Amiga Network Applications

Echo · 20 November 2003, 10:51

Thanks to Thomas for sorting my network problems out, I now have a working configuration through my router.

Can anyone recommend some good software for basic network clients such as web, FTP, IRC, instant messaging, etc? So far I've been using:

Web browser:
IBrowse and A-Web, both rather slow but functional. Fonts go all over the shop in most vBulletin boards too, is there a workaround for this? Or perhaps a new/alternate web browser with better compatibility? Can't complain speedwise, web transfers max out my 1mbit connection :eek

FTP:
AmiFTP. Got this from a quick search on Aminet - no idea it was so old. Works a treat with my PC's server, but the GUI is a bit basic. Doesn't seem to have a local directory listing, so I'm not even sure if I can upload to the PC. Speeds are a respectable 230KB/s

Drive Sharing:
SMB-Connect. Working but flakey, which is why I'm going to use FTP instead. Seems to lock the A1200 after a few transfers.

IRC:
Tried BlackICE once through UAE, and didn't get anywhere with it. Didn't want to connect or join channels - despite that socket emulation checkbox being ticked, and web browsers working through the emulator.

Pretty damn impressed overall, for a 1992 computer not designed in the slightest to be net enabled

ant512 · 20 November 2003, 11:14

Web browser:
IBrowse 2.3 is currently the best Amiga web browser. The other alternatives are AWeb 3.4APL, which is dated even by Amiga standards, and Voyager, which is promising but so buggy and unstable that it is utterly useless.

None of them have CSS support, perfect layout engines or full Javascript implementations.

For better fonts, install a copy of "TTFLib" from the Aminet - this is a TrueType font rendering engine, which enables you to use standard Windows fonts in Workbench applications. Grab "Helvetica", "Verdana" and "Tahoma" from your Windows box and web pages look infinitely better (you'll need to set your browser up, though, as Voyager's the only browser to support the FONT tag).

FTP:
mFTP-II is very similar to FlashFXP and WSFTP, with a local directory lister, etc. Alternatively, DirOpus Magellan has a built-in FTP client. It's rather like the one included with Windows, but it actually works and doesn't spend most of its time telling you that it is "Calculating upload time".

Drive sharing:
SAMBA and SMBFS. Difficult to set up, but invaluable and fairly nippy.

Web Servers:
Try TinyHTTPd - it's fast, doesn't use too much memory, and has built-in PHP4 support. Also look out for the Amiga port of MySQL. Alternatively, you can try Apache, but it requires ~10MB RAM just to start up. AREXX-based web servers, though very small, tend to be simplistic and buggy, and I've no idea how secure they are.

Instant Messaging:
Get Jabberwocky from the Aminet. It works with most chat protocols (or it did before they started excluding unofficial clients). The interface doesn't make much sense, though, and it stopped working on my machine after a while.

Usenet
Newscoaster. Pity Usenet's such a waste of internet bandwidth...

Email
YAM (Yet Another Mailer). Superb POP3 client.

Amiga1992 · 20 November 2003, 11:23

Did anybody try VNC on the miggy? I'd love to be able to use this, since my monitor count is low in the studio :P

I don't have a NIC yet but I'm going to buy one pretty soon, I promise! :P

Echo · 20 November 2003, 11:57

Thanks Ant, that's most useful. I will indeed grab that TTF thing, Tahoma is going to be clearer than whatever I'm using currently.

Shame that IBrowse 2.3 is still so incompatible with vBulletin boards, considering this revision came out this year if I understand correctly.

Quote:

Originally posted by Akira
Did anybody try VNC on the miggy? I'd love to be able to use this, since my monitor count is low in the studio :P

Couldn't get it running for some reason. I have a server on the PC, and tried connecting from the A1200 with the correct IP/port - nothing. This works fine from my office box to home (extremely useful it is too!), so there's nothing wrong with the VNC server.

