Interesting Article about cheap ethernet.

[GreggBz]

In the current Blacklisted 411 issue, there is a mighty interesting article about using one of these:
Palm Ethernet To Serial

to get on the Internet with your old Amiga, C64/128 etc.

Aparently it's just a ethernet to serail TCP/IP converter. As long as your TCP/IP stack supports null modem connections you are good to go. It's a pretty simple re-wire of the palm's serial interface to the usual RS232 9 pin interface.

I'm going to try it out.

[bloodline]

I dread to think how slow it would be...

[GreggBz]

Well my A500 starts to get weird at 38.4 bps, so that's pretty much the best I would expect.

[Amiduffer]

Interesting. Please report how it works. If you can track the data rate somehow, give us the stats. and how fast web pages load, etc. Plus, take pictures of it hooked up.

[bloodline]

GreggBz wrote:
Well my A500 starts to get weird at 38.4 bps, so that's pretty much the best I would expect.

And the slowest Ethernet I've ever used was at 10Mbps (300 times faster?)...

[orange]

parallel version would be interesting, too
unfortunately Amiga parallel port is different from other devices..

[GreggBz]

LOL, well I don't intend on getting 10 Mbs from my ISP, or through my A500 for any meaningfull endeavors.

I suppose I could do some kind of file transfer like ftp but ehh.. mostly it's just neat, perhaps I can do some browsing.

at only 10 dollars what's to lose?

If it works I may try it no my c128 and Atari ST also. I need to expose them to the Internet for the first time. Imagine what they think when that happens.

[redrumloa]

bloodline wrote:
I dread to think how slow it would be...

57600 is slow?? I do that on my C128D all the time, in 64 mode even.

[DamageX]

I'm accustomed to 4mbps broadband so 57600 is indeed a bit slow.

I hacked up one of these Palm doodads but never used it because it seems to require DHCP and I don't have a DHCP server on my LAN. Besides that my serial port is mostly useless since it drops bytes (even at 19200) whenever the harddisk is accessed.

[TechWolf]

Hi,

I'm the author of the Blacklisted article about the palm cradle and the person who did the initial software testing of it on the c64.  Originally, it was designed as a cheap way to get ethernet on the 64 that was readily available.  During testing, it made sense that the palm cradle could pretty much be used on anything that had a serial port and a tcp/ip stack, and so it might have a broader range of interest/usefullness than just the C64 scene.  

Yes, it may be slow, but it'll allow me to test my '020 A2000 on my home network without having to resort to using dialup.  That is, until I can find/afford a "real" Amiga ethernet solution.

If anyone has any questions/flames/suggestions/etc. please feel free to contact me.

TW

[Gojirax]

Very cool TechWolf! Thanks for sharing that! I love it when people blaze new trails on old hardware.

Do you have a link to the actual article? I clicked the Ebay link but it said the auction has ended.

[darksun9210]

how about one of those A500 clock port adapters and a silver surfer? 0.4mb? most uk broadband is 0.5mb? insanity!!

 :crazy:

gotta be worth a laugh though. anyone got an A500 they wanna sell?

 :lol:

agreed on the very cool thing!

[patrik]

@DamageX:

Get a proper 7-wire serial/nullmodem cable so you can enable hardware handshaking (RTS/CTS) on both ends and you will see that the A500 will manage 38400 without dropping Bytes. This with just NComm and the stock serial.device.


/Patrik

[jj]

Does this thing basically just use slip then.

Did something like this years back I think.  Connect your amiga to a pee cee with a null modem cable. And then set miami up to use a null modem driver or aomething

can temeber the exact details.  But with hypercomm used to get decent internet sharing back in the 56k days

[TechWolf]

Gojirax said:

Do you have a link to the actual article? I clicked the Ebay link but it said the auction has ended.

Unfortunately, no -- I used to have the information online, but it was removed when I wrote the article and Blacklisted published it.  However, the issue with the article is still on the shelves and can be purchased.  Otherwise, once the article is no longer in the "current" issue, I may go back and put the information back online -- seeing as how I wasn't paid for the article, I don't think there's any problems with me retaining the rights to publish elsewhere.

JJ said:

Does this thing basically just use slip then.

Did something like this years back I think. Connect your amiga to a pee cee with a null modem cable. And then set miami up to use a null modem driver or aomething

can temeber the exact details. But with hypercomm used to get decent internet sharing back in the 56k days

Actually, it uses real PPP connections.  It's wired for a straight-though serial connection (no null-modem necessary). I was using it at 19200 on my C64.  I believe iirc that it can communicate as high as 57600.  There are some limitations, obviously with speed, and certain ports being locked out (no running servers with this thing) but for someone who wants a cheap way to be able to plug into an rj45 home network and do web browsing and the like, it should be just fine.  But again, at this point, it's all theoretical, as I have to set everything up and actually try it with the amiga.

TW