rsingh1@dahlia.waterloo.edu (12/02/89)
EAT ME
A while back, in the transactor (amiga) magazine (BTW: keep going guys,
it's a great magazine), I read something on a NET: device.
This seemed to me, a really great idea to deal with networks and stuff.
QUESTION:
Is it real? Is it actualy going to be sold with some product or something?
WHY I ASK:
I would like to know how it functions, so I can support it in a really neat
program I'm writing.
REQUEST:
If those involved, or related to, or even those who know anything about this
Net: device at all could get in touch with me and spill whatever you know
about it.
THINGS I WOULD 'LIKE' TO KNOW:
o What types of networks will this net: device work with?
(Ethernet? something else? Serial link-up thing?)
o How much memory will the network software use?
o Any bottlenecks in the system that slow the thing down?
o Any security on files, directories, and stuff?
o Will it support muliple networks, or printing through networks, or linked
networks somehow?
o Cost, and minimum hardware requirements, and ideal hardware setups?
---ASIDE.
An article in the November 1989 issue of the Brittish Magazine,
'AMIGA USER INTERNATIONAL' titled 'Networking the Amiga' (106), lists
an alternative Ethernet system. The article 'blurb' about it seems
just about as un-informative as the rest of the magazine (some sort of
quazi-informative ambiguous approach that says something without saying
anything; like most brittish magazines it seems); but I'd like to know
something about how this network 'looks' to the amiga. The way the mag.
describes it in some sort of hokey setup, with lots of little modules
that make it seem that the whole thing is (like the magazine) not quite
there (not easily accessable)...
I hope I am wrong, because I (like so many others) can't hope to afford the
ameristar thing, and just want some simple network that is accessable, and
easy to use.
I will keep all mail, and summarize to the net if I find something interesting.
/Paul Anton Sop (Esquire?). rsingh1@dahila.waterloo.edu/
/Graphic Designer 4 Spaghetti Western Words and Images /
/100 Kinzie Ave, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, N2A 2J5 /
/(519) 578-8525/742-0372 (if seriously really desparate)/
ccplumb@rose.waterloo.edu (Colin Plumb) (12/05/89)
In article <18897@watdragon.waterloo.edu> rsingh1@dahlia.waterloo.edu () writes: > Is it real? Is it actualy going to be sold with some product or something? Why sell it with a product? It should be transparent to all existing ones. > I would like to know how it functions, so I can support it in a really neat > program I'm writing. You type dir net:machine/device/directory/file (e.g. net:colin/df0/dnet/readme) and you get a directory. All the other DOS calls work similarly. What's to support? > THINGS I WOULD 'LIKE' TO KNOW: > > o What types of networks will this net: device work with? > (Ethernet? something else? Serial link-up thing?) The last time I saw it, they only had DNET working, but were planning on giving it a more general network interface so it would be easy to add others. DNET, if you don't know, it Matt Dillon's serial transport level protocol and generally a useful tool. > o How much memory will the network software use? Dunno. Not all that much. > o Any bottlenecks in the system that slow the thing down? The published code was, I believe, a FIFO server. Multiple simultaneous accesses probably aren't as fast as possible. > o Any security on files, directories, and stuff? As far as I know, vanilla. Standard AmigaDOS bits. No fancy schemes. > o Will it support muliple networks, or printing through networks, or > linked networks somehow? At the Transactor, they had print and mail daemons running very quickly. You can do multiple nets by just accessing net:gateway/net2/othermachine/device/direvtory/.../file. Certainly less efficient than possible, but it'll do. > o Cost, and minimum hardware requirements, and ideal hardware setups? If you have the underlying network, $0 and some work to get it running. With DNET, you need a null modem cable between two amigas, running as fast as you can get away with. With Matt Dillon's PARNET, you can have multiple devices but need a custom cable on the parallel ports. An ideal setup? Who knows? Ethernet would be nice, but the support isn't in NET: yet. For DNET, a multi-serial board that can handle high baud rates would be nice. > I hope I am wrong, because I (like so many others) can't hope to afford the > ameristar thing, and just want some simple network that is accessable, and > easy to use. Have a look at what Matt Dillon's doing (ftp to ucbvax.berkeley.edu and look in pub/amiga). Fun stuff! -- -Colin
walker@sas.UUCP (Doug Walker) (12/12/89)
I tried to mail this, but no go with our mailer (BTW, those of you who never get a response from me - our intermittent mailer is probably the reason) In article <18897@watdragon.waterloo.edu> you write: >A while back, in the transactor (amiga) magazine (BTW: keep going guys, >it's a great magazine), I read something on a NET: device. Yes, John Toebes and I wrote the series of articles you are referring to. >Is it real? Is it actualy going to be sold with some product or something? Yes, and no. It is real, but it is going to be given away for free. In fact, it is already available in a form that works with Dillon's DNET and a parallel-port version. >I would like to know how it functions, so I can support it in a really neat >program I'm writing. You don't need to support it. As long as you support read/write to an Amiga file system, it works. It *IS* an Amiga file system. If you need process-to-process communications, NET: is not what you want. You should look into Matt Dillon's DNET package, also freely redistributable. >o What types of networks will this net: device work with? > (Ethernet? something else? Serial link-up thing?) Right now you have to write a driver for each type of network. This is a matter of writing five functions (read 'n' bytes, write 'n' bytes, initialize, terminate, resynchronize) of which at least the resync can be omitted, and possibly the init and term depending on your network. It took me about 2 hours to implement Matt's parallel port stuff, including testing, given the code to read and write the parallel port. Eventually I will support multiple simultaneous networking devices, allowing you to have some network nodes mounted on, say, ethernet, and others on the serial port, etc. That's planned for a future release. >o How much memory will the network software use? NET: uses about 14k on the handler side, and about 12k on the server side, plus buffer sizes. Buffer size is currently hardwired to 8k but will be configurable soon. >o Any bottlenecks in the system that slow the thing down? The I/O rate is the only thing. DNET at 1200 baud is pretty miserable, the parallel port code is pretty snappy. >o Any security on files, directories, and stuff? Not currently, but hopefully C= will allocate some protection bits for network usage. If they do, I will implement it. >o Will it support muliple networks, or printing through networks, or linked > networks somehow? Multiple networks, see above. Printing through networks, quite possibly but I haven't investigated it yet. If I can come up with a PRT: device that looks enough like a file system, it will work. What we need is a STREAM: file system that talks to stream-oriented devices like SER:, PAR: and PRT: for us; if we get one, it will work by simply copying the file to NET:STREAM/PAR or whatever. >o Cost, and minimum hardware requirements, and ideal hardware setups? Cost: none, unless you care to make a donation. Minimum hardware: a cable. If you are close enough (i.e. right next to each other) a parallel port cable will give you the best response. If not, a serial port cable with null modem or hookup via real modem will be necessary, but serial hookups are quite slow. ***** *|_o_o|\\ Doug Walker, Software Distiller *|. o.| || | o |// "It is well to remember that evil is a pretty bad thing." ====== usenet: ...mcnc!rti!sas!walker plink: dwalker bix: djwalker