PCMCIA Ethernet
 

I finally got my Kingston PCMCIA Ethernet card from the post office and set it up this afternoon. I had a bit of a problem getting MiamiInit to locate the DNS servers so I had to skip that part and enter the servers manually in Miami (entering the names manually in MiamiInit didn't work for some reason.)

The card works great so far, I've only tested out AmFTP and AmIRC, but I'm eager to try and gets my disks over to CAPs.

So, anyway, if you're looking for a card that works with your A1200, the Kingston model listed in the cnetdevice.lha (Aminet) compatability list works just fine. Oh yes, I did have to remove and re-insert the card when I first powered up the Amiga but that's not a big problem and there's a program on Aminet that will apparently fix that problem if you put it in your startup-sequence. (Sorry, don't have the name off hand.)

The only thing I hate is the 1 hour Miami time-limit. Someone told me that it's no longer being sold but their web site is still running so I'm not sure...

I'm going to go ahead with the dabs.com value PCMCIA NIC since I can never find cards on the compatibility list for sale.

Does this description sound okay (I don't even know what type 2/3 is, and which the A1200 has)?

As long as it is NE2000 compliant, it should work fine.

I'll report back whether successful or not, because this is a nice cheap card (£13 inc VAT) if anyone else is looking to network their Amiga :)

If you're really stuck, you could always dig out the new 3Com PCMCIA driver from the Aminet and look at its compatibility list. The cards in there should be easier to get hold of.

Incidentally, Kingston have stopped manufacturing network cards now, so they're difficult to get hold of.

Does Miami include something that can emulate "client for Microsoft networks" ?

I'll be connecting the card to my router, which serves broadband Internet to all computers and also acts as a central location to enable file/print sharing.

So it's actually more use to me having filesharing than pure web access on the Amiga.

You need SMBFS.lha from the Aminet. It mounts remote shared directories as volumes or devices, so you can access them as easily as you access RAM: or DF0:.

Thanks Ant, I'll get that and keep it in preparation for installation :)

Little joy with this card it seems :(

I can eject/reinsert the card all I like, it doesn't want to be picked up. Doing this also causes the hd to 're-initialise', resulting in a lock next time I try to access it.

cardpatch runs but doesn't help. cardreset fails unless I use the force switch, and then it doesn't help.

The utility in the cnet.device package can't even find a card, I've put the cnet.device in devs anyway in case it might help.

Stupid waste of money, Amigas were just not meant for networking.

The card isn't compatible. There's nothing you can do about this - Commodore implemented the PCMCIA-II slot before the standard was finalised, making it incompatible with 70% of all PCMCIA network cards and hit-and-miss with everything else. I have four PCMCIA network cards, and two work with the Amiga (though one hasn't got the card-to-RJ45 cable, so I can't use it); I've also got three PCMCIA RAM cards and only one works with the Amiga.

The Kingston card currently being discussed in another thread (KNE-2T, or something) *does* work with the Amiga - I've got one here.

It's very frustrating, because whenever a card crops up that is compatible, it's impossible to get hold of the identical model from a distributor.

Kingston don't even make network cards anymore so I'm stumped on that brand too.

Use ebay dude. I'm looking for used cars over there that are compatible and you can find plenty. Heck, if I found a couple of them locally, I bet overseas you are bound to find many more.

oh lookie here:
http://www.farallon.com/support/all/...001-10-19.html

Shite, wish I'd known that. I was fully aware the card was 32 bit but took for granted that A1200s could use them.

Thanks for the link.

You shouldn't take things for granted when it comes down to connecting a pseudo-alien peripheral to your Amiga... From what I read there you must've blown up the card because it uses 3.3V, and the amiga spurts out 5V I think...

What happens if you fuck up the Amiga with a PCMCIA card? be careful dude!

Still on the lookout for a card. Stumbled across this handy reference site while trying to get model matches on Ebay:
http://www.g-mb.de/pcmcia_e.html

Not a bad list of cards that do/don't work with the Amiga.

No luck as yet, it's like trying to find a needle in a damn haystack.

Nice list!!

Hurrah, a mate has sorted me with an old card from his office!

It's a 3COM 3C589 which according to Toni Wilen on this thread, will work perfectly with 3c589.device :D

Should have it delivered within a week. Now I have to return the cardbus thing and attempt to get a refund in the state it's in :lol

Yup, that's a good one, found one used for 20 dollars, therefore i didnt get it :P

Now you'll just need to download a TCP stack, Samba, a network filesystem, web browsers, VNC clients... You'll also need to be handy with a text editor to modify all of the config files.

I confidently predict that you'll have a two-machine, multi-OS network running sometime before 2010.

Samba is probably the most difficult bit, assuming you don't go and install some fool TCP stack like AmiTCP, so you'll need this page:

http://www.amigasamba.org/

Note that the installation instructions on the net differ from those supplied in the Samba archive. Can't remember which one is correct, though. I think where one is wrong, the other is right.

I found SMB-Connect, which uses the SMB-Handler device, to be very simple to setup and mount a Windows XP share. All you really have to do is edit the entry in the devs:mountlist file and providing you've entered the right IP addresses, user name and password, you should be up and running very quickly. (There's a GUI included but I prefer to use the command line) It works fine with Miami.

I also use FTPMount ("FTPMount.lha" v1.4 on Aminet) to mount my private FTP site as part of the filesystem.

All these methods should be simple to setup if you have a bit of experience with home networking/file sharing.