Would be interested to hear if anyone has got this viewer working. Slow or not, I want to try it.

ant512 · 20 November 2003, 11:59

Oh yes, forgot about VNC. You can't get the Amiga displayed on the PC (the Amiga port is unfinished), but you can get the PC displayed on the Amiga without too much trouble. It's not particularly fast, but it's certainly faster than I was expecting (even over my 10-base network). Not worth trying if you haven't got a graphics card, though. It might actually require Cybergfx or P96; can't remember.

ant512 · 20 November 2003, 12:01

Quote:

Originally posted by Echo
Shame that IBrowse 2.3 is still so incompatible with vBulletin boards, considering this revision came out this year if I understand correctly.

??

I've posted on this site many times using IBrowse and Voyager.

Echo · 20 November 2003, 12:05

Where could the problem lie then?

Basically, a lot of pages are a ridiculous height and blank with a few solid grey boxes. Scrolling down to the bottom (100 pages+) reveals the usual

Quote:

Powered by: vBulletin Version 2.2.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2002, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited.
Page generated in 0.09191000 seconds (69.81% PHP - 30.19% MySQL) with 19 queries.

but no actual message posts are displayed.

I have a feeling it may be related to colours as I've been experimenting with low colour screens to speed up browsing. But this still doesn't explain the daft page height.

kriz · 20 November 2003, 13:12

AmIRC is the best IRC client !!!!

You also have to play Dynamite if you got your 1200 on the internet ....

(online bomberman game, very nice!!!)

http://amisource.de/dynamite/ <- Free and very good!

Echo · 20 November 2003, 13:18

Quote:

Originally posted by kriz
AmIRC is the best IRC client !!!!

You also have to play Dynamite if you got your 1200 on the internet ....

(online bomberman game, very nice!!!)

http://amisource.de/dynamite/ <- Free and very good!

Sweet, I was/am a big fan of Blitz Bombers

ant512 · 20 November 2003, 13:49

Quote:

Originally posted by Echo
I have a feeling it may be related to colours as I've been experimenting with low colour screens to speed up browsing. But this still doesn't explain the daft page height.

Don't think it's that - I've got a low-colour WB on an A1200 at home, and IBrowse still works OK. This is a screengrab of IBrowse running in WinUAE on my laptop, to show you what you should be seeing (P96 emulation, natch):

Echo · 20 November 2003, 14:15

It did come up initially about the same as that, but seems to have got progressively worse.

I've also had screen corruption after several pages and/or changing screen mode a few times - which may suggest I'm running out of RAM or fragmenting what little I have. From a total of 8mb, free fastRAM is rather low (1mb) when all this is running. I have 64mb coming in the post soon so I can run a lot more simultaneously.

How much do you have in that WinUAE configuration?

Severin · 20 November 2003, 14:58

Hmmm, nobody mentioned AmiTradeCenter...
A very good FREE, FTP client, go look on Aminet

And that little thing called Dopus Magellan of course...

ant512 · 20 November 2003, 15:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Echo
How much do you have in that WinUAE configuration?

It does sound like a RAM problem. My laptop WinUAE setup has 64MB fast RAM allocated, which has never given me problems. The lowest-spec Amiga I've tried running IBrowse on is a desktop A1200 030/50MHz, with 16MB fast RAM. No problems on that, either. The 64MB SIMM should improve things.

Echo · 20 November 2003, 17:53

Cheers Sev, I'll take a look at both AmiTradeCenter and mFTP-II and keep the one which suits my preference.

Ant: I sure hope it cures the problems, my only other use for such a large chunk of RAM is to make huge silly animations in DPaint with the Move command

Echo · 22 November 2003, 04:08

Quote:

Originally posted by kriz
AmIRC is the best IRC client !!!!

An excellent client indeed. Trouble is I'm getting akilled on connect to irc.webchat.org, one of my regular networks. This never happens on mIRC for PC - are there any settings I can play with?

All I can think of is that my hostname or real IP isn't being identified on the Amiga or something.

tygre · 08 January 2011, 01:34

Hi there!

I am awakening this thread after so many year to answer one question and ask another:
- The answer: Yes, you can use AmiVNC 1.0.0 to remotely control your amiga, it is slow but bearable, see http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=57096. Below is a screenshot from my Laptop under Windows XP of VNCViewer connected to my Amiga, which is playing some cool mod!

