Cheap Ethernet solution for Classic Amigas

[abraXXious]

Hey guys,

I have read several threads that talk about using off the shelf RS232 to Ethernet adapters that support modem emulation in order to connect a classic miggy to an Ethernet network and access the 'net. I know, depending on the CPU in the miggy, it would not be the fastest, but it would be interesting to do. Especially if you have a miggy fitted with a high speed, low cpu load serial device, such as the Silversurfer.

Would one of these work - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/RS232-to-Ethernet-TCP-IP-RJ45-Converter-Module-Serial-Device-Server-10-100M-/110930750950?pt=US_Radio_Comm_Antennas&hash=item19d3fcede6 ?

If so, could some clever miggy user PLEASE write some form of guide to setting up both the hardware and software so the rest of us could make use of these cheap units? Just think, we could all be playing Dynamite online and chatting in real time with our ole' 1200s!

[danwood]

Easiest and cheapest way with an A1200 is a PCMCIA ethernet card.

See here: http://youtu.be/svTDHiBePyM

[abraXXious]

Easiest and cheapest way with an A1200 is a PCMCIA ethernet card.

See here: http://youtu.be/svTDHiBePyM

Lol, yessum, we all know that - I have several A1200s and even an ACA630 equipped A600 using a pcmcia Ethernet solution.
 
 However, this is not a solution for the A500 and A1000. It is a Phoenix equipped A1000 that I was intending to do this to.

[gertsy]

Lol, yessum, we all know that - I have several A1200s and even an ACA630 equipped A600 using a pcmcia Ethernet solution.
 
 However, this is not a solution for the A500 and A1000. It is a Phoenix equipped A1000 that I was intending to do this to.

It's gotta be slow, but plausible.  For FTP it could be a way to connect up machines.  But not very practical. I guess hi-speed serial would make it a little more attractive.

[Duce]

Wouldn't be quick enough for most people, I suspect.  But maybe I'm picky, it drives me nuts to use anything slower than gigabit ethernet.

[abraXXious]

Wouldn't be quick enough for most people, I suspect. But maybe I'm picky, it drives me nuts to use anything slower than gigabit ethernet.

Hmmmm, not sure what you mean. The word "quick" does not enter into the equation if the conversation is about internet access on a 68000 based computer.
 
 To be honest, I think when you reach even 20kb per second then the bottle neck is no longer the speed at which you can retrieve data over the Ethernet  connection, bur rather, the speed at which the poor old 68000 can process it and display something useful!
 
 At the very least, the sort of person wanting to do this would surely be doing it out of novelty standpoint - myself included as browsing the internet in its modern java/frame etc form is painful even on a fast 060 with RTG.
 
 However, being able to use IRC, a basic web browser to connect to sites like Aminet etc and play the occasional networked game should be doable even on a lowly 68000 with 20kb per second "crippled" broadband.
 
 What do you think?

[Akiko]

With all the new accelerators I think the plipbox project perfectly suits the A500 etc, it uses the parallel port instead of other serial solutions should offer reasonable speeds.

http://lallafa.de/blog/amiga-projects/plipbox/plipbox-hardware/

I just wish Amigakit or someone would assemble these for the community, the plipbox author on his website said he has no problem with this.

[danbeaver]

If you want to Cerf the net on an A500/1000 and don't care about speed, then use a modem and dial-up connection.  If you need to download files, then sneakernet is cheapest.  There are ParNet/SerNet solutions, but I'd just buy an old A2000 and one of the used Zorro2 NIC cards for another $100 and go that route.  To Cerf in modern terms you need an accelerator and at least 10 MB/s connection using OWB or similar.  Otherwise Cerf on a modern device and sneakernet files by floppy or CDROM.

I could be wrong now.

[psxphill]

Wouldn't be quick enough for most people, I suspect. But maybe I'm picky, it drives me nuts to use anything slower than gigabit ethernet.

Gigabit on a classic Amiga would be disappointing as none of them have that kind of bandwidth on their buses.

There isn't much on an Amiga that needs vast amounts of data to be transferred though, especially an a500.

[giZmo350]

I would surely buy and use this on my A500/2000 just to get some stuff from Aminet & WHDLoad transferred to my HDDs! It's cheap! Would be kind of pointless if you didn't have an HDD though. It would be great if AmigaKit put code in the new EasyNet software to light this Serial interface up! Even if it was 10K/s download it would be a great convenience!

[Gulliver]

I would surely buy and use this on my A500/2000 just to get some stuff from Aminet & WHDLoad transferred to my HDDs! It's cheap! Would be kind of pointless if you didn't have an HDD though.

I agree this would be pretty useful on an A1000 or an A500 with harddisk. But it seems no one bit the bullet and actually did it

[danbeaver]

There was is information on this subject on the Lemon Amiga Forum and I actually have one of the modules I got a few years back, I just never got that "into" it.

[Methanoid]

AmigaKit should do this.. but how does it compare to PCMCIA speed-wise?

[freqmax]

Use the parallell port and wire it with a microcontroller like ARM and a Ethernet port. The floppy port is also an option at 11 kB/s or so.

[danwood]

Lol, yessum, we all know that - I have several A1200s and even an ACA630 equipped A600 using a pcmcia Ethernet solution.
 
However, this is not a solution for the A500 and A1000. It is a Phoenix equipped A1000 that I was intending to do this to.

Ok, to be fair you did say 1200...

Just think, we could all be playing Dynamite online and chatting in real time with our ole' 1200s!