Amiga Networking Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Part 1/2
Richard Norman
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Version: 1.8
1. Amiga Networking FAQ
Current version 1.8
Date 01/28/95
The primary purpose of a FAQ is to preserve network bandwidth by answering
Frequently Asked Questions. A FAQ's second purpose is to provide an
altruistic public service to users and vendors.
Copyrightless & Disclaimer
Acknowledgments and Revisions
The FAQ
Related FAQs
Feedback
2. Copyrightless & Disclaimer
=======================
Lack of Copyright Notice
Distribution policy
Disclaimer
3. Lack of Copyright Notice
-----------------------------
With the exception of Trademarks which are the property of their respective
owners, the material contained in this FAQ is PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE, and
therefore is NOT copyrightable.
Richard Norman is merely serving as moderator and maintainer. Anyone has
permission to copy any or all of this FAQ, but you do not have the right
to copyright it.
In the event of my demise :-( or if this FAQ should become dormant for a
period of 4 (four) months, someone else is free to assume the role of
moderator and update the FAQ. I'd prefer someone who was willing to
distribute it in as many formats as possible. Current distribution
includes ASCII, and Amiga guide. They should also distribute it as wide
as possible. News.answers or it's predecessor as a minimum.
4. Distribution policy
---------------------------------
The FAQ may be freely distributed. Portions can be included in derived
works, but may not be exclusively copyrighted (see
Lack of Copyright Notice )
(i.e. You cannot prevent others from using this information in their
derived works.)
- Page 2 -
4. Distribution policy
The FAQ is a compilation of a number of people's work, and answers provided
by users and vendors. Therefore it belongs to no one and to every one
(i.e. Public Knowledge).
5. Disclaimer
------------------------
The information contained in this FAQ is supplied "as is" without express
or implied warranty. I make no representations about the suitability or
accuracy of this document for any purpose.
If you have better information, then please share it. Altruistic
submissions are welcome. Feedback
If someone sees errors, let the moderator know, feedback and it will be
corrected as time permits.
All information provided here is meant for informational purposes and is
not to be taken as an endorsement for any particular product. (Note: in
most cases only one company provides any given service anyway). If anyone
knows of additional relevant products, let the moderator know, feedback
and they'll be added to the list as time permits.
6. Acknowledgments and Revisions
---------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Richard Gerber for being the original moderator.
Richard A. Gerber
email: ger...@zwicky.arc.nasa.gov
Thanks to everyone who posts answers not flames (even if I don't always
live up to the standard myself ;-)
Contributions by: Stefan Becker, Alan Berney, Kai Bolay, Frank Branham,
Andreas Czerniak, Jim Dutton, Arno Eigenwillig, Juha Koivisto, Dale Larson,
Jukka Marin, Neil McRae, Michael Meyer, Michael Smith, Michael Witbrock,
and many others.
Special thanks to the vendors who took time to support this effort.
And last but not least, Thanks to Stephan Surken for the text2guide utility
which got me started.
Date: 01/28/95 -- V1.8--patched for Heddley or other format
Date: 01/01/95 -- V1.7-- Added html, http info, and did some format clean
up in preparation for an HTML version.
Date: 10/14/94 -- V1.6 -- NOT released due to technical difficulties
added stuff about AmiTCP3.0b2 and SLIP install
Date: 9/06/94 -- Finished V1.5
Date: 6/02/94 -- released V1.4 official news version
Date: 4/29/94 -- news.answers Draft release V1.1 -- Richard Norman
Date: 4/29/92 -- Original release V 1.0 -- Richard Gerber
- Page 3 -
6. The FAQ
7. The FAQ
==============
The Amiga Guide version of this FAQ is available on Aminet in the
/pub/aminet/docs/help directory.
Due to the method I'm using to write the FAQ, marking the margins to
indicate new material is not feasible. Look for new questions towards the
end of each list. Also look for "!!!!", strings of exclaimation points
represent new material or news flashes.
Product Availability (A)
Product Specific
General (C)
Generic (G)
Software-Specs
Hardware-Specs
Manufacturers
8. Product Availability (A)
------------------------------------------
A01 What do I need to hook up my Amiga 2,3, 4000 to ethernet?
A02 Can I hook up an Amiga 500, 1000, or 1200 to ethernet?
A03 Is X Windows available for the Amiga?
A04 Is DECnet available?
A05 Is AppleTalk available?
A06 Is Novel Netware available?
A07 Are there any peer-peer network packages for the Amiga?
A08 Is TCP/IP available?
A09 Is Mosaic available?
A10 Is Gopher available?
A11 Is electronic mail available?
A12 Is network multimedia available?
A13 Is UUCP available?
A14 Is SLIP or PPP available?
A15 Is network parallel programming available?
A16 Is Arcnet available?
- Page 4 -
8. Product Availability (A)
A17 What is TIA, and is it useful to an Amiga user?
9. A01
------------------
What do I need to hook up my Amiga 2,3, or 4000 to ethernet?
If the following sounds like geek 8-)
then try the Generic (G) section.
Also you can try the book store for a variety of books on the subject
including "Connect your Amiga!" by Dale Larson of IAM . They can go into
a lot more detail than an FAQ.
You basically have two choices: a direct connection which requires a
ethernet card or a much slower remote connection via the serial port. An
ethernet card is also referred to as an ethernet adapter, an ethernet
controller, or as a network interface card. One reason it is called a
network interface card is that there are other types of networks out there
besides ethernet ( ARCNET for example). Ethernet is just extremely
popular.
There are several cards to choose from and they support different ethernet
cable types. See the generic section for a description of cable types.
See the product specs section to see which cards support which cables.
In addition to the card you will need a protocol to communicate to other
hosts or nodes. See a description of protocols in the generic section. The
protocols all require configuration such as an address which you should
get from your network administrator or service provider.
Ethernet cards:
The A2065 Ethernet Network Interface Adapter is by
Commodore Business Machines . The A4066 Ameristar ethernet card
supersedes the A2065 card. LAN Rover is by ASDG and is now called
the EB920. Also there is a card called the Hydra . All of these cards
are full size and most are SANA II compatible. Cheap PC ethernet cards
can be used in conjunction withe the GG2 bus+ card from
Software Results Enterprises .
A hybrid card called Ariadne by Village Tronic includes both ethernet
and parallel ports on the same card.
All these cards can be used with protocol software such as Commodore
AS225 TCP/IP Networking Software, TSSnet DECnet software by
Thunder Ridge, Inc. , and Netware by Oxxi . Also ENLAN-DFS , and
Envoy provide Amiga to Amiga networking using these cards.
Resource Management Force has a zorro II card called QuickNet which
uses thin ethernet, and special Amiga to Amiga software.
Serial port:
If you have a high speed modem and somewhere to dial into for ethernet
access, then you can use either SLIP or PPP with TCP-IP or one of the
AmigaNOSFlavors to become a full fledged TCP/IP node on the network. It
won't be as fast as a direct ethernet connection, but you can still do a
lot. Also, DECnet will work with the serial port. Again the speed being
the big trade-off.
No place to dial into? You can usually find a book on the Internet at a
- Page 5 -
9. A01
bookstore that lists the major providers, but your local user groups and
BBS users can provide good insight into which are the best or cheapest.
Or if you have email look at the WAN providers section.
Although it is feasible to use SLIP & TCP/IP over a modem to connect to a
friend's modem and machine, it is not necessary, and is much more
difficult to setup than modem software. Although there are a few more
things you can do with this type of connection, it is not for the novice
at this time.
10. A02
-----------------
Can I hook up an Amiga 500,1000, 1200 to ethernet?
Yes, Almost all Amiga models can be hooked to the ethernet. Using the
serial port is the cheapest, but the fastest is a direct connect using an
ethernet adapter card.
For the 1200 Interworks has an ethernet card called ICard that will
support the major protocols. They also have some Amiga peer to peer
software products for the ICard.
For the 500 and 1000:
The A2065 has reportedly been used successfully with third-party
expansion boxes, such as Bodega Bay. It has also been reported that the
A2065 card can be used with the Slingshot expansion device used with an
Amiga 500 and a SupraDrive 500XP's pass-through.
The A2065 has been superseded by the Ameristar A4066 . Don't know if
it works with the A500 or A1000.
The serial port approach for TCP/IP is supported by several
AmigaNOSFlavors or AmiTCP or AS225r2 all of which require SLIP
or PPP to use the serial port. DECnet can be also be used with the
serial port.
11. A03
----------------
Is X Windows available for the Amiga?
X11R4 full color for the Amiga is available from GfxBase, Inc. .
Also available are XView, OpenLook, Motif, programmers toolkits, and
Berkeley sockets library. X Windows supports Commodore TCP/IP and TSSnet
DECnet for ethernet and serial connections, SANA for local. A demo
version is available on Aminet in /pub/aminet/gfx/X11
In the same directory you can find DaggeX. More info on this later.
Also check out the X11 FAQ for help with X specific questions.
12. A04
----------------
Is DECnet available?
TSSnet DECnet from Thunder Ridge, Inc. allows your Amiga to be a phase
IV end node in a DECnet network. TSSnet supports X11R4 from
GfxBase, Inc. which provides DECWindows support for applications
running on a VAX system. TSSnet DECnet can communicate over ethernet as
well as the Amiga serial port.
- Page 6 -
12. A05
13. A05
----------------
Is AppleTalk available?
There are a few implementations of AppleTalk software and LocalTalk
hardware available for the Amiga. For Amiga 2,3, and 4000's the AMAX
board and the Emplant board offer Localtalk and Appletalk options.
14. A06
----------------
Is Novel Netware available?
A Novel Netware client package is available from Oxxi Several people have
posted that the client is not SANA II compatible yet. If you need
this, then please contact Oxxi for the latest info. I hope to post more
info in a future version of the FAQ.
15. A07
----------------
Are there any peer-peer network packages for the Amiga?
Yes, several.
ENLAN-DFS from Interworks provides peer to peer networking and
Distributed File System over SANA II compatible hardware.
Envoy from IAM provides peer to peer networking for Amigas that is
tied very close to the operating system. It too is SANA II compatible.
Resource Management Force has a zorro II card called QuickNet which
uses thin ethernet, and special Amiga to Amiga software.
ALAN-FS is a peer-to-peer network package that allows full transparent
file-sharing, device sharing over ethernet. It requires WB2.0 and the
Commodore AS225 package. It is available from GfxBase, Inc , or
Canadian Prototype Replicas . NOTE: Current Product status unknown.
FEEDBACK appreciated.
Dnet --- Dnet has client/server software for both Amiga-Amiga and
Amiga-UNIX networking over a serial line. Among other things Dnet supports
shells, file transfer, IRC, and something like NFS. Dnet is available on
Aminet . Don't have any more info at this time FeedBack appreciated.
PARnet/PARbench --- PARbench is a workbench installable version of PARnet
which allows two Amigas to be networked using a parallel port and cable.
It is basically file sharing.
16. A08
----------------
Is TCP/IP available?
Yes, three public domain versions, and a commercial version.
AS225 by Commodore Business Machines is a commercial version which
supports NFS.
- Page 7 -
16. A08
AmiTCP is a gnu public license version of TCP/IP ( see the
AmiTCP FAQ for more details). AmiTCP is available from Aminet
AmigaNOS and AmigaNOSGW are two AmigaNOSFlavors which provide TCP/IP
over the serial port and modem. Also AmigaNOS supports a HAM radio/X.25
interface.
17. A09
----------------
Is Mosaic available?
Yes, a public domain version called Amosaic is available using FTP from
max.physics.sunysb.edu Or on Aminet under comm/net.
Updates are available by accessing the Amiga home page using Amosaic.
It requires AmigaDos 3.x and TCP/IP to access remote hosts. See the product
specific section AMosaic(AM) for more hints.
Also see the generic section for a description of Mosaic. G08
18. A10
----------------
Is Gopher available?
Yes, Graham Walter has written a Gopher client for AmiTCP and AmigaNOSGW
(not to be confused with John Heaton's AmigaNOS) see AmigaNOSFlavors
There is an AmigaNOS-FAQ available as well.
The AmiTCP gopher client is available on Aminet
19. A11
----------------
Is electronic mail available?
Yes, the DECnet package from Thunder Ridge, Inc. supports VMSmail.
AmigaELM supports UUCP mail.
Both packages require a mail utility on a remote host.
You should also pick up a copy of InetUtils from Aminet. It has a SMTP
client which is suppose to work with AmigaELM. SMTP is the Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol or the Send Mail To People protocol as my friend calls
it. SMTP is a defined standard for email over the TCP/IP protocol and
therefore is widely used on the Internet. This SMTP client is not
suppose to require a remote mailbox.
Graham Walter has uploaded a SMTP daemon for AmiTCP to Aminet
Also available for both AmigaNOSflavors is a mail agent called BM,
B-Dale's Messy-Dos Mailer. It doesn't have as nice an interface as Elm,
but is easy to use and can build RFC822 formatted files.
There are probably others which I've missed Feedback
20. A12
----------------
Is network based multimedia available?
- Page 8 -
20. A12
InfoChannel is a SCALA, Inc. product that can run over LAN's or modems.
It allows remote Amiga multimedia stations to be controlled from a central
Amiga host. Data can also be stored centrally and supplied upon demand.
InfoChannel also comes with tools and graphics for creating a multimedia
service such as a kiosk.
Also Amosaic can be used as a multimedia hypertext user interface for
both local and remote data.
21. A13
----------------
Is UUCP available?
Yes, UUCP has been ported to the Amiga as AmigaUUCP.
It is available on Fred Fish and Aminet as AmigaUUCP.
It has it's own FAQ. See UUCP FAQ There are also generic UUCP FAQ's
available in the FAQ archive .
22. A14
----------------
Is SLIP or PPP available?
SLIP is available as part of AmiTCP. You can check the AmiTCP FAQ
for more info. AmiTCP can be found on Aminet . More details on SLIP will
be added to this FAQ as they become known Feedback hint, hint. ;-)
Several versions of PPP are under development. A shareware version was
recently released. I believe it is called PPP.device. You can look for it
on Aminet or watch the comp.sys.amiga.announce and
comp.sys.amiga.datacomm newsgroups for updates.
23. A15
---------------------
Is network parallel programming available?
TorqueWare (TM) is by AugmenTek and allows parallel programming
between several Amigas. Also an Amiga running AugmenTek's TorqueWare can
act as a client to a SGI or Mac running TorqueWare by Torque Systems.
24. A16
------------------
Is Arcnet available?
I don't know of any,...
!!!!!!!!!!! Memory Flash !!!!!!!!
What I should have said is that I didn't _remember_ any ;-)
Of course, CBM released the A2060 for the Amiga 2000, and the A560 for the
A500. You can probably still find these used, and apparently there is a
SANA II driver for them called ch2060.device by Carsten Heyl. Look on
Aminet.
- Page 9 -
24. A16
Thanks to Frank, and Daniel for flushing my memory cache.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CSA was working on some, but are on hold pending the outcome of the CBM
liquidation. Contact CSA if you are interested.
Arcnet runs at about 2.5 Mbits/sec which is a lot faster than parnet or
Appletalk, but not as fast as ethernet. Arcnet hardware is cheaper than
ethernet, however, so for a small shop they may be a better deal.
