Amiga Explorer TCP/IP via serial cable

[Vicky]

What hardware do I need to install TCP/IP? I have Amiga Explorer installed and it works fine. It's slow. I weould like to install TCP/IP .

How do I do that?

Vicky

[thomas]

TCP/IP over serial cable is even slower than a direct serial connection.

If you mean TCP/IP over Ethernet, you need one of these:
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/net

[Vicky]

Well, I have no idea where to get an Amiga Ethernet card and don't have one.

I would REALLY like to get some internet access and, hopefully, some access to my printer and this is probably the only way to do it without an Ethernet card.

http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/13-106

THEN, I can look for an Ethernet card.

I just have no idea how to do it because I have been too long in the Windows world.

Vicky

[Cammy]

If you have a PC running Linux/BSD/OSX/QNX/Unix you could run MultiLink on the Amiga and PC to connect to the internet through the serial cable, it's much easier than installing and configuring a TCP/IP stack on the Amiga and setting up SLIP on the PC.

You can read about it and download it here - http://aminet.net/package/comm/net/mlink132

[Vicky]

I am running Windows XP SP3. I have 5 computers set up on my network and when I finish fixing my desktop, 6 computers). I would like to set up my Amiga with access to the internet and, hopefully, printer access via TCP/IP and the serial cable. They are connected to 3 network printers and a a cable modem and router. I maintain this myself.

I also have an ECS Indivision flicker fixer, 3.1 ROMS and a 3.2GB IDE hard drive that I installed a couple of weeks ago. NOW, I would like to get some internet access. Not fast and not a lot. I'll install an Ethernet card for that when I can afford it.

I have AmiTCP and can't figure out how to get it working. I also have Amiga Explorer and have it running fine via the serial connection. I would like to also set up TCP/IP.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi Vicky,

I find that using tcp/ip on the Amiga is best done through a proper ethernet card. In my opinion, using the parallel ports makes it prohibitively slow and useless for any web browsing or anything. IRC is fine, though.

There are more "user friendly" TCP/IP suites out there. Recently someone put together a very lightweight and easy to set up suite but it is not free. It is handy, though. I can't remember the name, a lot of amiga.org people use it if I remember correctly. I'll try to dig it up for you.

AmiTCP is a bit...broken. The installer doesn't work properly and you have to manually go enter data into the config files, user.startup, things like that. And you have to add the script/executable flags on a bunch of files...what a pain! But when it works, it works

[Vicky]

I am not using the parallel port. I am using the serial port with Amiga Explorer.

If ther are more frioendly programs out there and you could point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it very much.

I cannot afford an Ethernet card at this time.

[Cymru]

Dearest Vicky,

The RoadShow 68K version is dead simple. Unlha it, click install, copy one file from the Storage directory to the DEVS directory and reboot. But RoadShow will set you back about $45 USD. It is the best Amiga program to be written in years.

I am surprised that with all your hardware you don't have an Amiga Ethernet card. One will only set you back about $125 USD. The A2000 can really only connect to your network with one, although there are other slow and problematic options. On the other hand there are expensive and slick options too.

Give us an idea of where you want to go in solving your problem and help will be on the way, i.e., do you want to spend the 45 USD for RoadShow, do you want to configure MiamiDX (free but slower and more of a hassle)? Do you want to buy an Ethernet card?

[Vicky]

I would actually like to eventually do all 3 options. I am MOST interested in seeing if Amiga Explorer will REALLY work with TCP/IP. I have my doubts.

I would like to, in this order, do all 3 of your options.

1. Configure MiamiDx, which is free. It saves my budget this month.

2. Buy RoadShow. See above about budget.

3. Get an Ethernet card.

I don't anticipate needing any help once I do this for the first time. I'm an ex PC network administrator and all I really need is help doing it for the first time. Additionally, my hom,e network has 6 or 7 computers and 3 printers on it and I would really like to have some idea how to do this before I plug into my router and add that piece to the puzzle.

Thanks so much for your offer to help.

[Vicky]

Additionally, getting an Ethernet card in the United States could take a long time. I have ordered parts from Germany and the order takes weeks to arrive AFTER it has been paid for and I lose all ability to track it after it arrives at customs in Frankfurt. Ordering parts from England is just as bad. I have had orders take weeks to come out of pending staus AFTER they have been paid for. I would really like an NTSC to RGB adapter and have been trying for weeks to find an Australian named amigaqmaniac to buy one. Very frustrating.

[Cammy]

Can't you spare one of those six PCs to run Linux? You can install it on a USB stick if you don't have the HDD space. Then it's a really simple matter of installing mlink in Linux, then you log in through a Telnet client on the Amiga, run mlink, close the Telnet client and you're online. This uses far less RAM than any TCP/IP stack on the Amiga and the speed is as fast as you can expect through serial. I have browsed the web, chatted on IRC and MSN, and even VNCed into a PC and ran the desktop remotely through a serial link to a PC and it's totally usable. The slow Amiga doesn't get much faster on the web with a faster connection since it's the CPU slowing the page loading down.

Hey Cammy is there a detailed howto for this anywhere? I think this info would be handy documented somewhere. Sounds like a fun project. I considered doing that through my linux box actually but never got around to it, plus my ariadne is doing just fine plugged into the NAT.

[Doc Mindie]

Cammy... can you do that without a TCP-stack installed? All you need is a Telnet-client? And obviously, the various internet programmes like IRC, webbroser, et.al

I really don't understand how you can do that without a TCP-client

[Cymru]

Originally Posted by Vicky

Additionally, getting an Ethernet card in the United States could take a long time. I have ordered parts from Germany and the order takes weeks to arrive AFTER it has been paid for and I lose all ability to track it after it arrives at customs in Frankfurt. Ordering parts from England is just as bad. I have had orders take weeks to come out of pending staus AFTER they have been paid for. I would really like an NTSC to RGB adapter and have been trying for weeks to find an Australian named amigaqmaniac to buy one. Very frustrating.

I'm not sure of the "long time" to get a working A2065 with an AUI adapter sent from the Mid-West to AZ, I'd like $130 plus the cost of shipping though. I could include a MiamiDX keyfile to complete your Miami DX TCP/IP -- easy to setup if you already know the vocabulary.

As far as an "NTSC to RGB adapter" goes, you will have to define what you need.

[madcap]

Hi guys,

I'm giving mlink a try. But I'm having trouble compiling the Linux side of the program. I'm using Debian and this is what I get when I try to compile it:

./buildmlink 
Multilink Configure

Finding C compiler...
conftest.c: In function ‘main’:
conftest.c:43:5: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘bcopy’ [enabled by default]
conftest.c:43:5: error: too few arguments to function ‘bcopy’
conftest.c: In function ‘main’:
conftest.c:43:5: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘bcopy’ [enabled by default]
conftest.c:43:5: error: too few arguments to function ‘bcopy’
No C compiler!

I'm really not sure if mlink works in Linux (the description says Unix) but since @Cammy said it does I decided to give it a try.

Can anyone help me, please? I want my Amiga online!