PC-Task networking within guest?

[fishy_fiz]

Now I assume that being you can use the serial port for the emulated PC side in PC-Task that some sort of serial based networking is available? While this would (hopefully) allow serial port based networking I was wondering if anyone could tell me if it's possible to somehow get onto my network without having to use a dedicated serial modem?

Please bare in mind that Im not particularly strong when it comes to networking stuff, and my experience/knowledge is limited to more typical usage so Im a little out of my element here. Given my interest in "alternative" computing, through necessity I probably know a little more than Joe Windows or Jill Macintosh, but Im far from a networking guru.

Ultimately I just want to give myself the option of using a Windows browser for "emergencies" (ie. when an available 68k browser doesnt quite cut it).

p.s. Before anyone mentions that it'll be too slow to browse in such a way it's for my amithlon box, so speed is fairly reasonable.

Another route I considered was something like VNC, which would also let me use a few Windows graphics programs (paintshop pro and 3ds max mostly) that I cant live without, but how fast is the screen updating from the side the client is running from? Does it make much of a difference that it'd be running over a local network? Does Nic speeds make much of a difference? It doesnt need to be perfect, but I do need it fast enough that using the aforementioned apps isnt a chore.
Additionally, I only have the one windows machine in the house, which happens to be my media centre machine. My most powerful computer, decent gfx card (gf gtx 570(my new toy, main reason I mentioned it:))), joypads, wireless mouse keyboard/etc. connected to my main tv in the lounge. Now the "problem" here is that I want to keep the main install as it is,... a media centre where the OS itself is invisible to the user. Any "real" computer use on this machine is through a virtual machine.

So I guess the question here becomes, "is it any more difficult to use a VM remotely, and does this influence speed at all?"

Really I'd probably like to work something out with the 1st option regardless (running a Windows browser in amithlon/os3.9 through pc-task), but VNC or similar is also something Ive given thought to as well, so any help with either would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

[ck007]

Howdy,

The first thing that comes to mind when you mention serial port is to connect up your Amithlon box's serial port to the serial port of a Linux box and run SLIP/CSLIP/PPP through it.

Although the speed will be limited to 115k (or whatever the max speed of a serial port is these days), you'll have IP connectivity through the Linux host.

That is, if you have a Linux host running at home...

You might be able to do something similar with a Windows host but I've never tried.

Hope this helps,


Cheers,
ck

[fishy_fiz]

Ah, I shouldve maybe mentioned my computers and how things are set-up in my initial post.

Firstly, I only have a Windows box in my lounge (the media centre system). In my bedroom I have my a1200, my amithlon box, my aros box, and my mos machine (mac mini). There's no other computers set up anymore 'cos Im tryig to keep things tidy and minimal. At the moment Im simply using the Windows box as a gateway as the only internet I have is a usb wireless modem (and no router). Becuase of the this I cant really physically connected the amithlon box to another machine with anything but cat5 cable (well I could, but Id need pretty long cables).

[Xanxi]

Interesting thread.
However, as you are speaking of browsers, there is absolutly no good MSDOS/Win3.X browser that would be better than amiga Ibrowse. The best choice would be the Arachne browser for MSDOS, but it is incredibly slow on a 486SLC2@50 MHz bridgeboard that beats any PCTask setup (even on Amithlon) and very few usable. Even if you could run Win95, browsers from that era are obsolete, with dead security certificates, and far worse than IBrowse.
If it is about transferring files from the Amiga to the PCTask setup, it would still be faster to just mount the hardfile ou PC partition on the amiga side.
I am still interested by any working networking solution through the serial port, but i don't know how good would be the emulation.

[fishy_fiz]

I was planning (hopeing) to run something inside Win95. PC-Task on my box is probably akin to a low end pentium (its too fast for stuff like daggerfall for example).

[B00tDisk]

I was planning (hopeing) to run something inside Win95. PC-Task on my box is probably akin to a low end pentium (its too fast for stuff like daggerfall for example).

Holy cats, I'd like to see a video of that; what's the host machine?  Surely not a "classic" Amiga...?

[jj]

You should have no problem setting up TCIP over serial between the miggy and a win machine

[Xanxi]

You should have no problem setting up TCIP over serial between the miggy and a win machine

But from within the PCTask emulation, that's another story.

[fishy_fiz]

@Bootdisk

Nah, its my 3.86ghz core2duo amithlon box (fully supported hardware). No way Id be attempting something like this on my a1200