25. A17
-------------------
What is TIA, and is it useful to an Amiga User?
TIA ==> The Internet Adapter (TM)
by Cyberspace Development, Inc. (CSD).
It is a commercial software product that enables shell account users to
have partial SLIP access to the Internet without paying the extra monthly
surcharge, and without having to have an Internet address. Since TIA runs
on the service providers host, Amiga users can take advantage of it too.
Although the service provider misses out on some revenue, they also miss
out on a lot of management headaches from SLIP. Check with your service
provider to see if TIA is endorsed.
The drawback to TIA is that you don't have your own internet address, and
therefore no one can telnet or FTP to your machine. This does not stop you
from running Mosaic or FTP *OUT*. Just the incoming is unavailable. In
other words you can act only as a client not a server.
Another drawback is that you still have to have SLIP on the Amiga side.
TIA basically sets up a software gateway that speaks SLIP to your Amiga
over the serial port of the host, and TCP/IP over the host's ethernet
card. TIA doesn't allow the AmiTCP packets to pass directly to the
Internet therefore your machine has no address as far as the Internet is
concerned. The Internet only sees the service host. TIA makes the service
host make TCP/IP requests on your behalf and then passes you back the
results. This does not work for some TCP/IP utilities such as ping. Think
of it as layers or stacks the data must filter through with TIA as a
middleman or translator.
|====< AMIGA >====| |====< Service Host >======|
| AMosaic | | TIA <====GW====> TCP/IP |
| AmiTCP | |your Shell Account || |
| SLIP | | | || |
| serial port | | serial ethernet|
|====|---|========| |===|---|===========|++++|=|
| | ||
modem<--serial line-->modem ||
ethernet LAN
- Page 10 -
25. A17
||
Internet & WWW
There are well written docs available on line from CSD that explain TIA
much better. You can FTP them from marketplace.com. You can also use
gopher and Mosaic to the same site.
26. Product Specific
================
Amosaic section is NEW!
CBM TCPIP (B)
Envoy (E)
AMosaic(AM)
AmiTCP (AT)
27. CBM TCPIP (B)
---------------------------------------
Questions about Commodore's TCPIP software
B01 I can't login to my Amiga over the network. Why?
B02 When I FTP to some hosts, I get part of an introductory
message and then either the network hangs up or
the connection gets closed. Why?
B03 Is Domain Name Resolution available with the AS225 software?
B04 Can I use NFS to mount a partition on my Amiga from a remote
machine?
B05 I can't use FTP, rsh or rcp into my Amiga. Why?
B06 FTP into my Amiga works, but rsh and rcp into my Amiga don't.
B07 I can communicate with machines on my network/floor/building,
but I can't communicate with other machines even though they
are in my inet:db/hosts file.
28. B01
--------------------
I can't login to my Amiga over the network. Why?
The AS225 software does not support interactive remote logins to the
Amiga. It does have servers for rsh (remote shell), rcp (remote copy) and
does support remote FTP logins. rsh allows you to execute commands on the
Amiga, but does not allow an interactive shell.
Late breaking news which I haven't had time to research: For AmiTCP
there are supposedly two utilities on Aminet called tnserv.lha and
FtpDaemon.lha that provide remote telnet and FTP to an Amiga. Don't know
how well they work or if they will work with AS225r2 .. You can consult
the AmiTCP FAQ or stay tuned for future releases of this FAQ. Or better
- Page 11 -
28. B01
yet, download them and see for yourself ;-)
29. B02
-------------------
When I FTP to some hosts, I get part of an introductory message and then
either the network hangs up or the connection gets closed. Why?
There apparently is a bug in the AS225 software that causes trouble when
ftp'ing to a system that has a long login message. You can suppress this
login message on some systems by typing a hyphen ('-') as the first
character in your password.
30. B03
-------------------
Is Domain Name Resolution available with the AS225 software?
For AS225r1: No. You must have an entry in the host table for each machine
you wish to reference by name (as opposed to IP address). Also the
gateways file is not currently used.
For As225r2: Yes. All variants support DNS, and gateway. These functions
are turned off and on via the config files and the ConfigINet utility.
31. B04
--------------------
Can I use NFS to mount a partition on my Amiga from a remote machine?
For AS225r1: No. Currently, the AS225 software only supports NFS as a
client. An NFS server is not included.
For AS225r2: Yes. NFSd the NFS server is included. The 'd' stands for
daemon which is a term used by the un*x community for a program which runs
continously and watches for certain events, and then loads the appropriate
program to handle a given event.
Not all variants of AS225r2 contain the NFSd.
32. B05
------------------
I can't use FTP, rsh or rcp into my Amiga. Why?
Make sure that you are running inet:s/start-inet with the servers keyword
(i.e., "execute inet:s/start-inet servers").
33. B06
--------------------
FTP into my Amiga works, but rsh and rcp into my Amiga don't.
Make sure that you have an entry in inet:db/passwd for the user who is
rshing into the Amiga (you can use the -l option to change the user trying
to do the remote access.) Make sure that you have an entry in
inet:db/hosts.equiv for the machine being rsh'd from.
34. B07
-------------------
- Page 12 -
34. B07
I can communicate with machines on my network/floor/building, but I can't
communicate with other machines even though they are in my inet:db/hosts
file.
Make sure that you have routes set up to other networks. Many networks
have one primary gateway which you should make your default route for
reaching all other networks. See the commented-out "route add default"
line in inet:s/start-inet.
35. Envoy (E)
---------------------------------------
Questions about Envoy
E1 How do I configure a machine which has both an Amiga Link
and an ethernet connection so that machines on either network
can see each other?
36. E1
-----------------
How do I configure a machine which has both an Amiga Link and an ethernet
connection so that machines on either network can see each other?
Given machines A, B, and C with node B having both Amiga Link and Ethernet
card (Quicknet) as shown below, and all running Envoy.
A <=== Alink ===> B <=== Ethernet ===> C
In order for node A to access node C or vice versa use the following
configuration scheme: (IP addresses for example only!)
node A node B node C
IP-Address: 244.1.a.a 244.1.b1.b1 244.1.c.c
244.2.b2.b2
Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0 255.255.0.0 255.255.0.0
255.255.0.0
Use Realm: yes yes yes
Realm-Serv: NO yes yes
Realm-Name: NET NET NET
Serv-Addr: 244.1.b1.b1 244.1.b1.b1 244.2.b2.b2
Def GateWay: 244.1.b1.b1 ------ 244.2.b2.b2
Loc Realms: ------ NET 244.1.0.0 -------
Loc Realms: NET 244.2.0.0
Rem Realms: ------ ------ ------
where b1.b1, and a.a are the AmigaLink hardware addresses. i.e. the last
two bytes of the IP address MUST match the hardware address on the
AmigaLink interfaces.
On the ethernet interfaces, however, b2.b2 and c.c can be anything since
- Page 13 -
36. E1
Envoy supports ARP on ethernet.
NOTE: the IP addresses are for example ONLY! Unless you manage all the
nodes concerned you must coordinate the IP addresses with your network
administrator or provider.
This example basically creates two TCP/IP domains: 244.1 and 244.2 Each
domain can have multiple nodes. Node B serves as the gateway between the
two domains. If you were to set up additional gateways to other domains,
you would use the route command on each node that you wished to enable
communications to the new domain. The route command merely tells TCP/IP
which gateway or router to use for data that is to be sent to a particular
domain thus providing a more direct path, and avoiding sending
unnecessary traffic to other parts of the network.
The gateway provides access to other parts of a network that would not
otherwise be directly accessible. A router is dedicated to keeping track of
routes to various domains. On large networks your default gateway will
often point to a router thus negating the need to maintain route commands
on each node.
For further discussion of domains and beginner info on the Internet you
should refer to ZEN
37. AMosaic(AM)
---------------------------------------
NOTE: for more info on Mosaic check out Clive Thomas's Amosaic-FAQ
Questions about AMosaic
AM1 What do I need to run AMosaic?
AM2 Is there a way to print from AMosaic using arexx?
AM3 Having problems with "service looping" with http?
AM4 How do I connect to a news server with AMosaic?
AM5 How do I access docs in AMosaic NoNet mode?
AM6 How do I make AMosaic appear on a custom screen?
AM7 How do I change AMosaic's preferences?
38. AM1
-------------------
What do I need to run AMosaic?
*A link to the Internet
*Any Amiga running AmigaDos 3.0 or higher.
( Show your support for the Amiga... Buy 3.1! )
Aminet is the place to go for all the rest of this stuff!
* Amosaic V1.2 (latest is available on max.physics.sunysb.edu)
* MUI 2.0 or higher
* AmiTCP 3.0b2 or DNET
* SLIP (included with AmiTCP) or PPP
- Page 14 -
38. AM1
* INetUtils (optional adds SMTP, etc.)
* FTPd (optional allows inbound FTP)
*The following utilities are used by default by Amosaic, but you can
use others: amisox, edplay, zgif, ams
They are available via Amosaic once you get it up and going.
AmiTCP can be a bear to install, but if you read ALL of the docs it should
go easier. Also they have real nice postscript docs available via
anonymous FTP. Read the AmiTCP FAQ for the location.
DNET may be more useful if you are connecting to a UNIX host, but I have
no direct experience with DNET. I'm still looking for someone to
contribute some info on DNET! feedback
39. AM2
--------------------
Is there a way to print from AMosaic using arexx?
Thanks to a Quick and Dirty Hack by Mike Meyer there is!
Although I tried to type it in correctly, I cannot guarantee that it will
work since I have no way to test it.
/ *
* A QAD hack to print from Mosaic via the Rexx interface
*/
arg style
if ~show('Libraries', 'rexxarplib.library') then
if ~addlib('rexxarplib.library', 0, -30) then do
say "No rexxarplib, so no posting!"
exit
end
options results
select
when style = "TEXT" then 'get text'
when style = "FORMATTED" then 'get formatted'
when style = "POSTSCRIPT" then do
call request 0, 0, "Postscript doesn't work yet!"
exit
end
otherwise call request 0, 0, "Invalid argument" style
end
- Page 15 -
39. AM2
if ~open(printer, "prt:", "Write") then do
call request 0, 0, "Can't open printer!"
exit
end
call writech printer, result
exit
40. AM3
-------------------
Having problems with "service looping" with http?
There is a version of the AmiTCP 3.0 Beta 2 inetd which is better behaved.
It is available via anonymous FTP at remarque.berkeley.edu as
/pub/mwm/inetd_for_httpd
41. AM4
--------------------
How do I connect to a news server with AMosaic?
You specify the NNTPSERVER environment variable. This can be done at
user-startup or from a shell. Use the setenv command. SETENV NNTPSERVER
a.news.server.youre.allowed.on
42. AM5
-------------------
How do I access docs in AMosaic NoNet mode?
The Amosaic NoNet version can run in stand alone mode ( i.e. NO NETwork).
This is for testing purposes before you get your network connection. In
v1.2 or earlier you are greeted with an error message instead of a
document in this NoNet mode.
To see the local html files you must use the Open Local menu item and then
choose volumes. You must go all the way to the list of volumes because
this allows you to build the file pointer from scratch. Choose the volume
where Amosaic is stored and then work your way down to the docs/html
directory. There should be a file called index.html. Choose it and it
should open. There is a way to make this your default home page, but I'm
not sure how. At any rate, you should be able to access any of the LOCAL
html files in this manner. Once you open the index.html file it has
hypertext links to many of the other local html documents. It also has
remote links which obviously won't work in NoNet mode.
43. AM6
-------------------
How do I make AMosaic appear on a custom screen?
You can make AMosaic appear on a custom screen by using the MUI Prefs,
BUT don't do it while Amosaic is running!!! If AMosaic is running when
you change the MUI prefs to a custom screen, it will crash your machine.
Simple fix: Run MUI prefs and change the screen, and THEN run AMosaic.
- Page 16 -
43. AM7
44. AM7
--------------------
How do I change AMosaic's preferences?
In order to change AMosaic's preferences such as which page is the default
home page you can edit one of the files in the envarc:mosaic dir or you
get AMprefs which is available on the AMosaic home page. For more help get
Clive Thomas's Amosaic-FAQ
45. AmiTCP(AT)
--------------------------
!!!!!!!!!!!!!! News Flash !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These questions were triggered by 3.0b2 which should no longer be used.
Version 4.0 demo of AmiTCP has been officially released to Aminet .
Although it is a "demo", it is fully functional. There will be a
commercial version of AmiTCP available with new features.
NOTE: Do not install v4.0 over a non-working version of 3.0b2. Delete all
the 3.0b2 files off the system (i.e. wipe the slate clean).
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Questions about AmiTCP
AT01 Telnet in 3.0b2 locks up my shell when I exit. Is this a bug?
AT02 Startnet in 3.0b2 says there is "no such interface" why?
AT03 My provider assigns SLIP addresses dynamically. Now What?
AT04 How do I get SLIP to work with AmiTCP?
46. AT01
--------------------
Telnet in 3.0b2 locks up my shell when I exit. Is this a bug?
Yes, and is quite typical of BETA software. Remember beta software is
still under construction and has not been extensively tested. Bug reports
and patches can be found on kampi.hut.fi
Amitcp 3.0b2 telnet when used with AmigaDOS 3.0 or 3.1 uncovered a bug in
the console software.
Solution is to either
A) use the telnet from 2.3 of AmiTCP or
B) use a console handler like KingCON which is available on Aminet
C) get a "fixed" version of telnet from kampi.hut.fi
47. AT02
--------------------
Startnet in 3.0b2 says there is "no such interface" why?
Because you failed to read the NOTE to BETA testers. This is BETA
- Page 17 -
47. AT02
software; so you ARE a Beta tester. BETA software is still under
construction and therefore so are the manuals and the install script.
There are some postscript manuals available for AmiTCP 2.x The 3.0 stuff
hasn't been added to the postscript manuals yet, so the postscript docs
aren't in the 3.0 archive, but they are available online at kampi.hut.fi
and other places.
To fix the "no such interface" problem you must edit two files:
amitcp:db/interfaces and amitcp:bin/startnet.
In amitcp:bin/startnet you must change the ifconfig commands so that
instead of file name/interface number
devs:network/a2065.device/0
you have
alias0
where alias is defined by you in the interfaces file.
Some predefined aliases are already in the interfaces file. In fact the
a2065.device is defined as ether. Therefore you could have changed the
above to ether0 in startnet and not had to change the interface file.
Also, you must change the lo/0 to lo0 in the startnet file because the
slash between the name and the unit number has been dropped and will
generate an error if you include it.
48. AT03
--------------------
My provider assigns SLIP addresses dynamically. Now What?
Now you have an excuse to learn arexx or shell scripts. ;-)
Actually some have already been written and posted. Here is one way to do
it. (NOTE: I HAVE NO WAY TO TEST THIS PROGRAM SO USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK )
In fact, it will NOT work as is. You MUST modify it for your system.
