Fast transfers to Amiga?

[Macca]

Hi.

Well I have an Amiga running OS 3.1.  That's it - nothing else (fresh install).

I have a null modem cable connection between the PC and the Amiga.  However when I've been sending a few images to the Amiga I've had a few random errors so I would like to try something different.

I have a PCMCIA card which I can use.  Where can I get drivers for this (are there any generic Amiga ones?)

And what software would I need to transfer between the two?

Failing this is there any faster way to transfer via the COM port (via null modem cable) faster than 19200?

If you can provide links to any of the files mentioned I would be most grateful.

Cheers,


Macca

[Graak]

Get a parallel cable and PC2Am. You'll get ~50kB/s using that solution.

[Jose]

Amiga serial ports are able to do 56kb. And with some device on Aminet they reach 115Kb. Do you have error checking enabled?
As for faster transfers you're talking about a nic PCMCIA card that you have? The existence of drivers depends on the model you have. Again check Aminet, be patient and read a few stuff 8-)

[lordv]

@Macca

I have a PCMCIA card which I can use. Where can I get drivers for this (are there any generic Amiga ones?)
And what software would I need to transfer between the two?

On Amiga, you'll need Miami (or any other tcp/ip stack) and samba client (called smbfs.lha) from aminet. On pc, win98/2k/xp with its built-in samba functionality will be enough.

Most pcmcia ethernet cards are supported by cnet.lha drivers from aminet. 3com may need another driver pack (also from aminet). Anyhow, you should just try your card... More, if you have A1200, you may need to insert into your startup-sequence 2 little utilities: CardPatch and CardReset (once more from aminet), which will fix PCMCIA reset bug.

Real speed will be near 400kB/s (kiloBYTES!) [on my 060/50]

[Jose]

@lordv

It's funny the differences in transfers rates people have, I've seen some mention around 900KB/s. Maybe they wanted to mean Kb/s ?

[Macca]

Thanks for the replies all.

Another quick question - I'm going to put the Amiga's LAN cable into a Hub - will this be okay?

How do I browse on the PC side and what resources will I get access to (assuming I just click on the My Network Places)?

Also I have a mini DHCP server here - does the Amiga side pick up it's own IP?

Sorry about the questions just trying to get it straight in my head - lol

Also regarding the transfer speeds people have mentioned - is that actual bandwidth transfer speed or the protocol it's based on (i.e. 56k = 4kb transfer speed / 512k = 50k transfer speed)?

Macca.

[Piru]

@Jose

It's real. I got 786KB/s with my 060@64. A friend got 819KB/s on his overclocked 1260 system.

This was real 30MB transfer using FTP, timed with stopwatch.

[lordv]

@Macca

How do I browse on the PC side and what resources will I get access to (assuming I just click on the My Network Places)?

smbfs lets you mount any pc share as amiga disk, but if you need to browse your amiga from pc, you should install samba package on amiga (seek aminet for 'samba'). Amiga will then be visible as another computer with its shares on your pc.

[Jose]

@Piru

That raises my will to get a PCMCIA Nic card to my A1200. What model both of you use, do you think it makes any difference?

[Ilwrath]

[Jose]

@IIWrath

Are you talking about the actual transfers or protocol? I'm referring to the various theoretical speeds you set up in the preferences editor. I haven't done anything special, my A1200, wich ATM is completely bare (040 card being upgraded...), works well at the 56Kbps setting (with error checking enabled I think). Maybe some builds can achieve more? Or maybe you were talking about real transfer speeds? Or maybe there was some incompatibility with the device you were using it with?

[itix]

If I don't remember wrong I think I used 56000 bps setting when I had my A600 (or A500). I had to use RAM: for downloads and everything was sloooow... But it worked :-)

[Ilwrath]

Are you talking about the actual transfers or protocol? I'm referring to the various theoretical speeds you set up in the preferences editor.

Oh yeah... I can SET the value to anything I want.  But if I want to actually USE that value, that is where the problems begin.

I use reasonably shielded serial cables and a reasonable quality null-modem, so the errors aren't from those.  I can use them to reliably connect two PCs via serial at 56k, so it isn't a source PCs fault, either.  If I plug in an Amiga at 56k, massive amounts of errors ensue, though.  Transfers bog down to the point that the actual transfer speed drops below 19.2kbps.  Even sending to RAM: or a fast HD doesn't help.  19.2kbps seems to be the reliability cut-off.  :-(  Any speed above that seems to actually slow down the transfer due to all the error/resends.

[Nobrakes]

115kb works fine for me using miami on amiga1200/030 using null modem cable it works perfectly for web browsing/downloading but i have to lower the speed to 56kb when i use amiga explorer to transfer files from pc
 :-)

[Macca]

Hi again...

You say 115kb works for you via Miami?  Which version of Miami are you using to use a Null Modem cable.  I just thought Miami was for the TCP/IP stack?

Any chance of a link?

Many thanks


Macca.