- The question: How do you use TinyHTTPd, I could not find any Amiga version?

Extra question: as anyone been able to install the Apache Web server on a standard Amiga 1200, I get the error "bad user www" even though I configured Miami and declared this user...

Thanks!
Yann

ceaser · 16 May 2011, 10:54

That's pretty awesome!

tygre · 16 May 2011, 15:46

Thanks a lot Ceaser!

I found that AmiVNC is quite unstable though: it often crashes my Amiga... I received last week my copy of StormC4 from Alinea Computer (great service!) and I am going to try make AmiVNC more stable and maybe a bit faster

I'll keep you posted!
Yann

tygre · 03 July 2011, 19:59

I edited a previous post because AmiVNC v1.0.0 is actually quite stable, my apologies to Stephane Guillard: if it used to crash on my Amiga, it was because of the too many patches that I had installed

Cheers!
Yann

tygre · 07 July 2011, 17:49

Just to let you know that I actully just repaired one of my disk, using DiskSalv, remotely using AmiVNC... Okay, I know that wasn't the safest thing to do but it worked beautifully!

Thanks AmiVNC :-)
Yann

20 November 2003, 10:51	#1
Echo Registered User Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: South-West Wales Posts: 382	Amiga Network Applications Thanks to Thomas for sorting my network problems out, I now have a working configuration through my router. Can anyone recommend some good software for basic network clients such as web, FTP, IRC, instant messaging, etc? So far I've been using: Web browser: IBrowse and A-Web, both rather slow but functional. Fonts go all over the shop in most vBulletin boards too, is there a workaround for this? Or perhaps a new/alternate web browser with better compatibility? Can't complain speedwise, web transfers max out my 1mbit connection :eek FTP: AmiFTP. Got this from a quick search on Aminet - no idea it was so old. Works a treat with my PC's server, but the GUI is a bit basic. Doesn't seem to have a local directory listing, so I'm not even sure if I can upload to the PC. Speeds are a respectable 230KB/s Drive Sharing: SMB-Connect. Working but flakey, which is why I'm going to use FTP instead. Seems to lock the A1200 after a few transfers. IRC: Tried BlackICE once through UAE, and didn't get anywhere with it. Didn't want to connect or join channels - despite that socket emulation checkbox being ticked, and web browsers working through the emulator. Pretty damn impressed overall, for a 1992 computer not designed in the slightest to be net enabled

08 January 2011, 01:34	#16
tygre Returning fan! Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Montréal, QC, Canada Posts: 1,434	Hi there! I am awakening this thread after so many year to answer one question and ask another: - The answer: Yes, you can use AmiVNC 1.0.0 to remotely control your amiga, it is slow but bearable, see http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=57096. Below is a screenshot from my Laptop under Windows XP of VNCViewer connected to my Amiga, which is playing some cool mod! - The question: How do you use TinyHTTPd, I could not find any Amiga version? Extra question: as anyone been able to install the Apache Web server on a standard Amiga 1200, I get the error "bad user www" even though I configured Miami and declared this user... Thanks! Yann Last edited by tygre; 08 January 2011 at 02:22. Reason: Added screenshot of AmiVNC