/*REXX*/
/* go slip! a program to create slip scritps with dynamic address */
/* usage rx goslip.rexx <dynamic ip address> */
option results
trace off
If = '0a'x
address REQUESTSTRING 'rtitle="GoSlip" text="Please enter your IP
address." '
direccion = result
/* changed from 19200 */
outdriver = 'baudbandit.device 0 57600 ' || direccion ' CD 7WIRE'
say outdriver
foo = open('outfile','ENV:sana2/rhslip0.config','Write')
- Page 18 -
48. AT03
foo = writeln('outfile',outdriver)
call close 'outfile'
address REQUESTSTRING 'rtitle="GoSlip" text="Please enter your
host name.(slip#, w/ out amiga.com)" '
trob = result
gene = 'HOST 128.200.142.228 ' || trob || lf || 'DOMAIN amiga.com' || lf
||'NAMESERVER 128.200.192.202' || lf ||
'NAMESERVER128.200.1.201'
foo = open('outfile','amitcp:db/netdb-myhost','Write')
foo = writeln('outfile',gene)
call close 'outfile'
address command
'run >NIL: AmiTCP:AmiTCP'
WaitForPort AMITCP
'AmiTCP:bin/ifconfig lo0 localhost'
'AmiTCP:bin/ifconfig slip0' direccion '128.200.1.201'
'AmiTCP:bin/route add' direccion 'localhost'
'AmiTCP:bin/route add default 128.200.1.201'
'Assign TCP: Exists > NIL:'
/* 'if warn' */
'Mount TCP: from AmiTCP:devs/inet-mountlist'
/* 'endif' */
'run >NIL: amitcp:bin/inetd'
49. AT04
--------------------
How do I get SLIP to work with AmiTCP?
Use AmiTCP 4.0 demo, since it is the easiest to install. It still isn't as
easy as it should be, but with a little patience... run the amitcp
installer, but do NOT reboot.
For slip you don't want AmiTCP started at boot time, but you do want the
INETD started when AmiTCP starts.
- Page 19 -
49. AT04
edit your password file in the amitcp:db directory, and add a new user
with a password of nothing (i.e. nothing between the bars || ). If you
want to avoid typing a password each time you start AmiTCP, then edit your
startnet file in the amitp:bin directory, and change the default user to
the new user you just added to the password file.
You can reboot now so that the assigns are all in place.
Make sure your modem doesn't hang up when DTR goes low. (AT&D0 on most
modems).
Use your terminal program to connect, and start the remote slip.
Quit the term program, and run the amitcp startnet program. If you have
dynamic IP numbers, you'll have to run a script which builds the startnet
file with the number, and then runs it (See the previous question.)
50. General (C)
------------------------
C01 What terminal emulations are available over ethernet?
C02 Can I use multiple protocol stacks on my Amiga at the
same time?
C03 I only have two machines, an Amiga and __________.
How can I exchange data without a net?
C04 How can I uudecode messages from binary newsgroups?
51. C01
-----------------
What terminal emulations are available over ethernet?
The AS225 package allows rlogin using the Amiga console (a termcap is
supplied) only. A separate rloginVT program is supplied for VT100
emulation. Under X Windows, xterm provides terminal emulation that
typically works with all software available on the host.
AS225r2 provides telnet and nterm (telnet with VT100).
TSSnet DECnet provides VT100 terminal emulation using the DECnet CTERM
facility or use your favorite VT compatible Amiga terminal program
including VLT.
VLT works with TSSnet DECnet, Enlan, and with tn3270.device for
AS225r2 . VLT provides Tektronix and DEC terminal emulation.
52. C02
------------------
Can I use multiple protocol stacks on my Amiga at the same time?
If all desired protocol stacks support the SANA II standard, several
protocols can be run simultaneously on the same A2065 card. Some
commercially available versions of the network protocol stacks support the
SANA II specification now. But if they don't, you can have multiple
hardware interfaces to run different protocols on the same machine
simultaneously (i.e. one A2065 used for TCP/IP and one used for
Netware).
53. C03
----------------
- Page 20 -
53. C03
I only have two machines, an Amiga and __________.
How can I exchange data without a net?
Four solutions come to mind. From least to most expensive:
1) Floppies
If the data will fit on a 720k floppy( or 1.4M floppy if you have the High
density drive) then you have it made. see appropriate section below for
details on your computer setup.
2) NULL Modem cable
If the two machines are in the same room a null modem cable is useful for
moving larger amounts of data. You will need software in addition to the
cable. You can write your own or use something like TwinExpress which is
on Aminet . In addition to moving files TwinExpress will also allow you
to print remotely. For example, If you have a postscript printer hooked to
the PC's LPT2 port, then
copy hd0:psfiles/mydoc.ps ~LPT2
will send the postscript file over the nullmodem cable to the PC printer.
3) External SCSI
The next cheapest solution is to get a SCSI external drive with removable
media such as a Syquest or Bernoulli. See below for details.
4) Ethernet
Of course there is nothing wrong with setting up an ethernet LAN between
just two machines other than cost.
PC clone to/from Amiga
--------------------------------
Floppies and removable media can be formatted in MSDOS format. The Amiga
can then read and write to them using CrossDos which is included in
AmigaDOS 2.x and higher. CrossDos can also format a MSDOS disk, but it
takes a while.
Mac to/from Amiga
--------------------------
The Mac can also read and write MSDOS format floppies using the Apple File
Exchange utility which comes with the Mac operating system. AFE is not
automatically installed so you may have to get off the master diskettes if
you cannot find it on your Mac. AFE can also format a disk as MSDOS. AFE
MUST BE RUNNING BEFORE you insert the MSDOS disk or it won't recognize
it!!
54. C04
--------------
How can I uudecode messages from binary newsgroups?
MASSDECODE is an ARexx script by Gregg Giles which will scan all
newsgroups for uuencoded binaries, joins the parts of a single binary, and
decodes the binary. Ideal for those who want to have binary newsgroups
decoded automatically and have the resulting binaries put online for their
users to download and/or access.
- Page 21 -
54. C04
It is available from Aminet as comm/news/MassDecode1.1.lha
55. Generic (G)
============
Help with basic terminology, not complete answers.
G01 What is a network?
G01a Hardware
G01b Protocols
G01c Applications
G02 What is the Internet and Usenet?
G03 How do I connect?
G03a modem to modem
G03b modem to commercial services
G03c direct to WAN provider
G04 What is a server?
G05 What is an archive?
G06 What is a mirror?
G07 What are Gopher, WWW, and WAIS?
G08 What are Mosaic, html, http, and browser?
G09 What are Veronica and Archie?
G10 What is news?
G11 What is a Set top?
56. G01
--------------------
What is a network?
short answer: Interconnected computers.
A network is two or more computers that can interconnect in a peer to peer
or client to server fashion most often over a shared and often virtual
connection. This is in direct contrast to the old terminal to host hard
wired connection. A network can still support terminal to host connections
via terminal emulators or terminal servers, but provides much greater
flexibility in switching connections.
A network is accomplished using three basic components. Hardware,
protocols (software), and Applications (useful software ;-) Each of these
is actually comprised of several layers, but we won't worry with the
details. There are many books on the subject as well as technical specs
for the standards. But you will need some knowledge of the lingo in order
to configure your networking software correctly. Consulting with your LAN
administrator or WAN service provider is also highly advisable for
checking your network software configuration.
- Page 22 -
56. G01
Among the many books on the subject is "Connect your Amiga!" by Dale
Larson of IAM . I mention Dale's book because it explicitly deals with
the Amiga whereas most of the rest are generic.
The concept of layers is very important to networking and computer designs
as well. Each layer "protects" the layer above from the layer below so
that one layer can change with minimum impact on the upper layers. In some
cases this protection is so good that an application may not know that it
is running on different hardware. The OSI network model defines seven
layers, but we are going to reduce it to three broad categories.
a => hardware b => protocols c => applications
G01a
G01b
G01c
57. G01a
------------------------
Hardware
At the heart of a network is a shared cable often called a Backbone.
In the simple case this is a PARnet cable to connect two Amigas via the
parallel port. Both machines share the cable. A more complex example is
an ethernet cable which without special equipment can be 1000ft in
length or more with a hundred or so computers attached all interconnecting
at once. This is known as a LAN or Local Area Network. A cheaper but far
more limited LAN Backbone is Localtalk which Apple unleashed upon the
world.
bridges, routers, and gateways Oh my!
To overcome the distance and node limitation of ethernet wiring you need
at least a bridge which basically acts as a repeater. A bridge can also do
a limited amount of filtering so that traffic between the LAN segments is
more efficient.
There are also distance limitations with bridges, so a more complex piece
of equipment is needed called a router. A router provides many more tools
for controlling the flow of information between segments, and can even
provide some level of security. Special security configurations of routers
are know as firewalls. For really long distances leased lines or
satellite links are used between the routers thus forming a Wide Area
Network or WAN. These links are usually provided by common carriers or
some WAN providers .
This all works great as long as the two machines are the same brand, but
since there is more than one vendor there is more than one "language"
called a protocol for communicating. A gateway must be used to translate
between the protocols. As an alternative to a gateway, some routers are
able to handle multiple protocols at the same time. Gateways are also
used most heavily for converting between electronic mail formats or to go
between two different physical media such as ethernet and Localtalk or
ethernet and SLIP. See the Envoy specific question section for an
example.
The gateway provides access to other parts of a network that would not
otherwise be directly accessible. A router is dedicated to keeping track of
routes through gateways and other routers to various domains. On large
networks your default gateway will often point to a router.
- Page 23 -
57. G01a
The distinction between gateways, routers, and bridges is not absolute
since many of the functions of each can be included in a single product.
In fact some companies call their product a brouter because it performs
both as a bridge and a router.
Another device that is used on large networks is called a __NAMESERVER__.
A nameserver maintains a database of machine names and their numeric
addresses. Computers use numbers, but humans use names. The nameserver
allows the computer to look up the numeric address when you use a name.
In addition to the nameserver you can maintain a HOSTS file locally which
is used first by your computer when trying to translate a name into a
number.
The above terminology is slanted towards the TCP/IP protocol because that
is (for better or worse) what you will most likely encounter.
ethernet cable
58. ethernet cable
------------------------------------
While looking through the What's New page of Mosaic, I stumbled across the
Ethernet Web Page. It references an ethernet FAQ from the
comp.dcom.lans.ethernet news group. So if you don't find your answer in
this crude introduction then try their FAQ.
the URL for the web page is:
http://wwwhost.ots.utexas.edu/ethernet/ethernet-home.html
the gopher URL for the FAQ is:
gopher://mojo.ots.utexas.edu/11/netinfo/ethernet/ethernet-faq
An ethernet cable comes in several flavors. The maximum length of your LAN
segment is determined by which flavor you choose or which flavors you
intermix. There is twisted pair, thin coax and thick coax ethernet
cables. Each of these are rated at 10Mbit per second.
Note that this is the TOTAL capacity (bandwidth) of the cable NOT the
speed between any two nodes. The speed between nodes is determined by how
many nodes are trying to communicate at any given time. Even with only two
nodes communicating you will NOT get the entire bandwidth of the cable.
The maximum is usually only around three Mega bits per second.
The thick coax was the first used. It ran as a backbone through a building
with taps and drop cables for each node (computer).
Thin coax came into favor because of lower cost and ease of installation.
Thus thin coax is often called cheaper net. It has a shorter overall
maximum length than thick. It is routed in a daisy chain style using tee
connectors at each node. There are adapters to go between thick and thin,
but your overall length can be reduced to that of thin. There are devices
called hubs which may not reduce the limit and can provide conversion
between one cable type to another.
Twisted pair is the current rage because it can be used for other things
as well, such as voice. You can wire an entire building with twisted pair
and decide at the wiring closet what service will be provided. Ethernet
over twisted pair is called 10BaseT and is most often configured as a star
with an ethernet concentrator at the center usually in a wiring closet.
The concentrator allows for the longer length required for a star
configuration. Using a concentrator provides the LAN administrator a lot
of other benefits and options such as diagnostic tools and functions for
- Page 24 -
58. ethernet cable
monitoring the health of the LAN segment.
Several grades of twisted pair wire exist. The best class can also carry
FDDI which is a fairly new high speed token-ring style network
architecture. FDDI can handle speeds of 100Mbit per second. FDDI is usually
carried over fiber optic cable for long distances. There are also Gigabit
per second network architectures for short distance applications such as a
cluster of compute servers. As far as I know there are NO FDDI or faster
adapters for the Amiga at this time.
So the same wire can carry either FDDI or Ethernet so how do they differ?
Good question. It is obviously NOT just the wire. Ethernet and FDDI are
also specifications for how the electrical signals will be transmitted and
interpreted over the wire. The Ethernet spec was originally developed by
Xerox and DEC, and is now defined by the IEEE standards committee. IEEE
802.3 is one of the main ethernet standards in use.
One reason FDDI came into being is that ethernet performance degrades
rapidly as you approach the capacity of the bandwidth. This means you are
limited in the number of nodes that a LAN segment can support. Depending
on the activity level of the nodes you may be able to support as many as
100 nodes on a LAN segment. Beyond that and you should consider
subdividing into multiple LAN segments with bridges and routers.
59. G01b
------------------------
Protocols
A protocol is software that is required to use the physical connection. It
is responsible for establishing the connection and sending and receiving
the data in packets. Modem software is a crude example.
The software is called a protocol because there must be cooperating
software on each end, but they don't have to written by the same vendor.
Instead a "protocol" for the proper exchange of data is defined and
released as a standard (such as TCP-IP ) or licensed as proprietary
(such as DECnet ). As long as the vendor on each end adheres to the
protocol a connection can be sustained which will support an application.
TCP/IP is in the broadest use for several reasons, but mostly because
vendors could get and use the standard for basically free. DECnet was
very popular because of its robustness and the quality of the VAX systems.
The low cost, graphics power, and lure of a standard operating system drew
users to UNIX systems which used TCP/IP because of the cost and
availability. This has resulted in DECnet falling way behind in numbers.
A distant third is Appletalk or Ethertalk as it is called when it is run
over Ethernet. This protocol is best used for LAN's, and it also suffers
from being proprietary.
Due to the constant growing of the size of the wide area networks (WAN),
a more robust protocol is required which will support a large number of
addresses which is the numeric value assigned to each computer on a
network. Two approaches are being worked currently. One is to revamp and
extend TCP/IP while maintaining backwards compatibility. The other is an
international standards effort called OSI Open Systems Interconnect. OSI
is moving very slowly which is making it difficult to gain vendor support.
TCP/IP will almost certainly be enhanced regardless if OSI is successful
or not.
In addition to these major protocols there are numerous other proprietary
protocols such as SNA by IBM or IPX by Novell. Some fill special niche
requirements, and some of them don't scale well to the WAN environment.
Some are so proprietary they will not run on but a single vendor's
hardware.
- Page 25 -
59. G01b
The latest wrinkle in the protocol world are SLIP and PPP which allow
the TCP/IP protocol to be used over a modem connection. Typically a
remote machine such as a laptop is hooked by modem to a new generation of
terminal servers which can convert between SLIP or PPP and regular TCP/IP.
The terminal server is connected to the LAN and therefore the remote user
has full (although slower) TCP/IP access to the LAN.
DECnet can also be configured to use a serial connection.
