can surf the web, can anybody give some advice? If I remeber I have a mega midget racer 68020 card, gvp ram card with 4 megs on it, a 42 meg hd and os2.1  where should I start?

thanks

[billchase]

Well, first off what type of internet connection will you use?
If dail-up any standand external modem will do.  The demo of
Miami 2.1 should work and get you online, it will work for
dail-up or broadband.  TermitePPP is probably floating around
on ebay, but it is strictly dail-up.  If you are wanting to
go broadband, a zorroII based ethernet card will be needed.
Search aminet for other possible software that supports 2.1.
One benefit of upgrading to OS3.9 is that it comes already
with a full working network stack, Genesis.  3.9 unfortunately
will more than likely require your kickstart roms to be
upgraded.

C Snyder

[AmiBoy]

@Cronos

It would also be best for you to upgrade your processing power abit further with an 040 or 060 and add atleast 32MB Ram (minimum but should do) and a graphics card, I would recomend either adding PCI slots and using a Voodoo 3 3000 or if PCI isint available for an A2000 the use a Zorro II based card such as the Cybervision 64 3D.

Thanks,
AmiBoy

[Cronos]

Thank for the info. Is there a way to use pci cards in a 2000? It would be good because I have an old pc with a voodoo 3 3000 in it. I am looking at upgrading my processor but 060's are mad cash, softhut has 060 cards for like $500 which seems a little steep.

[blobrana]

Hi,
I don’t think the Mediator cards or Promethius will fit a 2000…

Voodos are so cheap that it`s no big loss...
perhaps a Picasso II graphics card or a towered a1200 is the way to go....
or even an `amigaone`...

Anyway have a nice time...

[billchase]

There will probably never be any PCI solution for the 2000
unfortunately.  Here is a link for some network software that
might work.  It is from another thread.

http://www.funet.fi/pub/amiga/gnu/tcpip/

C Snyder

[Cronos]

Thats too bad I really like my 2000. what systems are pci slots available on, mabey I should just get a new system?

[patrik]

@Cronos:

You would be able to surf the web to some extent with your current hardware if you got hold of Kickstart/Workbench  3.1. This as all available browsers that are really usable - IBrowse, AWeb and Voyager requires atleast Kickstart/Workbench 3.0.

Actually, you can browse the web with your current Kickstart 2.04/Workbench 2.1, but the only browsers available then are the old Amosaic and the text-based Lynx. The former is unfortunately next to unusable as it fails to render most pages and the latter is very textish .

To use these browsers you also need a TCP/IP-stack. The most common ones are AmiTCP and Miami which both can be found demos of on Aminet. There is also a free, earlier version of AmiTCP that billchase posted a link too, but it is rather hard to configure, so I would recommend that you try one of those demos first to get a hang of it.

What kind of connection you planning to use?


/Patrik

[Cronos]

Hi
  I plan on using a broadband connection because thats what I am using with my pc. Would it be better if I picked up an A3000 or mabey a 1200 tower or something instead of wasting time and money on my 2000?

Thanks

[patrik]

@Cronos:

Ofcourse a faster machine is always better, but that would cost you more money than a Kickstart3.1-chip and a set of WB3.1-disks (17.90 + 9.99 EUR from Vesalia).

Other than that, for cheap things to do to enhance the A2000 - I would recommend expanding the GVP card to a full 8MB if possible, as 4MB might be a bit on the hairy edge for this kind of ventures. If possible, the memory-modules/chips would most likely be very cheap. Does it happen to be this card?

Also, if you are intending to use a broadband-connection I assume you will need an Zorro2 ethernet-card for your A2000. Either you find an old one on Ebay or similar or you buy a new X-Surf3 from for example Vesalia - it costs 99.99 EUR. Those Zorro2-cards will work in A2000, A3000, A4000 and A1200Towers that has a Zorro2-expansion.

Do keep in mind that whatever Amiga you get, it is not an ideal platform for browsing the web. In all cases simply because the browsers doesn't have the features to be able to render many pages correctly.

Also, the advices about 060 and graphics-cards, pci etc etc given by other forum members was because image-decoding won't be very fast if you don't have a fast accelerator and the graphics wont look that good or scroll very well if you don't have a graphics card.

So it all depends on what you set your mind on - if you just are looking for having some fun and see what that old A2000 can do on the web - do that. Or if you want to get a faster/better Amiga to see what it can manage - do that.


/Patrik

[Cronos]

I just wanted to know, if I have an rtg gfx card can I play aga games on a none aga system?