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20 November 2003, 11:14	#2
ant512 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: California Posts: 965	Web browser: IBrowse 2.3 is currently the best Amiga web browser. The other alternatives are AWeb 3.4APL, which is dated even by Amiga standards, and Voyager, which is promising but so buggy and unstable that it is utterly useless. None of them have CSS support, perfect layout engines or full Javascript implementations. For better fonts, install a copy of "TTFLib" from the Aminet - this is a TrueType font rendering engine, which enables you to use standard Windows fonts in Workbench applications. Grab "Helvetica", "Verdana" and "Tahoma" from your Windows box and web pages look infinitely better (you'll need to set your browser up, though, as Voyager's the only browser to support the FONT tag). FTP: mFTP-II is very similar to FlashFXP and WSFTP, with a local directory lister, etc. Alternatively, DirOpus Magellan has a built-in FTP client. It's rather like the one included with Windows, but it actually works and doesn't spend most of its time telling you that it is "Calculating upload time". Drive sharing: SAMBA and SMBFS. Difficult to set up, but invaluable and fairly nippy. Web Servers: Try TinyHTTPd - it's fast, doesn't use too much memory, and has built-in PHP4 support. Also look out for the Amiga port of MySQL. Alternatively, you can try Apache, but it requires ~10MB RAM just to start up. AREXX-based web servers, though very small, tend to be simplistic and buggy, and I've no idea how secure they are. Instant Messaging: Get Jabberwocky from the Aminet. It works with most chat protocols (or it did before they started excluding unofficial clients). The interface doesn't make much sense, though, and it stopped working on my machine after a while. Usenet Newscoaster. Pity Usenet's such a waste of internet bandwidth... Email YAM (Yet Another Mailer). Superb POP3 client.

20 November 2003, 11:23	#3
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,646	Did anybody try VNC on the miggy? I'd love to be able to use this, since my monitor count is low in the studio :P I don't have a NIC yet but I'm going to buy one pretty soon, I promise! :P

20 November 2003, 11:59	#5
ant512 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: California Posts: 965	Oh yes, forgot about VNC. You can't get the Amiga displayed on the PC (the Amiga port is unfinished), but you can get the PC displayed on the Amiga without too much trouble. It's not particularly fast, but it's certainly faster than I was expecting (even over my 10-base network). Not worth trying if you haven't got a graphics card, though. It might actually require Cybergfx or P96; can't remember.

20 November 2003, 13:12	#8
kriz Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: No(R)Way Age: 41 Posts: 3,203	AmIRC is the best IRC client !!!! You also have to play Dynamite if you got your 1200 on the internet .... (online bomberman game, very nice!!!) http://amisource.de/dynamite/ <- Free and very good!

20 November 2003, 14:15	#11
Echo Registered User Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: South-West Wales Posts: 382	It did come up initially about the same as that, but seems to have got progressively worse. I've also had screen corruption after several pages and/or changing screen mode a few times - which may suggest I'm running out of RAM or fragmenting what little I have. From a total of 8mb, free fastRAM is rather low (1mb) when all this is running. I have 64mb coming in the post soon so I can run a lot more simultaneously. How much do you have in that WinUAE configuration?

20 November 2003, 14:58	#12
Severin Registered User Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Gloucester / UK Posts: 700	Hmmm, nobody mentioned AmiTradeCenter... A very good FREE, FTP client, go look on Aminet And that little thing called Dopus Magellan of course...

20 November 2003, 17:53	#14
Echo Registered User Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: South-West Wales Posts: 382	Cheers Sev, I'll take a look at both AmiTradeCenter and mFTP-II and keep the one which suits my preference. Ant: I sure hope it cures the problems, my only other use for such a large chunk of RAM is to make huge silly animations in DPaint with the Move command

16 May 2011, 10:54	#17
ceaser Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Robbinsdale / Minnesota Posts: 54	That's pretty awesome!

16 May 2011, 15:46	#18
tygre Returning fan! Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Montréal, QC, Canada Posts: 1,434	Thanks a lot Ceaser! I found that AmiVNC is quite unstable though: it often crashes my Amiga... I received last week my copy of StormC4 from Alinea Computer (great service!) and I am going to try make AmiVNC more stable and maybe a bit faster I'll keep you posted! Yann

03 July 2011, 19:59	#19
tygre Returning fan! Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Montréal, QC, Canada Posts: 1,434	I edited a previous post because AmiVNC v1.0.0 is actually quite stable, my apologies to Stephane Guillard: if it used to crash on my Amiga, it was because of the too many patches that I had installed Cheers! Yann

07 July 2011, 17:49	#20
tygre Returning fan! Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Montréal, QC, Canada Posts: 1,434	Just to let you know that I actully just repaired one of my disk, using DiskSalv, remotely using AmiVNC... Okay, I know that wasn't the safest thing to do but it worked beautifully! Thanks AmiVNC :-) Yann

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