TCP-IP
DECnet
SLIP
PPP
SANA II
UUCP
60. TCP-IP
------------------------
TCP-IP is a protocol that has been released as a standard which means that
vendors can implement it independently and freely and yet it still works.
The standard is defined and described in RFC documents which are
available electronically. Lots of free source code and the ability to use
it royality free make TCP/IP attractive to vendors. It has been implemented
by a large number of different vendors and therefore is popular on the
Internet. For more information on the Internet and TCP-IP concepts see
ZEN
TCP/IP as the name implies is more than one layer. The IP layer takes
care of the lowest layers of the protocol and is responsible for talking
to the device drivers (data link layers). The TCP is one of two
"transport" layer protocols which handles the packetizing of the data. TCP
is a reliable service because it insures that the packets are put back
into the right order and that they are all received. If you send packets
"a", "b", "c", then TCP will make sure they are received as "abc" and not
"bca".
UDP is the other transport protocol and it is unreliable, but has less
overhead. The applications ride on these lower protocol layers. There are
a number of applications defined in the TCP/IP standards, but vendors are
only required to supply the lower layers. See the applications section
for a partial list of TCP/IP applications. For instructions on using the
FTP application see the FTP FAQ
TCP/IP standard also provides for programming hooks which can use ports
and sockets to allow programs to talk to one another over the network. The
World Wide Web (WWW) and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) are two examples of how
these hooks can be exploited. Any programmer can use these hooks for their
own programs.
AS225 and AmiTCP are Amiga implementations of TCP/IP.
61. DECnet
--------------------------
DECnet is a proprietary standard belonging to DEC which is also made up
layers in a similar manner to TCP/IP. They break up the job quite a bit
differently. For instance with DECnet there is no need for a separate NFS
application. You can see a remote nodes disk drives by simply including
the DECnet node name in the directory command. DECnet has two ways of
- Page 26 -
61. DECnet
handling terminal traffic. For the WAN you use the SET host function of
DECnet, but it is more efficient for local traffic to use the LAT
protocol. The older model DEC terminal servers only supported LAT or
asynchronous DECnet. Newer models also support SLIP and PPP (check
the manuals) since DEC now makes computers that use TCP/IP as well.
TSSnet DECnet is an Amiga implementation of DECnet.
62. SLIP
-----------------------
SLIP Serial Line Internet Protocol See RFC 1055 for details. CSLIP
adds a compression technique. For details read RFC 1144.
SLIP allows your computer to run TCP/IP over the serial port. This allows
your computer to have a TCP/IP address. TCP/IP applications such as FTP
can now use TCP/IP to deliver packets directly to your address. An analogy
would be instead of having to go to the post office to get your mail, you
now have a mailbox to which the postman can deliver your mail. In more
technical terms you are no longer a terminal; you have become a node.
SLIP is a "data link" protocol. It sits between the serial port and the IP
stack. It pretty much takes the packets from IP, adds a wrapper to them,
and sends them out the serial port. It also takes packets from the serial
port, unwraps them, and passes them up to IP. SLIP has several problems,
including the fact that it is designed entirely for TCP-IP, and is
therefore of limited use for other protocols. Too many people ask for
"SLIP" when they really want "TCP/IP" with a SLIP driver. You have to
have both. Just like a terminal program is of little use without a
serial.device driver.
SLIP is not a full protocol it fits in one of the layers between hardware
and the protocol. It acts more like a device driver.
application (AMosaic, telnet, ftp, etc.)
--------------
protocol (TCP/IP)
--------------
SLIP or PPP
--------------
hardware (serial port)
63. PPP
-----------------------
PPP Point to Point Protocol
For more info see:
RFC 1332, 1333, 1334, 1376, 1377, 1548, 1549,1552, and 1570.
PPP allows your computer to run TCP/IP over the serial port. This allows
your computer to have a TCP/IP address. TCP/IP applications such as FTP
can now use TCP/IP to deliver packets directly to your address. An analogy
would be instead of having to go to the post office to get your mail, you
now have a mailbox to which the postman can deliver your mail. In more
technical terms you are no longer a terminal; you have become a node.
- Page 27 -
63. PPP
PPP is the committee-designed protocol which is supposed to be a sort of
"universal" SLIP. It is intended to replace SLIP, while providing for all
sorts of conditions, including the ability of use over non TCP/IP
protocols. The two state machines in PPP are a real pain to implement.
UNIX folks love it because a PPP implementation exists, and they pretty
much type "MAKE" and it works.
PPP's good points:
- PPP users checksums (FCS) SLIP does not
- PPP allows more than one protocol at a time, SLIP does not
- PPP automatically negotiates IP addresses, SLIP does not
- PPP can be used on non-transparent lines (e.g. when XON/XOFF is used by
the modems), SLIP cannot
Several Amiga versions of PPP are in the works.
A shareware version called ppp.device by Holger Kruse has been released on
Aminet
!!!!!!! news flash !!!!!!!!!
For dynamic IP addresses you need the latest bootpconfig file.
It is available from kampi.hut.fi in AmiTCP/bpc15.lha
Downloading "HowToUsePPP.lha" from Aminet probably wouldn't hurt either.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PPP is not a full protocol it fits in one of the layers between hardware
and the protocol. It acts more like a device driver.
application (AMosaic, telnet, ftp, etc.)
--------------
protocol (TCP/IP)
--------------
PPP or SLIP
--------------
hardware (serial port)
64. SANA II
---------------------------
SANA was an experimental DATA-link and API paper written by Dale Luck for
a DevCon several years ago. Dale suggested two schemes for creating
standard interfaces for the data-link layer and protocol stack APIs.
After Dale left Commodore, the work passed to several other people-- and
the "API" part was removed. After it had touched several people's hands,
SANA-II was put together.
SANA-II is nothing more than a standard for writing device drivers.
Having something which is SANA-II doesn't help you do networking unless
you have a real protocol stack communicating through it. FAR too many
people have seen "SANA-II", and "Amiga networking standard", and assumed
too much. It is just a device driver standard whose purpose is to prevent
- Page 28 -
64. SANA II
networking packages from hard coding to specific hardware. This is similar
to the reason for packet drivers in the PC clone arena. A side benefit to
SANA-II is that it allows multiple protocols to share the same ethernet
card.
65. UUCP
---------------------------
UUCP (Unix to Unix CoPy) is an old protocol used for transferring files
between un*x boxes. Versions of UUCP were written for other operating
systems and platforms including the Amiga.
UUCP is not interactive like a terminal program, but more of a batch
process. You give a list of commands ahead of time and then at the
specified time it calls another machine, executes the commands which
usually sends some files and receives what the other machine has for it,
and then hangs up. A store and forward methodology as opposed to a dynamic
constantly available method.
AmigaUUCP
UUCP-FAQ
66. G01c
--------------------------
Applications
The applications are the part of the network that a user is most likely to
see, but are useless without the hardware and protocols. Applications
allow a user to emulate a terminal, copy files, send electronic mail,
browse and search databases, and use applications remotely.
TCP/IP applications:
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
telnet ----- terminal access
FTP ------- file transfer protocol ( copy files)
SMTP ----- Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (email) or
Send Mail To People as my friend calls it.
NFS ------ Network File System (remote mount disks)
PARnet provides a similar service on a much smaller scale.
NSLookup -- find address corresponding to a host name or vice-versa.
basically provides access to the DNS database records.
Finger --- See who is logged in
or access an X500 email database
Xwindows-- Use graphics programs on a remote system. An attempt at a
hardware independent terminal emulator. Cost and speed are
its biggest drawbacks.
NEWS ---- A BBS style messaging system global in scale NEWS FAQ
NNTP ---- A protocol that supports NEWS
RN ------ One of many NEWS readers
HTTP --- Created at CERN, Mosaic uses this to talk to WWW servers
- Page 29 -
66. G01c
IRC --- Internet Rely Chat, grapevine on the Amiga uses this
DECnet applications:
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Set Host --- Terminal Access host to host
LAT --------- terminal access terminal to host
Copy -------- copy files between DEC hosts
(emulated on non-DEC hosts)
VMSmail --- electronic mail (must have gateway to
reach non-DEC systems
Dir ---------- Can be used to read remote disks
DECWindows ------ Same as Xwindows
task to task ---------- Hooks which allow user or vendor written
applications to communicate between computers
Ethertalk (Appletalk) applications:
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Appleshare ----- Allows remote disk access (file copying)
Chooser --------- Supports network printing and other services including
Appleshare
Electronic mail and terminal emulation for Ethertalk must be bought from a
third party, and may require TCP/IP or DECnet drivers as well.
67. G02
---------------------
What is the Internet and Usenet?
Two examples of WAN's which use entirely different techniques, but whose
services are overlapping. There are interconnections and usenet traffic
can and does travel across the internet, but for the most part they are
separate networks. Also the Internet is actually many networks which are
interconnected on a world wide scale.
Usenet utilizes the phone system and temporary links to move information
between systems. It uses a system of store and forward. It stores up
outgoing messages. Then on a periodic basis makes a connection to a
specific computer and forwards the messages, and downloads any incoming
messages then breaks the connection. A popular usenet protocol is UUCP
and the most popular application is NEWS which is also now on the
Internet.
The Internet on the other hand is mostly a shared backbone which is
always available between the primary systems. The usenet does not use
dynamic routers. An Internet router is always on and always connected to
other routers. An internet router immediately determines an incoming
message's next destination and immediately sends it on its way. A usenet
"router" waits until the next scheduled connection time before sending the
message on its way. The most common protocol on the Internet is TCP-IP
and one of the most popular applications is Mosaic which relies heavily on
FTP and Gopher.
- Page 30 -
67. G02
68. G03
---------------------
How do I connect?
There are three basic ways with more to come hopefully.
a) modem to modem
b) modem to commercial service
c) direct to WAN provider
Or if the company where you work has a network, you should contact your
local network administrator about the procedures for getting network
access at your company.
G03a
G03b
G03c
69. G03a
-------------------------
modem to modem
This is basically the poor man's network, but it works well. Usenet uses
this method. Since there is some overlap between usenet and the internet
you can gain some access to the internet such as mail or news.
To get on the Usenet you have to either know someone who is already on it
and daisy chain from them. Or you can access a BBS which offers usenet
access. User groups and BBS are also good places to ask for usenet access.
Also you can check the UUCP FAQ for information.
Of course if you are lucky enough to have an account and modem connection
to a machine on the internet you can access most things as terminal and
use FTP to move files to your dial up host. You will need a file transfer
program to transfer from your dial up host to your machine.
Two recent protocols have evolved called SLIP and PPP which make the
intermediate system transparent and provide full TCP/IP connectivity over
a modem. In fact the intermediate system need be nothing more than a
terminal server which supports SLIP or PPP. Both SLIP and PPP allow your
computer to have an address so that TCP/IP applications can talk directly
to your node. (i.e. your machine becomes a node, not a terminal) PPP can
support other protocols than TCP/IP.
Some universities and some public access programs such as FREEnet offer
free dial up accounts. If you can't find one of these or USEnet access,
then you will need to try
option B modem to commercial services, or
option C direct to WAN provider.
70. G03b
--------------------------
modem to commercial services
- Page 31 -
70. G03b
Several commercial services such as Portal, BIX, and Compuserve now
provide internet access to varying degrees as part of their service. and in
essence have become WAN providers .
If you have internet access this makes these services far more accessible.
If you don't have internet access, they make _some_ of the internet
services available to you.
As mentioned before file transfer is a two step process. However, more
and more commercial services are providing SLIP and PPP connections
which eliminate the two step process by giving your remote host its own
internet address. They also provide full internet access, but some
applications require more speed than an analog modem can provide.
71. G03c
-------------------------
direct to WAN provider
The WAN providers offer many kinds of connectivity from a normal dial up
BBS to a full blown high speed WAN connection.
Full Blown WAN
Cheaper WAN
WAN-shopping
WAN providers
72. Full Blown WAN
--------------------------------------
The full blown WAN connection is the FASTEST, most flexible and the most
expensive. This type of connection is most useful for a group such as a
business with a LAN, since this type of connection provides a router at
your site. Generally connection speeds start at 56 Kbit/sec and go up.
A full blown WAN connection also requires a great deal of expertise to
manage. You must learn security, configuration, and troubleshooting
techniques. Some WAN providers will provide these services for additional
fees.
The setup of a WAN connection is WELL beyond the scope of an FAQ, but
there are numerous courses and books available if you wish to do the job
yourself. Also the documentation that comes with the software and hardware
is mandatory reading.
73. Cheaper WAN
--------------------------------------
Cheaper WAN: You basically pay for access to a modem, termserver port,
and use of the router at the providers site. They take care of most of the
management headaches.
Over this connection they provide SLIP and PPP which require some
networking knowledge on the user's part but not as much as managing a LAN.
SLIP and PPP offer a full set of internet services, but at a lower speed.
Generally you are limited to what speeds the local telco can provide. The
fastest is currently ISDN, but that can be expensive and has limited
availability. So most will also offer standard analog modem connections
of 14.4K or higher.
=============< End of Part 1 of 2; Amiga Networking FAQ V1.8 >=============
Richard Norman
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Version: 1.8
===========< Begining of part 2 of 2; Amiga Networking FAQ v1.8 >=============
- Page 32 -
73. WAN-shopping
74. WAN-shopping
------------------------------------
Shopping for the right level of WAN connectivity can be difficult.
SLIP and PPP may offer a more cost effective method of accessing
commercial services than a standard dial up service while also providing
access to archive and WWW servers. You have to run the cost comparisons
yourself to see. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc publishes a good book that
offers some good ideas for doing cost comparisons. It is called
"Connecting To The INTERNET" an O'Reilly Buyer's Guide. Another book to
look for is "Connect your Amiga!" by Dale Larson of IAM . I'm sure there
are other books as well.
Time to head to the bookstore ;-)
75. WAN providers
--------------------------------------
To get a fairly current list of WAN providers you can check your local
bookstore. Most books on the Internet contain lists of WAN providers.
To get a more current list you can use electronic mail to get a copy of
Peter Kaminski's PDIAL list. Send a message with "Send PDIAL" as the
subject line. Send the message to info-del...@netcom.com Or you can
subscribe by using "Subscribe PDIAL" as the subject line. You will then
automatically get any updates to the list.
PDIAL is also available from the news.answers FAQ archive .
76. G04
--------------------
What is a server?
A server is a computer which acts like a library for files, and programs.
It can also be set up to allow users to change the information as well.
Several programs and protocols exist for creating a server: Appleshare,
NFS, Xwindows, FTP, news, gopher, WWW, DCE, SQL, and user written
applications.
Appleshare and NFS make remote disks seem like local disks. Thus allowing
a group of users to share disk space and information if so desired.
Xwindows is a device independent network terminal package which supports a
graphical user interface. It can be thought of as an display server. The
application can be run on one machine and the display served to any
Xwindow device on the network. If Excel had a X window version it could
be run on a Mac or PC and the display could be on any Xwindow device
anywhere on the network. It could even be displayed on an Amiga using
X11R4 .
FTP server software allows you offer a portion or all of your disk drive
for remote access. Unlike Appleshare or X windows you cannot run
applications remotely. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and file
transfer is all that it does. It does provide a binary mode of transfer so
that you can copy applications to your local hard drive or ram and then
run them.
