A500+ Internet

[ferix]

Maybe It could interest you.

I'm working in a Slip to Ethernet bridge. I have the prototype almost finished.
The idea behind It is to connect my 'shortly' expanded A500+ (no accelerator card, and only 1,5 Mb of chip ram... by now) to my network, and to the Internet by extension...
Basically, It takes the incoming IP datagrams from the ethernet, makes some simple processing (discard bad packets, check the target IP, etc...), and resends them to the serial port in Slip format.
In the other direction (Serial to Ethernet), It takes the datagrams from the serial port, and send them to the net, taking care of things such the ARP and all those other 'nasty' things
At first, It will only support Slip protocol. I guess PPP protocol will be added in the future.

I'll post some photos as soon as I can.

[orange]

No, Cammy, I doubt that would work. I think that cable is used for Cisco routers, to connect them with terminal and configure/administrate them.

those Cisco routers/switches have rj45 instead of db9 connector.

we need here more than a simple cable, like ferix says.

[Cammy]

Yeah, I had a feeling we'd need more than just that cable, oh well.

Ferix, your project seems really cool though, I really hope you get it working, that'd be just the sort of thing you could make a small batch of and sell to Amiga users around the world. I'd love to get something like that for the A500s and CD32s here.

[terminator4]

*shakes his head*

surfing the net without 68030 is a crawl, just like on C64 (even worse).  Just to prove that you can load a page and make coffee while you wait for images to load?  jeez.
spend some money and get 68030 or 68040 or 68060 cpu then at least you are surfing...

[cpfuture]

I am not really into connecting my A500+ to a PC (through a null modem) and then share Internet resources like that. I like the idea of connecing the A500+ to an 'old' hub more. However how would I connect my A500+ to the hub? As much as I know my A500+ does not have any place where to connect a telephone wire!

You'll need an Ethernet card and, as stated before, they're very rare for the A500. One that I know of is the Amiganet Hydra 500. I own at least one working model, they look like this:

http://www.easygalaxy.net/cfamiga/amiganet-hydra-500.html

The problem is that these use BNC connectors and not your regular RJ-45 UTP CAT5 cables that you're used to. So you'll need a switch or hub that supports both BNC and RJ-45 connectors or you'll need some sort of device that serves as an adaptor to convert signals from your BNC headed coax cable to the RJ-45 UTP CAT5 cable. I have one of those devices too and a 10Mbit switch that I used to try and get things working. In the end, failing to get things working I just gave up and went back to using a PPP/null modem connection to my iMac.

If you're really interested in a "standalone solution" your best bet would be to hunt down one of those RS-232 to WiFi adapters. You probably won't be able to use it out of the box without a gender bender, because the Amiga's serial port is DB25 female instead of the more usually found male. I'll be looking into buying one in the future (just for kicks), but they tend to be pretty expensive.

EDIT: Either that or hope that Jens Schoenfeld conjures up some cool addon that'll allow you to use your A500 with your WiFi network.

[orange]

@nonbelievers

well there are other things like email, ftp, samba,ntp..
it would be kind of cool just to see them running on a500 (even though zmodem would be faster)

[ferix]

I've uploaded some pictures from my project.
It's unfinished yet. I'll post more photos as long as I get my camera back...

The front panel. It has a LCD and a small keyboard for configuration purposes:


The rear panel, you can see the serial port, the reset switch, and the ethernet socket:


A general view of the gadget:


Another view:

[sim085]

wow Just out of curiosity. In this project would AmiTCP still be needed? Considering that data is passed through the serial port?

[ferix]

wow Just out of curiosity. In this project would AmiTCP still be needed? Considering that data is passed through the serial port?

Nope... You still need a TCP/IP stack, at least for conecting to the Internet.
This device only gets the TCP/IP packets from one media and resends them to the other media (well, there's a bit of processing involved).

I suppose that you asked that because AmiTCP uses a lot of memory, and would be fine to take It apart...
So I've been thinking It's possible to port the Adam Dunkels' uIP. It's the smallest functional TCP/IP stack, and It runs on very small systems, like a 8 bit processor with only 2Kbytes of ram, an even sharing the ram with real time OS (Contiki). It's been used on the C64
You 'only' need to adapt It to the Amiga OS API...

The project page: http://www.sics.se/~adam/uip/index.php/Main_Page

[sim085]

Hi again, I guess you are more on the hardware aspect however. Is this project only for Amiga's or it can surve other purpuses as well?

[voyager]

Just a novice but still.. PD4XTC here ;-) Also did packet with amicom and a baycom modem ;-)

[ferix]

Hi again, I guess you are more on the hardware aspect however. Is this project only for Amiga's or it can surve other purpuses as well?

Well, my primal goal is to connect my A500+ (only 1,5Mb chip) to my ethernet network, but the device is designed to be multiplatform.
You can connect every computer you want, only a serial port and slip protocol is required (and tcp/ip over it, of course).
I don't know what could be the "top speed" of the serial link, but I think you can achieve 115000 bauds at least, better than a 56K modem.
I was thinking on include a plip port for higher speeds, but It would be less compatible, but It's still possible.

I also have another version with a wifi card, but It's a lot more complex, and It's not worth doing It.

[sim085]

Well, my primal goal is to connect my A500+ (only 1,5Mb chip) to my ethernet network, but the device is designed to be multiplatform.
You can connect every computer you want, only a serial port and slip protocol is required (and tcp/ip over it, of course).
I don't know what could be the "top speed" of the serial link, but I think you can achieve 115000 bauds at least, better than a 56K modem.
I was thinking on include a plip port for higher speeds, but It would be less compatible, but It's still possible.

I also have another version with a wifi card, but It's a lot more complex, and It's not worth doing It.

When do you think you'll have a working version? You should keep the community informed when it is ready Depending on how much it costs I may considering buying one (if you ever decide to sell such units).

[ferix]

When do you think you'll have a working version? You should keep the community informed when it is ready Depending on how much it costs I may considering buying one (if you ever decide to sell such units).

Well, I guess the hardware part should be finished on next weekend, but I don't know when the software will be running....
I'm not thinking on selling It. I prefer to make the software and hardware public available.
My hardware is being built with samples and spare parts. I only bought some passive components, such resistors, leds, connectors, and the prototype board... but I think the most expensive part is the LCD, and It's not essential. An especial configuration mode can be included for making the setup of the device through the serial port.
I guess you can build one for 35 euros or 30$, without the LCD, of course.

[sim085]

Well, I guess the hardware part should be finished on next weekend, but I don't know when the software will be running....
I'm not thinking on selling It. I prefer to make the software and hardware public available.
My hardware is being built with samples and spare parts. I only bought some passive components, such resistors, leds, connectors, and the prototype board... but I think the most expensive part is the LCD, and It's not essential. An especial configuration mode can be included for making the setup of the device through the serial port.
I guess you can build one for 35 euros or 30$, without the LCD, of course.

I wish you all luck with your project and hope to hear about it soon

[Rebel-CD32]

Here's another screenshot of the OCS internet experience to add to the collection

http://home.exetel.com.au/amiga/OCSinternet.png