News, gopher, and WWW are special servers for information which require a
client software package to access. They can be thought of as network
databases. These are explained in other sections. G07
- Page 33 -
76. G04
SQL is standard query language and DCE is distributed computing
environment. SQL and DCE can be used in vendor or user written
applications to create or access multiple database servers. This allows
the programmer to distribute the load across several machines. Also it
allows for more seamless integration of data from several non-similar
computer systems in a transparent manner to the user. For example, very
few executives want to FTP to three or four machines to pull together the
information for review. They tend to like to click on a weekly report
button and have the program do all the work. Since SQL and DCE are
standards the weekly report program is somewhat shielded from hardware
specifics or changes.
77. G05
---------------------
What is an archive?
A computer site which advertises and stores a large amount of public
domain and share ware software and documentation.
78. G06
---------------------
What is a mirror?
Some archives are heavily used and therefore must be supported by multiple
sites which are often located very far apart. Each site should ideally
have identical information available therefore they are mirrors of each
other. When one site gets a new file it must be mirrored to the other
sites usually using FTP.
79. G07
---------------------
What are Gopher, WWW, and WAIS?
Three kinds of network information servers. Each more powerful than the
next, but with some interconnectivity. Each server requires a client
application to allow the user to access the information. For Example, a
Mosaic client can access all three servers. The main purpose of these
client/servers is to help a user navigate the Internet to find information
and files.
Gopher is a menu utility which simply uses FTP for retrieving files from
archive sites. Gopher also uses a search utility called Veronica for
aiding users in finding files in the gopher archive sites. Veronica can do
keyword searches whereas Archie can only search for file names.
WAIS is Wide Area Information Server which provides information lookup
services to libraries and databases on the Internet. A simple WAIS client
allows the user to select databases to search from a list. The user then
provides keywords to search for, and the WAIS client allows the user to
view any matches found. This is cumbersome once the list of databases
grows into the thousands. Screenfull after screenfull of database names
scroll by.
As of March 16, 1994 future versions of WAIS server & client library will
be known as ZDist NOT freeWAIS. freeWAIS is based on the older version of
the search and retrieval protocol Z39.50-1988. The newest version of that
protocol Z39.50-1992 is NOT backwards compatible.
Since both versions will be around for awhile, a name change for the
server/client software libraries had to be established. Both freeWAIS and
ZDist are maintained by CNIDR. Kevin Gamiel is the contact.
- Page 34 -
79. G07
It should be noted that the Z39.50 protocol is a standard which is NOT
published or maintained by CNIDR, but is publicly available. Z39.50-1992
is the protocol of choice for many other network based information search
and retrieval applications besides WAIS.
Much more info is available thru Mosaic by searching on CNIDR, WAIS, or
Z39.
WWW is world wide web and uses http and html to make its hypertext and
multimedia services available to mosaic and Amosaic clients over the
Internet. WAIS support is being added to Mosaic. Mosaic offers WAIS an
effective interface and WAIS offers Mosaic an effective search engine.
All three of these servers use the TCP/IP protocol, and all have both
public domain and commercial versions of the clients.
80. G08
---------------------
What are Mosaic, html, http, and browser?
Mosaic is a hypertext based multimedia interface for browsing the
Internet, thus it is referred to as a browser. Mosaic is the name of the
browser created by NCSA for Xwindows, Macs, and Windows. In the last year
several other browsers have been created for the various platforms. Some
are free and others are commercial.
Amosaic is developed by public domain effort for the Amiga. Although it
may not have all the toots and whistles of the other browsers, it is free!
Also, it was started after the others and thus has to play catchup.
Development of all of the browsers has been slowed down because they are
all dependent on html and http which are in a state of change.
The browsers are primarily used to access the thousands of World Wide Web
(WWW) servers, but can also be used to access WAIS, Gopher, and others.
They enable the user to click on hypertext links which will automatically
use the network services such as FTP to retrieve the information pointed
to by the link regardless if it is text, sound, or graphics. They utilize
shareware and public domain viewers and players of the users choice to
play the sounds or to display the pictures or animations. Thus the browser
is a point and click front end to a wide array of other software.
Navigating the Web can be a challenge due the enormous size, but there are
several tools that make it easier. The simplest tool is the usage of a
common naming convention for the main WWW servers. Most large organizations
have their primary server named www. For example, NASA's primary server is
called www.nasa.gov. Microsoft's server is called www.microsoft.com. Can
you guess what NewTek's server is called ?
Once you know the name of the server, it is very easy to create the URL
which the browser needs to make the connection. URL stands for Universal
Resource Locator which is just a scheme for specifying the type of link to
make, to which host, and optionally which file. To open NASA's front door
(primary home page) just use the Open URL menu option and type:
http://www.nasa.gov This says make an http connection to
www.nasa.gov. Since no file was specified it will get the default home
page for that server.
Other navigation tools include search utilities, the what's new page, and
indexes by category or subject. Most of this is explained on line. Just
go explore.
html
- Page 35 -
80. G08
http
81. html
------------------
html stands for HyperText Markup Language. Html is used to build WWW pages
which can be accessed locally or served to the world using a WWW server
running http . Html files are ASCII text files. The html commands are
included with the text and are interpreted by the browser rather than
shown. Html commands include page formatting and URL links. Universal
Resource Locators (URL) are the links between this page and other pages
throughout the WWW. Any page you view with a browser can be saved locally
as an html page. These files can be edited locally which allows you to cut
and paste interesting links into your own html page of favorite links.
Although studying how other web pages are built can be helpful, it is not
the best way to learn proper html. As stated earlier html is in a state of
change. Therefore what works on one browser may not work on another
browser which uses an earlier version of html. CERN wrote the original
HTML and HTTP. NCSA wrote Mosaic and added features to html. Version 2.0
is the current version of html, and version 3.0 is nearing completion.
There are numerous online documents describing html, but for the basics
take a look at "A beginner's Guide to HTML." For other sources of info on
html check out the WWW FAQ at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html
82. http
-------------------
http is the protocol that is used between the client (browser) and the
server (WWW). The client submits a request for a particular URL, and that
server responds with the appropriate file or information. In order to make
html pages on your machine available to others your machine must run an
http server software package. Http server software is included in the
Amosaic archive for the Amiga. Since html is ASCII text, you can build
your pages on the Amiga and allow any platform with http server software
to serve them for you to the WWW.
83. G09
--------------------
What are Veronica and Archie?
Archie is the older of the two search tools. A user submits a query to
Archie or Veronica and they search their database for the location of
files or programs. Veronica is associated with the Gopher servers.
Both require TCP/IP at some point. Although both can be queried by
electronic mail.
There is an Archie client available for AmiTCP via anonymous FTP from
ftp.demon.co.uk in the /pub/amiga/amitcp directory.
84. G10
-----------------------
What is news?
NEWS is a global BBS run by everyone and no one. I will describe it briefly
here, but see the NEWS FAQ for details.
NEWS is made up of broad topics called news groups, to which people can
post or respond to posts. Anyone can create a new post, but new news
- Page 36 -
84. G10
groups are added based on an email voting system. A few groups are
moderated, but most are not. NEWS is available via usenet, the
internet, and some commercial services. Almost NOBODY carries ALL the
news groups. User access is through a news reader application that
accesses a news server. There are many variations of news readers.
Several for the Amiga can be found on Aminet and Fred Fish .
GRn by Michael Smith is one.
Arn by Roland Bless (r...@spirits.ka.sub.org) is another.
NEWS began life on a college campus and then became the USENET news as it
spread to other college campuses and beyond via UUCP . Today it is also
carried across the Internet using the NNTP application over TCP/IP. The
links between servers are set up manually by news server administrators
and the links are called news feeds. A lot of the feeds come and go, since
they are done on an informal basis.
GRn in combination with INetUtils allows you to access news over either
NNTP or UUCP.
85. G11
------------------------
What is a Set top?
A twinkle in some entrepreneur's eye. It will most likely occupy the
__TOP__ of your television __SET__. Some call it Interactive TV. Some call
it info-pliances. It could possibly bring the internet to your home via
cable TV or phone lines, but more than likely it will only bring limited
expensive services.
AT&T says, "YOU WILL." I say, "I AIN'T YET."
A recent newspaper article listed the following companies as competition
for IBM in the set top market: General Instrument, Scientific Atlanta,
3DO, and Nintendo. NO mention of HP, Sony, SEGA, or Commodore.
Hmmmmmmm.
86. Software-Specs
================
Specifications for Amiga Networking Software
AmigaELM
AmigaNOSFlavors
AmiTCP
AmigaUUCP
Amosaic
AS225
DECnet
DNET
ENLAN-DFS
Envoy
- Page 37 -
86. Software-Specs
GRn
INetUtils
netser.device
Offline-Orbit
PPP.device
Termite
TIN
TorqueWare (TM)
VLT
X11R4
87. AmigaELM
--------------------------- AmigaELM by Andreas M. Kirchwitz.
AmigaELM is available on AmiNET and is an electronic mail utility for
UUCP that allows you to read and post mail through a remote unix mail
box. It can also be setup to run without UUCP on the Amiga.
AmigaELM 4 (4.159) was just announced in c.s.a.announce Announcements are
archived on Aminet so I won't repeat the text here. AmigaELM is
shareware.
It works with MetaMail which is also on Aminet. MetaMail handles a lot of
different MIME message types.
You should also pick up a copy of INetUtils from Aminet . It has a SMTP
client which is suppose to work with AmigaELM. SMTP is the Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol or the Send Mail To People protocol as my friend calls
it. SMTP is a defined standard for email over the TCP/IP protocol and
therefore is widely used on the Internet. This SMTP client is not
suppose to require a remote mailbox.
88. AmigaNOSFlavors
------------------------------------
AmigaNOS and AmigaNOSGW are Amiga ports of the PD TCP/IP package for
MS-DOS called "ka9q". Note that there are MANY versions of "ka9q" which
tends to make them somewhat unstable, since they have so many variations.
AmigaNOS is a program that will allow one to participate in the Internet
(or any TCP/ IP network for that matter) via one of two dial-up TCP/IP
protocols: SLIP or PPP. It also works with HAM radio equipment.
Both programs are a single, integrated "package" of the required TCP/IP
protocols (e.g.; TCP, IP, UDP, etc.) and some TCP/IP applications/commands
(e.g.; Finger, Telnet, Ping, SMTP). Though the required file structure may
seem daunting at first, it is actually simpler to set up than is AmiTCP.
Both AmigaNOS and AmigaNOSGW are very close in capability and can be
considered equal, in general, for TCP/IP. The main differences between
the two versions is that Graham Walter's version, AmigaNOSGW, comes with
an external Gopher client program and has an ARexx port.
- Page 38 -
88. AmigaNOSFlavors
The following data, from the Feb. '94 AmigaWorld article "Net Gains" , by
Jim Dutton, provides a brief listing of the major functions of the two
Amiga TCP/IP packages.
AmigaNOS (V2.9p)
- John Heaton
- Public Domain (available from 130.88.200.4 via anonymous FTP)
- requirements: modem
- provides full TCP/IP "protocol stack/suite" plus applications
* FTP, TELNET (ANSI: pseudo DEC VT100), Rlogin
* SMTP (client & server)/DIGGER, POP2 (client)
* TCP/IP/UDP, NNTP, RIP/RSPF/ARP, SLIP/PPP
* FINGER, Mailbox/Chatnode
* TTYlink, ECHO/DISCARD/PING, HOPCHECK, Route, Message
- amenities: mem,shell,pwd,cd,dir,help files via Less,internal
multitasking, extensive and easy to invoke statistics
- drawbacks: no SANA-II support; opens serial.device in Exclusive mode
AmigaNOSGW (V6)
- Graham Walter
- Public Domain (get it by anonymous FTP from newgate.demon.co.uk)
- requirements: modem
- provides full TCP/IP "protocol stack/suite" plus application hooks
* FTP, TELNET (ANSI: pseudo DEC VT100), Rlogin
* SMTP (client & server)/DIGGER, POP2 (client)
* TCP/IP/UDP, NNTP, RIP/RSPF/ARP, SLIP/PPP
* FINGER, Mailbox/Chatnode
* TTYlink, ECHO/DISCARD/PING, HOPCHECK, Route, Message
- amenities: internal multitasking, external clients, ARexx port,
Gopher client (requires AmigaGuide) which can also do some WWW
- drawbacks: no SANA-II support; opens serial.device in Exclusive mode
Gopher (V1.7)
- Graham Walter
- Public Domain (get it by anonymous FTP from newgate.demon.co.uk)
- requirements: AmigaNOSGW (V6), AmigaGuide
- Page 39 -
88. AmigaNOSFlavors
- provides a GUI based/hypertext Internet Gopher client
* request Gopher servers for files and/or services that they have
* supports some World Wide Web files (eg; HTTP)
89. AmiTCP
---------------------
Versions 2 to 3.0b2 of AmiTCP are GNU-ware versions of TCP-IP for the
Amiga. It will work with SLIP or ethernet cards. For more details see the
AmiTCP FAQ
Version 4.0 is now commercial. A demo version is available on Aminet .
The commercial version is available from the original authors the Network
Solutions Development Inc. (NSDi). For ordering information send an email
message to in...@nsdi.fi which contains the text "SEND AMITCP ORDER" in the
body of the message.
NSDI can also be contacted by sending email to amitcp...@nsdi.fi or
postal mail to NSDI, POB 32, FIN-02151 ESPOO, Finland, Europe. or by FAX:
+358-0-452 1998
They also have a Web page which can be reached off the Amiga home page of
Mr. Witbrock.
AmiTCP can be a bear to install, but if you read ALL of the docs it should
go easier. Especially the AmiTCP FAQ written by Mike Meyer and Neil
McRae.
90. AmigaUUCP
--------------------------
AmigaUUCP is a port of Unix to Unix CoPy UUCP to the Amiga. It allows an
Amiga to participate in the USEnet network. It has it's own UUCP FAQ
There are actually several versions of UUCP for the Amiga. I've lumped it
all here to make it easier on me. As I sort it out I may divide it into
more informative nodes.
Parts of UUPC (a version of UUCP by John Gilmore) were ported to the Amiga
by William P. Loftus in 1986. After developing a system that worked for
him, it was taken over by Matthew Dillon, who (along with a cast of
dozens) developed it into a full-fledged UUCP package. Matt maintained
AmigaUUCP (often called DUUCP) from 1988 until 1992.
In 1992, Matt had the press of other obligations; and after the release of
AmigaUUCP v1.16, turned the buglists over to Michael B. Smith. Michael is
in the process of releasing AmigaUUCP v1.17. v1.17beta has been available
freely for some months (currently at update #4).
After Matt quit working on UUCP, Kai 'wusel' Siering also started on a
version of UUCP based on AmigaUUCP v1.15. It has most of the v1.16
enhancements as well as other features.
91. Amosaic
--------------------
!!!!!!!!! News Flash !!!!!!!!!!!!
Version 1.3 of AMosaic is now available so some of this stuff is dated.
- Page 40 -
91. Amosaic
The Big News for 1.3 is that it supports proxies so that you can talk
through a firewall router. To do so you must set some environment variables
on the Amiga. Here is a list that Stefan posted:
open a shell window and type:
Setenv WWW_file_GATEWAY http://proxy.domain.foo.bar/
Setenv WWW_ftp_GATEWAY http://proxy.domain.foo.bar/
Setenv WWW_gopher_GATEWAY http://proxy.domain.foo.bar/
Setenv WWW_http_GATEWAY http://proxy.domain.foo.bar/
Setenv WWW_news_GATEWAY http://proxy.domain.foo.bar/
Setenv WWW_telnet_GATEWAY http://proxy.domain.foo.bar/
Setenv WWW_wais_GATEWAY http://proxy.domain.foo.bar/
where proxy.domain.foo.bar should be replaced by the domain name of your
WWW proxy gateway.
!!!!!!!!!
Amosaic is a freeware version for the Amiga of NCSA's Mosaic. A hypertext
based multimedia interface for accessing the Internet.
AMosaic allows you to browse and retrieve files using a point and click
interface. With a single mouse click you can retrieve and view a text
file, a picture, or an MPEG movie. Or you can download the most recent
version of your favorite program from one of the archive sites. Use one of
the many search utilities, and ride the wave of pointers to sites all
around the globe! They don't call it the World Wide Web (WWW) for nothing
;-)
Amosaic is available via FTP from max.physics.sunysb.edu or via Mosaic from
the Amiga home page by Witbrock. Amosaic is also available on Aminet in
the /comm/net directory.
It requires MUI, AmiTCP or AS225r2 TCP-IP software, and some sort
of internet connection to access remote information. Also due to
datatypes it currently requires AmigaDos 3.0
See the product specific section AMosaic(AM) for more hints!
92. AS225
---------------------
AS225 by Commodore Business Machines
CBM only released version one which is known as AS225r1. AS225r2 is and
will be released by third party developers.
AS225r1 Compatibility: NFS - TCP/IP software for the Amiga is compatible
with all models of the Amiga. Allows connection to Internet, DDN and
other networks supporting TCP/IP and UDP/IP protocols. Works with the A2065
and Ameristar Ethernet Adapters.
AS225r1 Network Functions: rlogin (client only), rloginVT (client only
VT100 terminal emulation), rsh (client and server, but no interactive
shells), NFS client, telnet (client only), ftp (client and server), finger
(client only), ping, arp, netstat, rcp (client and server), route,
showmount
- Page 41 -
92. AS225
AS225r2
93. AS225r2
-----------------------
AS225r2 release 2 of AS225 TCP/IP protocol
It is under active development again by third parties. Stay tuned for more
details as they become available.
!!!!!!! News Flash !!!!!!!
CPR has released a version of AS225r2. It is my understanding that
InterWorks is also working on a version which will be different than the
CPR version. I can't say more, since I've not seen either product. As I
said before: stay tuned.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
94. DECnet
-------------------
TSSnet DECnet by Thunder Ridge, Inc.
Now your Amiga can become a Phase IV end node in a DECnet network!
Communicates over the Amiga serial port as well as Ethernet. Fully SANA
II compliant so other protocols which support SANA II such as TCP/IP can
run concurrently on the same ethernet card. Both Ethernet and serial
connections provide multiple concurrent Virtual Terminal sessions on any
other nodes on the network, using the DECnet CTERM facility. VT100
terminal emulation is provided, or use your favorite VT compatible Amiga
terminal program such as VLT .
Supports X windows, allowing you to run VAX DECWindows applications, as
well as X clients running on other Amigas or any node supporting X over
DECnet.
NCP, Network Control Program lets you intuitively control all aspects of
your node's connection including line speed, buffers, statistics, and
security.
NetMail allows full mail access to DECnet networks.
NFT, Network File Copy enables you to copy, list, print, rename, delete,
type and submit command files across the network.
Task to Task Communications provides an AmigaDOS device for communicating
with tasks on other DECnet nodes. Full documentation is included for this
easy-to-use programmer's interface to TSSnet.
FAL, File Access Listener allows other DECnet nodes to access your Amiga
directly. Full username/password protection is available.
95. DNET
-----------
DNET is a networking protocol which allows Amigas to talk to Amigas or a
unix box over a serial line. There is a version for each case, and they are
available on Aminet.
I have never used it, but folks tell me it works. If one end is connected
to the Internet, then DNET allows you to access the Internet via the remote
- Page 42 -
95. DNET
machines TCP/IP protocol. This is somewhat similar to TIA, but probably
different. Like TIA it supports multiple tasks concurrently over the serial
line.
96. ENLAN-DFS
-----------------------------
ENLAN-DFS by Interworks
Amiga peer to peer networking software
and DFS ( Distributed File System )
Description:
The Distributed File System (DFS) allows complete sharing of devices,
directories, and peripherals (including printers). With this setup
centralized backup is a possibility. Network resources appear on the
client as local devices. ENLAN-DFS supports the Workbench interface, icons
and all and is SANA II compatible.
Security features:
Provides password and read only support for public resources.
Provides node level username and password if desired.
Requirements:
AmigaDOS 2.04 or higher. Approximately 456KB of disk space.
compatible with A600, 1200, 2000, 3000, or 4000
compatible with the following ethernet cards:
ICard , Lan Rover , A2065 , A4066 , or Hydra
Requires 1.5 MB of ram minimum, more for serving multiple systems
MSRP for 5 node license $349
97. Envoy
-------------------
Amiga Envoy Available from IAM
Amiga peer to peer networking
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! News Flash !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(December 29, 1994)
Intangible Assets Manufacturing Announces
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Amiga Envoy 2.0
a new version of the tightly integrated peer-to-peer networking software
for the Amiga from the workbench of IAM software engineers Heinz Wrobel
and Dale L. Larson.
New features:
Support of AmigaOS 2.04 DOS packet types (including notification and
record locking), support for removable media, enhanced reliability and
robust recovery, localization, AmigaGuide documentation, and more.
- Page 43 -
97. Envoy
Availability:
Amiga Envoy 2.0 is available as an upgrade to any Amiga Envoy user,
regardless of where they purchased their original Envoy. The upgrade
price is US$25, which includes ground shipping world-wide (add US$5 for
Priority Mail or air). To upgrade in the US, send proof of purchase with
check, money order, or Visa/MC number to IAM. Elsewhere, contact your
local distributor.
The list price of Amiga Envoy remains US$59.95.
Envoy 2.0 Requires Workbench 2.04, Kickstart 2.04, 512k RAM, SANA-II
compatible networking hardware.
Workbench 3.1, 1MB or more of RAM and HD recommended.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Envoy-Description
Envoy-REQUIREMENTS
Envoy-COMPATIBILITY
Envoy-AVAILABILITY
IAM-Developers Info
98. Envoy-Description
------------------------------------
Amiga Envoy is the Amiga peer-to-peer networking software developed by
Commodore's Amiga Networking Group. Included applications enable connected
Amiga computers to share hard disks, CD-ROMs, and printers transparently.
Amiga Envoy also provides a simple messaging interface (API) for the easy
development of reliable network applications.
To make Amiga Envoy available to end-users immediately, Intangible Assets
Manufacturing has licensed Amiga Envoy from Commodore. IAM has produced a
manual written by Dale Larson, one of Amiga Envoy's original designers.
The manual eases you through the set up and use of a simple network.
Additional documentation will be available (at an additional charge). It
will explain how to internetwork with Amiga Envoy, how to develop software
for it and how to use its security features.
Technical support is provided through electronic and physical mail and by
answering questions in such public forums as UseNet's
comp.sys.amiga.datacomm, on CompuServe, and on Bix.
99. Envoy-REQUIREMENTS
----------------------------------------------
Envoy requires:
Workbench 2.04, Kickstart 2.04, 512k RAM, SANA-II compatible
networking hardware (see compatibility)
RECOMMENDED
Workbench 2.1 or later, Kickstart 2.1 or later, 1MB RAM, Hard disk with
300k free in SYS:.
- Page 44 -
99. Envoy-COMPATIBILITY
100. Envoy-COMPATIBILITY
-----------------------------------------------
Any SANA-II networking hardware may be used with Envoy, including
Ameristar A4066, AmigaLink, ASDG LanRover, Commodore A2065 or A2060 and
SLIP (serial port).
Additional NON-IP, SANA-II compatible networking protocol stacks may be
run at the same time as Amiga Envoy over the same networking hardware.
AS225r2 is the version of Commodore's TCP/IP package which is compatible
with Envoy (through SANA-II compatibility and close cooperation regarding
IP packets).
101. Envoy-AVAILABILITY
----------------------------------------
Available now from Amiga dealers or order direct from IAM
List Price: $59.95 (2-user)
102. IAM-Developers Info
---------------------------------------
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR DEVELOPERS
Developers of any Amiga networking products or networking compatible
products are encouraged to contact Intangible Assets Manufacturing
regarding inclusion of their products in the forth coming "Amiga
Networking Handbook." We want to make sure that Amiga users can find out
about every networking product that they may need. We hope to do this by
publishing information on all of the products that are available.
Applications developers can also contact IAM for information concerning
consulting and documentation services or licensing Envoy for use in your
applications.
103. GRn
----------------
GRn Gadtools Read news
GRn is a news reader program which was originally designed to work with
AmigaUUCP V1.08. Now it will work with AmigaUUCP V1.08-1.17, wUUCP,
various ports of C News (including wCNews), AmigaNOS via AREXX scripts,
NFS mounted news spools and NNTP in at least four flavors (DNet, serial
port, AmiTCP, and AS225r2). GRn integrates with INetUtils . Both GRn and
INetUtils are available on Aminet
104. INetUtils
-----------------------
INetUtils
INetUtils is copyrighted, but freely distributable up to version 1.4 The
author will make future versions commercial which will include a major
update to GRn and will include the long awaited GMail.
The author *strongly* recommends that you read the man pages. Do NOT
blindly install V1.4 over an existing installation. You will regret it if
you do so according to the author.
- Page 45 -
104. INetUtils
IU-Author
IU-Description
IU-New Features
IU-Requirements
IU-Availability
IU-Price
IU-Distributability
IU-Support
105. IU-Author
---------------------
Michael B. Smith
POB 6791
Charlottesville, VA 22906
USA
106. IU-Description
---------------------------
INetUtils is a series of programs designed to allow an Amiga running
AS-225 beta 2.0 software (i.e., socket.library capable) or AmiTCP 2.2 (or
above) to interact and operate as fully functioning members of an IP
network, including the global InterNet.
Note: IU 1.4 was qualified against AmiTCP 3.0b2, NOT 4.0.
!!!!!! News Flash !!!!!!
Michael Smith says IU 1.4 will work with AmiTCP 4.0
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The utility programs consist of:
SMTPd : an SMTP daemon
SMTPpost : an SMTP posting program
SMTPExpand : an SMTP aliases expanding program
NNTPpost : an NNTP posting program
NNTPXfer : an NNTP article transfer program
newgroup : a maintenance program for use with NNTP
GetActive : an NNTP active file transfer program
- Page 46 -
106. IU-Description
AmiPOP : a POP message handler
Sabot : A newmail activity program
The following man pages are included:
SMTPd.man
SMTPpost.man
SMTPExpand.man
NNTPpost.man
NNTPxfer.man
GetActive.man
and describe the operation of each program.
To install INetUtils, see the document named INSTALL included in this
archive. Do NOT blindly install V1.4 over an existing installation!
For basic help in getting SMTPd running, the following heavily commented
script is also included:
StartSMTPd
AmiPOP and Sabot were developed by Scott Ellis (sel...@ucssun1.sdsu.edu)
and all communication regarding them should be directed to him. Separate
documentation regarding them is included in the AmiPOP and Sabot
archives.
To properly utilize the NNTP capability requires an NNTP aware newsreader
and a mailreader. The 'G' package is presented to meet this need.
GRn is Gadtools Read News, which can properly read and post with
articles via NNTP directly or read with the local directory setup by
NNTPXfer, and post directly using NNTPpost. Documentation is available in
AmigaGuide format (GRn.guide). GRn is currently at version 2.1. A
commercial version (3.0) is also available.
!!!!!!!!!! News Flash !!!!!!
GRn2.1a is now available. The "a" version supports AmiTCP 4.0+.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GMail, Gadtools Mail, is available as a commercial product.
According to Mike, AmigaElm and the DMail from AmigaUUCP are quite
satisfactory for reading mail.
107. IU-New Features
---------------------------------------------
Too many to list. Read the man pages. If you don't, you'll regret it.
- Page 47 -
107. IU-New Features
108. IU-Requirements
-------------------------------------------
AmigaDos 2.0 or higher
INetUtils comes in two flavors: one for AS225r2 and one for AmiTCP
version 2.2 or above. You must have one or the other of these protocols,
and you must get the correct cooresponding archive.
109. IU-Availability
---------------------------------------
INetUtils V1.4 is available on AMINET
Dir Name: /pub/aminet/comm/net
File Name:
IU-14-as225.lha
IU-14-amitcp.lha
110. IU-Price
-------------------------------------
Vesion 1.4 of INetUtils is freeware. Donations are welcome. A commercial
version, with enhanced feature content, is also available.
111. IU-Distributability
---------------------------------------------
INetUtils is Copyright 1992 - 1994, by Michael B. Smith. All Rights
Reserved.
INetUtils 1.4 is freely distributable as long as no modifications are made
to the archives or their contents.
112. IU-Support
-----------------------------------
Support is available directly from the IU author via electronic mail.
113. netser.device
----------------------------
netser.device a shareware package for AmiTCP
For 2 devices $25, 4 devices $35, and unlimited $50
author is Sam Yee sa...@sfu.ca
Works with any amiga. Only requires 50k or Ram. Requires WB 2.04+, and
AmiTCP 3.0+
More info later.
!!!!!!!!!!!! News Flash !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Jan 1, 1995)
- Page 48 -
113. netser.device
Sam Yee announces:
Telser version 1.0
telser.device is a modem simulator over a telnet connection. It inteprets
and simulates basic modem commands so that you can use your
telecommunicaions (comm) programs over a telnet connection. In other words
your comm program thinks it is talking to a modem. Terminal emulation,
file transfers, etc. are all handled by your comm program. Connecting to
a host is as simple as typing "ATDT abc.edu,23" or even simpler if you add
"abc.edu,23" to your comm program's phonebook.
telser supports the most common Telnet negotiation commands and options.
For example, you may elect to notify the remote host on changes to your
terminal emulation type, and window size. An intuitive "gadtools"
graphical user interface is supplied to control your telnet connections.
You also have the option to automatically connect to a host after starting
up your comm program. Instant logins at the click of a button!
telser can run in host mode, which means it would accept incoming calls.
This feature allows you to set up a "multi-line" bbs over the internet!
Telser is capable of unlimited device units, which means you can have
unlimited incoming and outgoing connections. Telser supports both TCP/IP
packages on the Amiga namely AmiTCP (tested with V3.0b2 and V4.0) and
AS225r2.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
114. Offline-Orbit
---------------------------
Offline Orbit by Janne T. Siren ( j...@krk.fi)
Available on Aminet as Freeware ( try the comm/util dir)
An offline message reader supporting QWK, WWF, OMEN, and SOUP message
formats.
Requires:
* WB 2.04+
* 2 Mb Ram recommended
115. PPP-device
PPP.device by Holger Kruse
ppp.device is a shareware package. The unregisterd version is on Aminet.
The registered version provides much better speed.
More details later.
116. Termite
----------------------
Termite a modem Telecomunications package by Oregon Research MSRP:
$49.95
- Page 49 -
116. Termite
Features:
* Supports the XPR libs
* supports 300 to 115,200 BPS
* supports multiple line BBSs
* AREXX support
* Call logging
* AmigaGuide Online help
* Style guide compliant
* Font and screen sensitive displays
* multi-tasking chat window to prepare text before sending it
* phone book, text macros, and configurable button bar
* RIP driver available upon request
Requires:
* WB 2.0+
* 1Mb ram+
117. TIN
----------------
TIN by Mark Tomlinson (ma...@garden.equinox.gen.nz)
A newsreader which as of version 1.2 PL 3 supports NNTP. Version 1.3 is
probably out by now.
More later.
118. TorqueWare (TM)
----------------------------------
TorqueWare (TM) by AugmenTek is a means of developing and running
parallel programs over a network of Amigas. It provides six simple C
functions to handle the job of distributing data and execution across the
network. A graphical user interface allows for compiling and linking
locally or remotely, setting up the runtime environment, and running the
program -- but this can also be done manually. A hypertext user's guide
and tutorial are provided. Instructions for using the Amiga as client to
a computational server running on a Silicon Graphics or Mac using
TorqueWare form Torque Systems, Inc., are also provided.
TorqueWare is an implementation of the Linda parallel programming model.
Data are placed in a global data space that is accessible to all
processes, whether they run locally or across the network. One can wait
for data to appear, read it, or remove it from that global data space. C
functions can be run as separate tasks on either one computer or multiple
computers, and these remote functions access that global data space. The
global data space is content-addressable.
TorqueWare hides communication details, such as the nature of the
- Page 50 -
118. TorqueWare (TM)
underlying communication mechanism, from you. It supports different
computers by handling byte ordering. TorqueWare attempts to keep all of
the computers busy if there is enough work.
As a programming utility, TorqueWare provides an operating system
independent way of multiprocessing. Applications include network
rendering (RayShade 3.0 already allows for Linda), news or database
filtering, image processing, and audio processing. An example of code
using TorqueWare versus socket programming can be found on Aminet under
biz/demo/netprog_txt.lzh
TorqueWare requirements: SAS C 6.x, AmigaDos 2.04 or higher, and network
hardware for multiprocessing.
MSRP for base development system $100
MSRP for general TCP/iP networking $150 per cpu.
Educational and quantity discounts available.
119. VLT
--------------
Valiant Little Terminal by Willy Langeveld
A terminal emulator providing both Tektronix and DEC emulation. This little
jewel has been around for quite awhile. It is available on Fred Fish and
Aminet.
120. X11R4
--------------------
X11 Release 4 server and library by GfxBase, Inc.
GfxBase provides both a server so that you can run x clients on your
Amiga, and a development library so that you can write x clients for your
Amiga or other x windows system.
X11R4.3 Color Server
X11R4-Dev Libs
X11-product Availability
121. X11R4.3 Color Server
-----------------------------------------
The X11 R4.3 server supports:
- Up to (NTSC)1440x482 (568PAL) resolution.
- Overscan, genlock, interlace, superhires, productivity, a2024 all
supported.
- Superscreens up to 2560x2560 scrollable under 2.0
- Up to 32 colors (lowres).
- AGA support: 256colors/16M
Local Clients:
olwm(OpenLook) twm(Tab Window Manager) bitmap, xfd, xfontsel,
- Page 51 -
121. X11R4.3 Color Server
xcalc, xmag, xsetroot, xsol, plus many more.
xpr (X printer program) supports all standard X devices plus supports
Amiga printers via the Amiga printer device mechanism.
Fonts: X11R5 fonts are included in this release.
X11-Compatibility Optional color gfx cards X11-Requirements
122. X11-Compatibility
-----------------------------------
Software support
----------------------
network support:
Commodore AS225 (tcp/ip) Thunder Ridge TSSnet ( DECnet ).
OS support:
Requires WB1.3 or later. Works better with 2.0. And best with 3.0
Coexists with Native Amiga Operating System, and works under Intuition in
its own pull down screen.
Hardware Support
-------------------------
input support:
international keyboards supported, Recommended 3 button mouse.
Compatibility with all models of the Amiga,
A1000,A2000,A500,A2500,A3000,A3000T,A1200,A4000,A4000T.
123. Optional color gfx cards
---------------------------------------------------
Optional X11R5 for color graphics cards support
- GDA1 from GfxBase
- PicassoII
- 1600GX from Ameristar
124. X11-Requirements
-------------------------
Requires minimum 1M of Ram for Server, more for local clients.
Requires 7M Harddisk, 15megs for standard installation.
125. X11R4-Dev Libs
----------------------------------------------------
-------------X11 Release 4 Development libraries---------------------
- Page 52 -
125. X11R4-Dev Libs
Specially modified to work under AmigaDOS with SAS/C 6.51
Libraries:
Xlib,Xaw,Xext,Xt,Xmu,oldX,Xau, BSD sockets
Includes:
X11 Release 4 standard include files
Some sample source and lmkfiles for learning X11 on the Amiga.
X11 programs on unix machines can be ported right to the Amiga. Develop X
applications on the Amiga and know they can be ported to Unix platforms.
126. X11-product Availability
------------------------------
products available from Amiga Dealers or GfxBase, Inc.
--------- List Prices ---------------
software:
X11R4: $395/$90
X11tk: $250/$45
XView: $250
X11 Local development system: $475/$100
(does not include support for as225/TSSnet)
mwm motif window manager: $99
Complete X11R4/with motif development system: $795.00
Hardware:
Boing 3button optical mouse, bought with X11, $75.00
GDA-1 hires graphics card 1024x768 256/16M colors $595.00
127. Hardware-Specs
=================
Specifications for Amiga Networking Hardware
A2065
A4066
AmigaLink
Ariadne
GG2-Bus+ card
Hydra
ICard
ISDN-Master
- Page 53 -
127. Hardware-Specs
LAN Rover
QuickNet
128. A2065
-------------------
A2065 by Commodore Business Machines
Function: Full ANSI 802.3 type Ethernet protocols over either Type A
(Thick Ethernet) or Type B (Thin Ethernet/Cheapernet) connections.
The 32K onboard RAM Buffer provides shared RAM between Am7990 processor
and the Amiga.
Card Type: Amiga bus (100 pin), Autoconfig Interface Specs: 15 pin female
"D" connector for Type A (Thick Ethernet) networking with 100 nodes per
segment Female BNC coax connector for Type B (Thin Ethernet/Cheapernet)
networking with 30 nodes per segment.
Speed: 10Mbps CSMA/CD interface DMA data reading and writing to shared
RAM Card Size: Full size Amiga board
129. A4066
-----------------
the A4066 by Ameristar replaces the A2065 ethernet card by Commodore.
The A4066 supports 10BaseT Thin, and Thick ethernet. It is SANA II
compatible and should support the AS225r2 software as well as DECnet at
the same time.
130. AmigaLink
-------------------------
AmigaLink is a floppy port based networking solution which is SANA II
compatible. It will work with any Amiga with a free floppy port including
CD32 with the expansion module, and a floppy with a pass thru port.
Transfer rate: 450,000 bits per sec (~ 45KB/sec)
Max cable length: 100 meters (~330 feet)
cable type: RG-58U 50 ohm co-axial
Cable connector: BNC and floppy port connector
Max # of computers: 20
Included Protocol: Network Operating System
optional Protocol: Envoy, or any SANA II compatible protocol
Supports remote printing using the Commodore CMD program.
Requirements: kickstart 1.2+, Workbench 1.3+, 512k ram
Recommended: Workbench 2.0+, 1MB+ ram, hard drive
SRP:
AmigaLink Starter Kit $259.95
20 software licenses and hardware for 2 nodes
- Page 54 -
130. AmigaLink
AmigaLink Single node $124.95
hardware only, no cable.
131. Ariadne
-----------------------------
Ariadne by Village Tronic
A SANA II compatible zorro bus ethernet card with two parallel ports.
Supports 10base-2 (thin ethernet, coax) and 10base-T (Twisted pair)
Socket for boot rom
hook up to two additional amiga to the paallel ports with Liana (Envoy
with a cable)
A 32kbyte cache to support cpu
Includes Envoy and SANA II driver for ethernet and parallel ports
132. GG2-Bus+ card
=============
The GG2 Bus+ by Software Results Enterprises lets you add
IBM-compatible hardware to your Amiga. The most common additions are
extra parallel and serial ports, and _network_ cards.
The GG2 Bus+ is NOT a 486 bridgecard, and does NOT run windows, it merely
allows you to access less expensive PC cards.
GG2-HW Compatibility
GG2-PC drivers
GG2-SW Compatibility
GG2-Requirements
GG2-Availability
133. GG2-HW Compatibility
--------------------------------------------------------------
The GG2 Bus+ supports almost all non-DMA AT-compatible (8 MHz bus capable)
PC plug-in boards. This includes such popular items as internal modems,
multi-I/O boards, IDE hard drive controllers, non-DMA ethernet boards, VGA
boards, A/D boards, etc. Access to the PC cards is at full Amiga Zorro II
bus speed unless wait state support is turned on.
134. GG2-PC drivers
------------------------------------------
PC drivers included with GG2 Bus+ are:
ibmser.device
A replacement serial device for internal modems and multi-I/O
cards. Includes automatic use of the 16550 FIFO buffer when
available. Support for up to 4 serial ports at once,
equivalent of COM1-4.
- Page 55 -
134. GG2-PC drivers
ibmprint.device
A new parallel output-only driver for printing through IBM LPT
compatible parallel ports on multi-I/O cards. Support for up
to 3 printers at once, equivalent of LPT1-3.
ibmIDE.device
A driver program to allow the use of IDE, RLL or MFM hard drives.
NE1000.device and NE2000.device
These are SANA-II ethernet drivers for Novell NE1000 and
NE2000 boards and compatibles.
NE1000 is 8 bit card, 8K memory
NE2000 is 16 bit card
135. GG2-SW Compatibility
------------------------------------------------------- GG2 Bus+
Since the Ethernet drivers are SANA II compliant, you can use your
GG2/Ethernet combination with all of the popular network packages, such as
Envoy (from IAM), AS225r2 (from Commodore) and AmiTCP (available via
ftp from Aminet sites).
Commodore's AS225r1 is *not* a SANA-II networking package, and will not
work with an Ethernet card on a GG2 Bus+.
!!! Oxxi's Novell Netware Client software is *not* a SANA II networking
package and will not work with an Ethernet card on a GG2 Bus+. !!!
CrossPC and PCTask software PC emulators are aware of the GG2 Bus+ and
will let you use IBM-compatible hardware from inside the emulation. Among
other IBM peripherals that have been successfully operated are, ROM
programmers and PC-television cards.
136. GG2-Requirements
----------------------------------------------
The GG2 Bus+ occupies one Zorro II slot aligned with an PC-AT slot in an
Amiga 2000, A2500, A3000, or A4000. It has essentially the same form
factor as a Commodore bridgeboard. You will need at least one additional
open PC-AT slot for your plug-in PC card. The GG2 Bus+ requires 1
Megabyte of available AUTOCONFIG memory space to correctly map all of the
PC memory locations. All address and data lines to the PC bus are
buffered to avoid loading-down Amiga bus lines.
Most of the software requires 2.04 or higher. The actual device drivers
themselves (ibmser.device, ibmIDE.device...) will probably work under
Amiga Dos 1.3, but the support programs (like SwitchControl and SerPrefs)
don't.
137. GG2-Availability
-----------------------------------------
GG2 Bus+ is $119.95 USD
All sales are being handled by Software Results Enterprises , so there
are no distributors in any countries.
- Page 56 -
137. Hydra
138. Hydra
------------------
Hydra by Hydra Systems
Ethernet cards for the Amiga 2/3/4000.
Did have a model for the A500.
A SANA II driver comes with the new boards or is available from the vendor.
The driver is called hydra.device, and V1.33 even works with the old v1.0
boards.
Has thin wire connector (BNC) and a thick wire connector (15 pin D).
139. ICard
-------------------
ICard by Interworks
A 16 bit ethernet card for the A1200's PCMCIA slot.
Provides 10BaseT and 10Base2 ethernet connectors.
Provides SANA II driver for compatibility with any SANA II compatible
network protocol including Interworks ENLAN-DFS
MSRP $299
140. ISDN-Master
--------------------------
ISDN Master by BSC in Germany
Has German manual. Price is approx $600.
Works with any Amiga with a zorro bus because it is a zorro II card.
!!!!!!!!!! News Flash !!!!!!!!!!
Alan BERNEY wrote an excellent review of the ISDN Master. Look for it on
Aminet in the directory that contains the c.s.a.review postings.
The best news I saw in the review is that the board supports standards for
multiple countries including the US. Not all countries have been tested,
but it is good to see more than one supported.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Features:
------------
* Autoconfig
* Transfer up to 7500 cps
* Answering machine ( sorry, no voice-mailbox)
* settings for phone and answering machine
- Page 57 -
140. ISDN-Master
* parallel telephone and data calls
* three user conference
* Uses less CPU time than a modem
* Hayes-AT set
* isdn.device is compatible with serial.device
* 64 byte FIFo ram buffer
* 2 * B-channel and 1 * D-Channel (S0-connection)
* S0 considerable
* ISDN and Euro-ISDN support
* D port monitor
* passiv card
* Audio-Inline with digitize audio
Requirements:
-------------------
* kickstart >= 2.x
* 1 Mb Ram minimum, prefer 2 Mb
* recommend 68020 or higher
141. LAN Rover
------------------------
LAN Rover by ASDG LAN Rover is now called EB920.
A thin wire ethernet card for Amiga 2000,3000, and 4000. It is a full
length Zorro II card and comes with SANA II drivers and supports
adjustable interrupt settings and network address roms.
Being SANA II compatible means it will support all the major network
protocols available for the Amiga.
More info in a future release of FAQ
142. QuickNet
-----------------------
QuickNet (TM) Fast peer-to-peer networking system for the Amiga
by Resource Management Force
Authors: Neil Dugan, Daniel Koch, and Norman Pakes
A hardware and software solution for networking Amigas to Amigas. Zorro II
card which supports thin ethernet. Other versions may be available by
now.
More info when it is available to me.
- Page 58 -
142. Manufacturers
143. Manufacturers
For Additional information on Products and Vendors consult
"AC's Guide for the Commodore Amiga" at your local Amiga dealer or
newsstand or contact
AC's Guide
c/o PiM Publications
P.O.B. 2140
Fall River, MA 02722-2140
phone: (800) 345-3360
Ameristar
ASDG
AugmenTek
BCS
Canadian Prototype Replicas
Commodore Business Machines
CSA
GfxBase, Inc.
Hydra Systems
IAM
Interworks
Oregon Research
Oxxi
Progressive Peripherals
Resource Management Force
SCALA, Inc.
Software Results Enterprises
Spectronics
Thunder Ridge, Inc.
Village Tronic
144. Ameristar
----------------------
Ameristar products are distributed by
Creative Equipment International (CEI)
- Page 59 -
144. Ameristar
5555 W. Flagler St
Miami, Florida 33134 USA
Phone (305) 266-2800
145. ASDG
-----------------
ASDG, Inc.
925 Stewart St.
Madison, WI 53713
Phone (608) 273-6585
Fax (608) 271-1988
146. AugmenTek
------------------------
AugmenTek
3606 S. 180th St. C-22
SeaTac, WA 98188-4339
USA
Phone: (206) 246-6077
email: augm...@acm.org
147. BSC
--------------------
BSC buroatuomation
Lerchenstrasse 5
W8000 Muenchen 50
Germany
Telephone: +49 89 357 130-0
FAX: +49 89 357 130-99
148. Canadian Prototype Replicas
------------------------------------------------
Canadian Prototype Replicas
PO Box 8, Ontario, Canada
149. Commodore Business Machines
------------------------------------------------
For Historical Purposes:
Commodore Business Machines
1200 Wilson Dr., West Chester, PA 19380
(215) 431-9100, (215) 436-4200
- Page 60 -
149. Commodore Business Machines
150. CSA
---------------
CSA
Computer System Associates, Inc.
Stephen Riker, Director of Sales and Marketing
CSA
7564 Trade Street
San Diego, CA 92121
FAX:(619)566-0581
151. GfxBase, Inc.
------------------------------------------------
Contact Dale Luck at
GfxBase, Inc.
PO Box 360814
Milpitas, Ca. 95036-0814
Phone: (408) 262-1469
FAX: (408) 262-8276
for more info or more complete literature.
152. Hydra Systems
-----------------------------
Hydra Systems
Wyndrushe House
Red Land, Kenilworth
Warwickshire
England CV8 1PB
Tel/Fax: +44 203 473333
153. IAM
--------------
IAM
voice: (610) 853-4406
fax: (610) 853-3733
Direct postal mail to:
- Page 61 -
153. IAM
Intangible Assets Manufacturing
828 Ormond Avenue
Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604
USA
Direct electronic inquiries to:
in...@iam.com -- a robot with less info than the IAM web pages
sa...@iam.com -- to get info or to place an order
corec...@iam.com -- for any errors you find in
"Connect Your Amiga!"
envoy...@iam.com -- get envoy support here (include serial
number from your IAM disk in your request for support
envoy...@iam.com -- report bugs here
regist...@iam.com -- use email instead of mailing a card
fran...@iam.com -- for all French language email for IAM
ital...@iam.com -- for all Italian language email to IAM
da...@iam.com -- Dale L. Larson
j...@iam.com -- Janet McIlvaine
mi...@iam.com -- Michael Colligon
dos...@iam.com -- Claudio Dosio
154. Interworks
-----------------------
Interworks
43191 Camino Casillas
Suite B2469
Temecula, CA 92592-3714
phone: (909) 699-8120
FAX: (909)-699-8279
155. Oregon Research
---------------------------------
Oregon Research
16200 S.W. Pacific Hwy., Suite 162
Tigard, Or 97224
ph: (503) 620-4919
fax: (503) 624-2940
Internet: or...@teleport.com
- Page 62 -
155. Oregon Research
Genie: ORA
CompuServer: 71333,2655
156. Oxxi
------------------------------------------------
Oxxi
P.O. Box 90309,
Long Beach, CA 90809
Phone: (310) 427-1227
157. Progressive Peripherals
------------------------------------------
Last Known address for
Progressive Peripherals & Software
464 Kalamath Street, Denver, CO 80204
(303) 825-4144, (303) 893-6938 (FAX)
Apparently out of business. Anyone with information on the disposition of
their product line pleas provide FEEDBACK
158. Resource Management Force
------------------------------------------------
Resource Management Force Pty Ltd
70-74 may street
St Peters NSW 2044
Australia
Tel: +61 2 550 4244
fax: +61 2 550 4284
email: cbmaus!rmf!dan...@rmf.adsp.sub.org
159. SCALA, Inc.
------------------------------
SCALA, Inc.
12110 Sunset Hills, Dr. Ste 100
Reston, VA 22090
phone: (703) 709-8043
160. Software Results Enterprises
-------------------------------------------------
Software Results Enterprises
- Page 63 -
160. Software Results Enterprises
2447 N. 4th St., Ste. B
Columbus, OH 43202-2706
phone: 614/262-9146 (voice)
fax: 614/267-2683
Please use e-mail whenever possible. It leaves more time to develop
products.
Also be sure to ask for the GGII Bus+ FAQ which goes into more specifics
than is practical in this FAQ.
161. Spectronics
Spectronics Int'l USA
34 E. Main Street #23
Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 352-0061
Fax: (217) 352-0063
BBS: (217) 352-7627
Eddy Coopmans, President
162. Thunder Ridge, Inc.
------------------------------------------------
Thunder Ridge, Inc.
N9353 Benson Road
Brooklyn, WI 53521
phone: (608) 455-1039
fax: (608) 455-1317
email: 73071...@compuserve.com
163. Village Tronic
------------------------------
Village Tronic
Wellweg 95
D-31157 Sarstedt
Germany
Tel: +49/(0)5066/7013-0 Switchboard
Tel: +49/(0)5066/7013-10 technical hotline
- Page 64 -
163. Village Tronic
Tel: +49/(0)5066/7013-11 orders
Tel: +49/(0)5066/7013-40 Mailbox
Tel: +49/(0)5066/7013-49 Telefax
164. Related FAQs
=================
AmigaNOS-FAQ
UUCP FAQ
X11 FAQ
AmiTCP FAQ
Wiedmann's Amiga FAQ
DAK's Amiga FAQ
FAQ archive
NEWS FAQ
RFC
BDG to Internet
FTP FAQ
ZEN
Amosaic-FAQ
Connect your Amiga
misc
165. AmigaNOS-FAQ
-----------------------------
AmigaNOS is a serial port only version of TCP/IP. The AmigaNOS FAQ is
posted to comp.sys.amiga.datacomm news.answers and comp.answers news
groups.
and should be on the FAQ archive as...
/pub/usenet/news.answers/amiga/AmigaNOS-faq
166. UUCP FAQ
------------------------
The UUCP FAQ is posted to the news groups alt.sys.amiga.uucp, alt.answers,
and to news.answers. It is available at the FAQ archive site.
167. X11 FAQ
--------------------
X windows is such a big topic there is a FAQ dedicated to it regardless of
vendor. It is posted in multiple parts in comp.windows.x and news.answers
news groups which means it is available from FAQ archive
- Page 65 -
167. X11 FAQ
You can send submissions to faq%cr...@uunet.uu.net
BTW, uunet.uu.net is one of those cross over points between the USENET
and the Internet.
168. AmiTCP FAQ
-------------------------
!!!!!! News Flash !!!!!!
The AmiTCP FAQ is now maintained by Mike Meyer and is available in html
format so you can access it with Amosaic at
http://contessa.phone.net/Atcpfaq.html I think. ;}
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AmiTCP FAQ has been released by Neil McRae. Look in the
comp.sys.amiga.datacom news group for biweekly updates. It is also an
officially accepted FAQ by the news.answers moderators. Therefore it can
be found in news.answers, comp.answers, and in the FAQ archive
169. Wiedmann's Amiga FAQ
---------------------------------------
Jochen Wiedmann's Amiga FAQ
Can be found at Aminet sites in the
/pub/aminet/tex/docs directory
with the file name AmigaFAQxxxxxx.lha
where xxxxxx is the date.
send submissions to
wied...@mailserv.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de
or Am Eisteich 9
72555 Metzingen (Germany)
Tel. 07123 / 14881
Mr. Wiedmann's FAQ can now be found on line using Mosaic. It is now part of
Mr. Witbrock's Amiga Home Page. It was converted to HTML from Amiga Guide
by Mr. Witbrock's AG2HTML.PL perl script. The script is on line also.
170. DAK's Amiga FAQ
--------------------------------
This document is a summary of information about Science/School/UNIX
software for the Amiga.
Originally compiled-by: rfa...@nyx.cs.du.edu (Richard Akerman)
Now maintained-by: d...@emx.cc.utexas.edu (Donald A Kassebaum)
This FAQ is cross-posted around the middle of each month to
comp.sys.amiga.applications, comp.unix.amiga, comp.answers and
news.answers
also available on AmiNet sites:
- Page 66 -
170. DAK's Amiga FAQ
/pub/aminet/text/doc/AmigaSciSchUnix.lha
The news.answers automatic archiving software will store a copy of this
posting, available by anonymous FTP on
rtfm.mit.edu [18.20.0.224]:
/pub/usenet/news.answers/amiga/science-faq
171. FAQ archive
-------------------------
You can find numerous FAQ's posted to the news.answers news group. They
are also cross posted to *.answers for the specific news group to which
the FAQ is related. For example this FAQ is cross posted to the
comp.answers news group. This makes it easier to find related FAQ's.
There are several FAQ's slanted towards new users, so instead of flaming
someone try sending them the appropriate FAQ.
The FAQ's are updated periodically, and the older versions are archived at
several sites. Both the current and the archived FAQ's are also available
via Mosaic, and anonymous FTP in addition to being available through the
news.
RTFM.MIT.EDU [18.20.0.224] is one of the primary archive sites for
news.answers FAQ's and it supports anonymous FTP and email. To use email
send a message with "send usenet/news.answers/pdial" as the message to
mail-...@rtfm.mit.edu. For more information send "help" as the
message.
Aminet Fred Fish
172. Aminet
-------------------
Aminet is another archive site with many mirror sites. In addition to
FAQ's you can find all kinds of Amiga programs and files at an Aminet
site. They usually have a directory called /pub/aminet.
See the "All about FTP" FTP FAQ for details on using anonymous FTP to
access the archive.
Aminet hosts are
USA (MO) ftp.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4
USA (CA) ftp.cdrom.com 192.153.46.2
USA (TX) ftp.etsu.edu 192.43.199.20
Scandinavia ftp.luth.se 130.240.18.2
Germany ftp.uni-kl.de 131.246.9.95
Germany ftp.uni-erlangen.de 131.188.1.43
Germany ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de 130.149.17.7
Germany ftp.uni-paderborn.de 131.234.2.32
Germany ftp.uni-oldenburg.de 134.106.40.9
- Page 67 -
172. Aminet
Germany ftp.coli.uni-sb.de 134.96.68.11
Switzerland ftp.eunet.ch 146.228.10.16
Switzerland litamiga.epfl.ch 128.178.151.32
UK ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.2.1
Please use a mirror close to you!
There are other amiga related FTP sites. You can use Archie or Veronica to
locate sites that have a specific file you are looking for and perhaps
avoid overcrowding the mirror sites.
The Aminet Archive now has a Mosaic home page where the most recent
uploads can by found and retrieved. You can access it directly or from Mr.
Witbrock's Amiga Home Page.
Aminet also offers a mailing list for info on the recent uploads. Just send
one of the following as the body of the message to
list...@wunet.wustl.edu
subscribe aminet-daily site@domain
subscribe aminet-weekly site@domain
where site@domain is your return email address. There are over 3000
addresses already on these lists.
A complete index of aminet files (over 600k) is located in the file
/pub/aminet/INDEX
173. Fred Fish
------------------
Fred Fish is/was a floppy based archive of public domain and shareware
software for the Amiga. Fred has begun to make the archive available on CD
Rom as well. Fred posts info on new CDroms on the comp.sys.amiga.announce
news group. Amazing Computing Magazine also prints information about the
Fred Fish collection and may be handling the floppy distribution in the
future.
The Fred Fish collection has been a valuable asset to the Amiga community,
and I will be adding more info to this section in future releases of this
FAQ.
The Fred Fish CD Rom is available from
Amiga Library Services
610 N. Alma School Road, Suite 18
Chandler, AZ 85224-3687
U.S.A.
Phone/FAX: (602) 917-0917
174. NEWS FAQ
-------------------------
The NEWS FAQ can be found at the FAQ archive or on the news.answers or
comp.answers news group. It explains some of the history and different
- Page 68 -
174. NEWS FAQ
incarnations of news servers and readers.
There are also specific FAQs for the INN news server and others.
Also there are specific news groups for those who wish to be
administrators of a news server.
175. RFC
--------------
RFC Request For Comment
These are good documents if someone wants to understand the technical side
of the protocol. They can be found online at a number of sites by archie,
but they are officially available from just a few.
RFCs can be obtained via FTP from
VENERA.ISI.EDU, WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU,
SRC.DOC.IC.AC.UK, FTP.CONCERT.NET,
Details on obtaining RFCs via FTP or EMAIL may be obtained by sending an
EMAIL message to "rfc-...@ISI.EDU" with the message body "help:
ways_to_get_rfcs". For example:
To: rfc-...@ISI.EDU
Subject: getting rfcs
help: ways_to_get_rfcs
Requests for special distribution should be addressed to either the author
of the RFC in question, or to N...@NIC.DDN.MIL. Unless specifically noted
otherwise on the RFC itself, all RFCs are for unlimited distribution.
176. BDG to Internet
----------------------------
Big Dummies' Guide (DBG) to Internet is available in Amiga Guide format
on Aminet . It explains more about the history of the Internet, and some
of the same topics covered in this FAQ. If this seems like an awful lot of
material to read, good because it is. You will NOT become an expert over
night.
So Relax, take a deep breath, and count to 10 often ;-)
177. FTP FAQ
---------------------
All about FTP is a FAQ on the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) application for
the TCP-IP protocol. The FAQ is posted to comp.sys.amiga.misc,
comp.sys.amiga.introduction, and the comp.sys.amiga.datacomm news groups.
Thus it should be available on the FAQ archive site.
It should be read by anyone wishing to download files from Aminet or
anyone wishing to know more about FTP.
It is posted by umue...@wuarchive.wustl.edu
- Page 69 -
177. ZEN
178. ZEN
-------------
Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide
A booklet explaining the basic concepts of ideas behind using the
Internet. It explicitly avoids machine or OS specific commands or bias.
The booklet is widely available, probably even from your service provider.
It is also available via FTP from ftp.uu.net [137.39.1.9] in the pub/zen
directory or you can use Archie or Veronica to locate a copy.
179. Amosaic-FAQ
--------------------------
Clive Thomas has an Amosaic FAQ available from:
ftp.demon.co.uk:pub/amiga/info/Amosaic.FAQ.lha
180. Connect your Amiga
-----------------------------------
"Connect your Amiga!"
A book by Dale Larson of IAM
ISBN 1-885876-02-5
Deals with Amiga networking issues in much greater detail than is possible
in this FAQ. It explains how to use the software and hardware to connect
to the internet, LAN's, BBS's, and commercial services.
181. misc
-------------
miscellaneous stuff:
A domain name and host name can be had for free. Send email to
in...@rs.internic.net
182. Feedback
-------------------
Send corrections, updates and suggestions to:
Richard Norman
ED36
MSFC, AL 35812 USA
All submissions will be considered altuistic donations to the network
community's pool of public knowledge.
Send flames to yourself for not getting off your behind and writing a
better FAQ yourself. Besides I'm still learning too! ;-)